The Blackening – Movie Review
Director: Tim Story
Writer: Tracy Oliver, Dewayne Perkins (Screenplay)
Cast
- Grace Byers (Empire)
- Jermaine Fowler (Sorry to Bother You)
- Melvin Gregg (The Way Back)
- X Mayo (The Farewell)
- Antoinette Robertson (Dear White People)
Plot: Seven friends go away for the weekend and end up trapped in a cabin with a killer who has a vendetta. Will their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies help them stay alive? Probably not.
Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Blackening starts when a group of friends Allison (Byers), King (Gregg), Shanika (Mayo), Dewayne (Perkins), Lisa (Robertson), Nnamdi (Walls) and Clifton (Fowler) join Shawn (Pharoah), Morgan (Orji) for a weekend away. They are spending a reunion in a cabin in the woods, to party and play games.
However, somebody has decided to bring their own game for them to play. A racist board game to see how well they know their own black history or face death. The friends must work together to try and survive the twisted game.
Verdict on The Blackening
The Blackening is a horror comedy following a group of black friends reuniting after 10 years apart. They want to drink and party the weekend away. However, they find themselves the targets of a racist game that demands they play, or death will come to them.
This movie gets to put a spin on the creepy slasher cabin type of movie. First, by leaning into the comedy completely. Second, to poke fun at how black characters get treated in horror, showing how they would act instead of how they have been written. These two factors are a lot of fun and bring freshness to everything.
On the other hand, the typical partying in the cabin in the woods side of things is like every single slasher intro we have seen before. This is fine, we don’t need to tinker with that side of thing, we know this puts the characters in a position where they don’t completely control things.
In the end, this feels like a throwback to Scary Movie getting to have laughs at other horrors expenses without mocking them. It creates a friendship group with their flaws but support for each other. The cast is great with Jermaine Fowler and Dewayne Perkins stealing nearly every scene in the movie.
Final Thoughts –The Blackening is a blast, laughs, scares and a great cast.
