The Blackening review.
The Blackening offers plenty of laughs and a great pace (until the end). A fun movie with clever commentary on the genre and an even more clever message about how being black is defined.
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The Blackening
Directed by Tim Story
Written by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins
Starring Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson and Sinqua Walls
The Blackening Review
The writers of The Blackening clearly love Scream. They tip their cap to the franchise in the middle of their own opening scene…referencing Scream 2’s opening starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps. They take a moment to seemingly recognize their own place in the opening of a horror movie…a way to let the audience know that the film’s main objective is for you to have fun watching it. The Blackening succeeds very well in that goal.
There’s a charm to The Blackening that allows it to create a fun atmosphere. It also keeps a great pace going from the opening scene to (almost) the end. Its humor is self-aware about both the genre it’s playing in and the history of black characters in it. That’s just the surface level entertainment of The Blackening. It has even more interesting things to say about the perception of what defines “blackness” in society.
A group of friends head to a house in the woods to reconnect. They find a board game called The Blackening. A masked man holding their friend hostage forces them to play it. They answer questions specific to black culture to save her, and their, lives. All hell breaks loose when they get one wrong.
One of the questions in the game opens the film up to its most interesting discussion. The characters are asked to choose which one of them is the “most black”. The person they pick will be killed. The group quickly runs through reasons why it is (or isn’t) each of them. Where someone was born, who their parents are, their sexual orientation, political beliefs…every aspect of their lives is dissected to determine what level of “black” they can claim.
It’s an interesting moment amid a fun horror comedy. Part of the journey of The Blackening is in the characters accepting each other for being black despite what differences they may have. There isn’t a box you can put a person into to be defined as “blacker”. It’s a statement about society and horror movie tropes. The best kind of commentary entertains while being profound. The Blackening makes a strong argument while being a blast to watch.
The Blackening is a character driven comedy. It uses horror as a backdrop but is never scary or very gory. Like recent release Summoning Sylvia, The Blackening makes the right choice in dialing down the horror elements. The comedy would overwhelm them anyway. It gives the movie a fresh perspective and tone for a horror comedy. Using horror allows the filmmakers to dive into tropes we all understand. The relationship between the characters is the story’s greatest strength. That and knowing how to land its jokes.
The Blackening is a very funny movie. It takes the easy jokes when they’re there…and makes the clever one when it can. The movie keeps momentum until the climax. Unfortunately, it loses some steam when it should be reaching its peak. Outside of the main cast there are too few characters in the story for any of the reveals to be very surprising. There is a fun bit with the park ranger…other than that it’s mostly unsurprising. That doesn’t take much away from what is a largely entertaining time with a group of funny, likable leads.
The Blackening is an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys horror comedies. It feels fresh and is consistently funny. While the horror aspects are light (and the mystery aspects don’t land) it does have a lot to say about the genre. It takes the best lesson from Scream and sticks to a specific target to comment on. It keeps things focused and prevents The Blackening from becoming too broad or bordering on parody. Instead, we have a sharp, fun ride through a not so haunted house that highlights its great cast.
Scare Value
The Blackening is a fun time. The horror element is very surface level, but it sets a great backdrop for the comedy and comments that the movie wants to make. The plot may be predictable, but the energy and laughs roll through at a great pace until the climax. The Blackening knows how to tell a character driven comedy story with some extra bite underneath the surface.
3.5/5
The Blackening Link
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