Before The Blackening, there was a severe lack of popular horror comedies within the past few years. That changes now with this hilarious film that takes Black stereotypes in horror films and flips them on their head.
Based on a hilarious skit by comedy troupe 3Peat, The Blackening focuses on a group of college friends who venture out to a cabin in the woods for a Juneteenth reunion. The crew reconnects years apart, but the fun and games come to a halt when the friends find a mysterious board game left by a killer who requires them to play. Ultimately, the masked assailant demands that the friend group determine who is the “Blackest” of their crew and sacrifice them. From there, this former college crew must pair wits with horror movie knowledge to survive the night or die trying.
Directed by Tim Story and written by Emmy-nominated comedian Dewayne Perkins and Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver, The Blackening is a movie that is unapologetically Black. From it taking place over Juneteenth weekend, to Black pop culture references (like Living Single vs. Friends), to card games like Spades (a Black pastime that isn’t for amateurs), The Blackening never shies away from the FUBU vibes it’s meant to dish out. Having an all-Black starring cast, Black writing duo, and a Black director shows the care that went into a movie that truly represents the acronym of the popular new millennium clothing brand FUBU: for us by us.
Speaking of the new millennium, this film was designed with Black millennials in mind. With references to popular TV shows, musical phenomena, and slang that stays in the minds of those born in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it’s hard not to see it as a movie for this audience. Not to mention, each member of the main cast is a millennial. Art imitates real life, and it shows that the cast’s life experiences as Black millennials colour the film.
What also influences The Blackening is its ability to draw from popular horror films. It’s pretty evident that Perkins and Oliver took a page out of films like Jordan Peele’s Get Out or The Wayans brothers’ (specifically Keenan, Marlon, and Shawn) 2000 slasher parody Scary Movie, and we should be glad that they did. While Get Out was universally lauded, Scary Movie divided critics. Regardless, both films set a course for filmmakers and studios to create similar films, and The Blackening cleverly pays homage to both movies.
The film shines in its ability to capture the Black zeitgeist of the 2000s to 2010s while highlighting the chemistry of a group of actors who seem like they really would be good friends from college. Those good friends are played by Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jermaine Fowler, Grace Byers, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Yvonne Orji, and Jay Pharoah. Perkins does double duty behind and in front of the camera.
Their characters’ decisions speak out against not just the stereotypes plaguing Black characters in horror films but also how Black people engage with films. If you’re watching The Blackening and not yelling at the screen or laughing along with the cast, then you’re missing out on a large part of the fun. But then again, this film is meticulously designed with Black folks in mind. So if you miss a joke, it might not have been for you to catch in the first place.
Some antics feel zany towards the end of the second act, and what seems like a twist in the third act is predictable. That’s no shade toward the film’s strong writing but more of an examination of the movie’s directing and editing. Still, The Blackening is a step in the right direction toward reinvigorating horror comedy. Doing it with Black people in mind is the cherry on top.
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