Beyond entertainment it’s a haunting call to consciousness, a dark reflection of a world where history is never dead—it’s not even past, writes Gillian Schutte.
Gillian Schutte is a film-maker, and a well-known social justice and race-justice activist and public intellectual. Picture: SuppliedIn an age where platforms like Netflix and Prime Video relentlessly churn out romcoms, sitcoms, and glossy narratives of American exceptionalism, a subversive new genre is stealthily gaining ground.
Prime Video’s double series, “Them,” created by Little Marvin and Lena Waithe, joins this revolutionary movement. It uses horror not just to entertain but to provoke thought and instigate change. By confronting America’s painful past and present, “Them” asserts that this genre is more than mere fright—it’s a clarion call to reckon with the deep-seated issues of racial injustice.
And as the tension ratchets up to a fever pitch, the Emorys are fighting for their lives on two fronts: against their living, breathing neighbours who will stop at nothing to drive them out, and against the spectral remnants of racial hatred that claw at their sanity and safety.
The minstrel's return ties these stories together like a noose, reminding us that these aren’t just ghost stories—they’re American stories. They’re stories about how structural racism, once unleashed, never stops haunting, never stops maiming, never stops murdering. It’s the same horror in new clothes: first it mocks, then it maims, and finally, it murders.In “Them,” the hauntings are never just about things that go bump in the night.
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