[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]
Spinning out of the 2011 book Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present by Robin R. Means Coleman which in turn led to the 2019 documentary HORROR NOIRE: A HISTORY OF BLACK HORROR, we now have the anthology film HORROR NOIRE (no additional subtitle). The film is an anthology of six short horror tales from black filmmakers with primarily black casts, and like many anthologies, the results are a bit hit and miss.
“The Lake” is about a teacher apparently coming out of a troubled relationship who takes a job at a new school and moves in to a beautiful lake house. Her caretaker warns her not to go swimming in the lake, though, because it has a tendency to bring out the worst in people. There’s a lot in this segment that goes unexplained that really should have been clarified, and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying.