Over the past few years, Black horror films have begun to dominate the genre’s overall landscape. The resounding success of Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2012) opened the mainstream floodgates for more scary narratives with Black people both in front of and behind the camera. From comedic films like The Blackening(2023) to downright slasher-inspired remakes like Candyman (2021), there’s a wide scope of stories infused with the standard elements of horror while offering new context through Black perspectives. Indie filmmakers continue to fill the many gaps left in this space with wildly creative offerings, like Moon Ferguson’s chilling Criblore, A Horror Anthology (2023), which plays on common archetypes like the neighborhood “candy lady.” But, as always, there’s plenty of room for more spine-tingling, blood-splattering, laugh-inducing, and stomach-churning stories to entertain the horror aficionados of the world.
Confluential Films
That’s where Confluential Films comes into play. The company, led by award-winning filmmaker and creator Tommy Oliver, is know for films like the romantic thriller The Perfect Guy (2015) and stirring documentary 40 Years a Prisoner (2020). Now, Confluential is stepping to the dark side with New Fear Unlocked Productions, its genre label dedicated solely to Black horror. We spoke with Tommy Oliver about his formative experiences, creating Confluential and New Fear Unlocked, and the upcoming horror flick Goons, which will launch his company into uncharted waters.
Nerdist: Before we get into your current creative endeavors, I want to go back to your childhood. What were some of the stories and films that shaped your formative experiences?
Tommy Oliver: I watched and read a lot, and it was all over the place… I grew up in the hood in Philly, so there were certain types of projects that we watched and things that we cared about. There were also things that we just didn’t know about. My favorite movie growing up was probably The Lion King. I love that movie, but I watched everything from Goonies to stuff like Short Circuit, which was really fun.
As I got a little older, I got into Boyz In The Hood, The Wood, and The Best Man and Malcolm X. I remember getting into [Stanley] Kubrick, too. I had never seen a Kubrick film, and one came on TV at maybe 11PM and it was A Clockwork Orange… I was mesmerized and watched the entire movie. This was during the time when DVDs and box sets were big, so I bought Kubrick’s entire collection and went through every single movie.
That’s a wide variety of interests and your list is so indicative of the Black Gen X and Millennial experience. We grew up with so many things that told our stories but also found joy in a lot of films didn’t have us in them at all. I love that you had some horror and thriller leaning interests. I’m a horror lover, a for real monster kid.
Oliver: My family didn’t really like [horror] movies, so I’d watch them by myself. I’d either get a VHS or they would just be on TV, like A Nightmare on Elm Street. And I remember Freddy Krueger doing his thing and being wacky, but it was so much fun. But I was never scared of horror movies. I enjoyed them. I was nine years old, turning the lights off in the bathroom and saying “Candyman, Candyman…”
Victoria Kovios
That is wild behavior but I love it. So was there anything you watched specifically or something that happened that made you decide to pursue a career in filmmaking?
Oliver: I was always naive enough to think that film and TV and entertainment has the ability to inform the way people see the world, to make them think about something different or even just to not allow them to think about real life for a bit and just be a piece of entertainment for two hours until you go back to real life. And so it was just loving the experience of going to the movies to see stuff like The Fast and the Furious and The Matrix and what that felt like… I was drawn to the idea of being able to tell stories that centered Black people… I like to connect with people and see us in ways that are rooted in who we really are.
It must be a wonderful thing to give others that same feeling of escapism but also be able to do that by telling our stories in an authentic way. You don’t always see people who look like us and when you do, they’re not always depicted in an authentic nor respectful way across many genres. I’m glad to see you counteracting that with Confluential Films. What are the goals and aspirations you had when you first founded the company?
Oliver: Confluential was very much the confluence of our entertainment business and cultural specificity. I wanted it to be about telling stories that we can be excited about and be proud of that are done with us in front of and behind the camera, and in a way that is commercially viable. If we’re not making stuff that actually works, we don’t need to keep making stuff.
Absolutely. So when you’re partnering with a creative, what are some of the parameters or things that you’re looking for in a story to ensure that it aligns with your brand?
Oliver: That’s an interesting question, especially in terms of our brand. I had to define the brand, it’s very much about things that center us in ways that are authentic, and that’s broad. Goons is our first horror movie and if you looked back on the things that we’ve done before, you wouldn’t think it fits the brand, but it does! It’s coming from a creator who loves horror and I appreciate horror… our brand is being good partners to people who have the experience and the desire and the passion where we can work together to be able to figure out how to elevate a story to its best version.
I’m glad that you are widening out that scope to horror because it is such a varied landscape with many subgenres to explore through a Black lens. And that’s why I was so excited when I heard about New Fear Unlocked, your genre label under Confluential designed just for Black horror. How will projects under that label bring something fresh to the landscape?
Oliver: There’s so much fertile ground because there’s not enough movies that center us and are made by us in a commercially viable way. There’s an audience that is significantly underserved, and finding voices that we can develop stuff with and support will allow us to tell culturally specific stories with purpose. Goons is Black on purpose and it is fun.
I am very intrigued by Goons. The cast that’s been announced so far is great and I’d love to hear more about that film. What can you share with us?
Oliver: Goons is fire! It really is. I’m so excited for audiences to see this film. It is a proper slasher and it really goes there from the very first scene. Like you said, we’ve got an incredible cast with Michael Rainey, Jr., Chole Bailey, YG, Tyler Lepley, J. Alphonse Nicholson, SteVonté Hart, and Serayah McNeill. [Director] Gerard McMurray did his thing, he’s a bonafide horror lover and wanted to make something that was a love letter to the audience and those who enjoy these kinds of things unapologetically. He wanted to make a fun, enjoyable slash event. From the kills to the score… all of it really came together in an exciting way. This movie’s going to do some stuff next year.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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