The deep American South is enmeshed in painful histories, sprawling sceneries and magic. The Southern Gothic genre has traditionally been associated with literature from the ante- and post-bellum century which reflected on the harrowing stories and culture that came after the Civil War.
The genre focuses on the echoes of racial hostility and attempts to contrast the idyllic landscapes of Louisiana and New Orleans with their violent, oppressive past.
Director Zandashe Brown and her use of the Southern Gothic Horror Genre
Zandashe Brown is a writer and director who grew up in Southern Louisiana and lived there until February, when she moved to Los Angeles to help pursue her career as a creative.
She discusses how the passing down of generational trauma acted as a catalyst to reinvent these difficulties as a filmmaker.
“The horrible things that were inflicted on Black people who were brought to the American South and the generations that have followed literally live in our DNA.
“Being able to centre that pain gives Black people of the SoZandashe Brownuth an opportunity to transmute it. That’s what I’m doing through my work.”
Her films and creative vision take a contemporary route when navigating the Southern Gothic Horror, which can be seen in her productions such as Benediction and Blood Runs Down, as well as her upcoming feature The Matriarch.
Brown’s work is situated in Louisiana utilising its visually striking background of swamps, vines and historic plantation fields and incorporating the stories of the close-knit communities from today who are deeply connected through their past.
“I don’t actually have an interest in carrying this trauma anymore. I’m going to take it and put it out of me into something.
“It’s very beautiful, it’s very dark, it holds a lot of nuances that come out vividly on the screen.
“There are certainly films of the genre but they are few and far between, such as Kasi Lemmons, Eve’s Bayou and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust.”
The storytelling that has typically made up the genre has been led by white protagonists, or historical accounts of torture, fear, and violence have been exploited. Brown aims to show how the South is changing, valuing the fallout from previous generations and how that has caused important shifts to be incorporated into creative mediums like film and literature.
“The genre can fall into the trap of asceticism, and there are certain symbols you look for- it’s the snake, the alligator, it’s like Black skin and white clothing in front of sugarcane fields.
“When those images are devoid of feeling and meaning, that’s when you lose the heart of the genre, so I want to bring those back together.”
When asked to define Southern Gothic Horror, she says: “It’s what it means to live in a place and a culture that is in itself haunted. That hauntedness is a part of who you are. I think it is the horror of reckoning with the history of the South.
“The Southern Gothic Horror that I’ve done has always been from the lens of black people in the South, but historically you see Southern Gothic has been led with white protagonists who are dealing with the same themes of shame, secrecy and pride.
“I think it is living with this inheritance of the legacy of American slavery and how we navigate the beauty and the darkness.”
Brown describes the genre as two sides of the same coin. The entanglement of polarising conventions like beautiful locations and the aftermath of the American slave trade make it a genre ripe for creating fascinating storytelling.
Southern Gothic Horror Tropes and Origins
As with any genre, there are tropes that are tropes that are almost always expected. And the Southern Gothic Horror genre is no exception, to elaborate on the tropes associated, Brown explains,
“There’s going to be a spirit because this is a genre of hauntings, some level of possession or mounting of being taken by something.
“In Louisiana, there are a lot of black artists here whose ancestors come from West Africa where religious practices like lwa translated into voodoo, you always see a little element of ritual.
“There’s a sort of element of forbidden love, addiction, characters who are stuck or are burying themselves or don’t see ways out. There will always be a sort of longing.
“I won’t write off tropes if they’re well used, well played and they’re evocative.”
Brown is part of an extensive family network with a long line of heritage in the region. She is the eldest of eighteen grandchildren and a ‘daughter of Rosedale’, a parish in South Louisiana with a small population of just under 700.
“Louisiana has always had a really big impact on my storytelling because it’s just been such an integral part of how I’ve grown up and known how to relate to other people.
“We passed a lot of time by telling stories of not just things that existed or happened, but we invented circumstances about what could have happened. In particular, we were always telling scary stories.
“It’s just so deeply a part of who I am that this is a place of neglect, and of that neglect, beautiful things are born, but there’s a sadness that kind of lingers too.”
The Matriarch and the Southern Gothic Horror Genre
Brown’s cinematography features warm hues, harrowing facial expressions, the inclusion of water, and the juxtaposition of extremely close and wide shots, highlighting the importance of nuance within the genre.
The Matriarch, her latest feature film, is about three generations of women in rural Louisiana and their legacy. Brown’s own family influences and the theme of femininity are at the forefront of the production.
“The Southern Gothic genre is, in my experience, a genre where women hold the power, but they hold it quietly in the form of knowing. It’s very powerful.
“I also think of films like Carrie, that display this delicateness and softness and then just the immediacy of blood, that is what it is to be a woman.
“It’s so soft, but it’s also very heavy metal, and they’re always together.”
Despite being prolific in many ways, there is a lack of awareness of Southern Gothic Horror.
“In my experience there hasn’t been a whole lot of study or research about what it means to make work about this genre because it’s just been an outcast.
“The South, as this neglected place, the neglected landscape and the people that live within it there’s always been some sort of exploitation.
“I think we’re inching into that era of respect and recognising how much of American culture comes from the South, particularly comes from the Black people that were brought to the South.”
“I’ve always had that pride and I care about the representation of the stories here and I want to edit something for myself to be able to add or shape that definition of what Southern Gothic Horror is and add my own personal flair to the aesthetics of it to the feeling of it. That’s a huge lighthouse goal of mine.”
