I didn’t want to say this right after watching the movie because I didn’t want to make an assumption about intentions or anything, but the more I think about it, I can’t help but notice some racist themes in the Backrooms movie. I found it noticeable and harmful how:
The one black character was the villain of the story, and how he only tortured/mistreated white people and one Asian woman and put them in danger
How this one black character feels like he “belongs” in this messed up other world
How “pirate Clark” was played by a white man and had white skin other than Clark’s face, which was distorted for the horror effect (literally black face)
Clark feels like a harmful stereotype of a “big scary black man,” especially with pirate Clark
Mary, a white woman, trying to “save” Clark, and ultimately not being able to because he’s just “wired that way”
The whole cannibalism thing
I think they could have made it NOT racist by casting a black actress for Mary, or even having a mostly black cast, like other horror films have done. When Clark is the only black character and the one who’s constantly putting others in danger and is shown to be violent and angry, it really all lines up to make a very harmful narrative. And to be clear, I am not saying that black men can never be like Clark or that black people should not be cast for these types of roles. I just wanted to point out what I noticed, because it wasn’t sitting right with me
Edit: Guys, please read the whole post (and please actually consider what I’m saying). I do not think that it is morally wrong or something for black actors to ever be cast as flawed or even violent characters. I never said that. Like I said, people like Clark exist— including black people. My whole point is that when Clark is the ONLY black character, he is the ONLY black representation in the movie. And when your ONLY black representation is full of negative stereotypes that have historically targeted black people, it creates a bad narrative, EVEN IF UNINTENTIONALLY. I am not claiming that the creators are racist. I am not claiming that Chiwetel Ejiofor is unfit for the role simply because he is black and “cannot play a flawed character,” because, as people have pointed out, that WOULD be racist; black characters should be allowed to be portrayed as any other people, and people have flaws. I think he was amazing for the role. What I AM saying is there are choices they could have made to not make it feel racist. If they had done an all black cast or even just had a couple other black main characters, then Clark would not be the only black representation, who does have quite a few negative stereotypes when isolated from any other black representation they could have done.
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