Hostel, Turistas: The would outside America is a depraved hellhole full of sadistic criminals

The Green Inferno, The Ruins: Indigenous people are unreasoning bloodthirsty savages

The Wicker Man*, Midsommar: Pagan religions are barbaric cults of human sacrifice (this one has been used to justify imperialist wars as far back as ancient Rome)

Drag Me To Hell: It's about a literal fucking gypsy curse

*The original. The remake is reactionary for its cartoonish misogyny

  • Dear_Occupant [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I gave Steven King's The Stand a re-read a few months ago. I hadn't read it in like 25 years and holy shit if he's not a racist then he is a much shittier writer than I ever imagined. Any time black people come up it's either some straight up minstrel shit or it's the absolute worst, most morbid white violent fantasies about black people. He is worse than J.K. Rowling about it, because at least she had the presence of mind to cloak her anti-trans shit in characters like Rita Skeeter. King is just out in the open with it. I'm pretty fucking sure that Maine isn't so white that there's even a shred of an excuse for the way he writes about black people.

      • Dear_Occupant [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        In The Stand, there's two times when black characters come up. Mother Abigail, who is an arch-typical example of the "magical negro," trope, and a group of black revolutionaries who take over a TV station and turn the final broadcast before the lights go out into a game show where they execute people for being white. Once you know to look for it, you start to see that this is a common feature of all of his work.