Horror-comedy “The Blackening” started as a way to skewer a tired trope: the frequency with which Black characters are killed first in horror movies. Though this cliché has been called out frequently by horror fans and Black audiences, here it serves as the entire premise for a feature film, posing a provocative question: If all the characters in the horror movie are Black, who dies first?
A 2018 Comedy Central sketch by the comedy group 3Peat was the proof of concept for “The Blackening,” and the video, in which a group of friends debate “who’s the Blackest” while a psycho killer stalks at the door, went viral. For the feature, the star and writer of the sketch, comedian and Emmy-nominated TV writer Dewayne Perkins partnered with writer/producer Tracy Oliver (“Girls Trip”) and director Tim Story (“Barbershop”) to expand the idea to feature length. Perkins also stars as Dewayne, one of the central members of a group of tightknit college friends who descend on a creepy old cabin in a remote location for a celebratory reunion over the Juneteenth holiday weekend.
We think we know what happens next — but “The Blackening” seeks to test our assumptions, using a slasher movie formula as a vehicle for fast, funny and whip-smart cultural commentary.
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Antoinette Robertson, left, Sinqua Walls and Dewayne Perkins in the movie “The Blackening.”
(Glen Wilson / Lionsgate)
The party crackles with tension fueled by long interpersonal histories and resentments, amped up by booze, psychedelics and a weird old college chum, Clifton (Jermaine Fowler). In a mysterious game room, they stumble upon a board game called the Blackening and a closed-circuit television that reveals their host Morgan (Yvonne Orji) has been abducted by a leather-faced killer. The unsettlingly racist caricature at the center of the game torments them with increasingly challenging trivia questions about Black history and culture, with the goal of saving Morgan, but soon the stakes are heightened — they have to choose “the Blackest” among them to sacrifice.
“The Blackening” fires on all cylinders when the friends are dissecting Black culture, puzzling through questions about how many Black characters appeared on “Friends,” the mathematics of Nas songs, the merits of various Aunt Vivs on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” The dialogue feels like the way friends actually talk, laden with movie and TV references, lovingly roasting each other.
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The social commentary swings from pop to political, all with the same light but incisive tone, which is what makes “The Blackening” both entertaining and trenchant. But in terms of suspense and horror filmmaking, the movie is lacking. It’s not scary, the villain seems obvious from the jump, and there are a few missed opportunities and loose ends, storywise. It succeeds as a comedy but not quite as a horror film, the genre merely a setting and style for sending up insidious character stereotypes.
However, screenwriter Perkins delivers a starmaking performance as the ultra-bothered Dewayne, who is feuding with his best friend Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) over her reunion with the formerly philandering Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls). Though it’s an ensemble piece (X Mayo is also a standout), your attention never leaves Perkins when he’s onscreen. Perhaps because he wrote and performed in both the original sketch and the screenplay, he seems more finely attuned to the rhythms and nuances of the material and the purpose that it is intended to serve.
Consider “The Blackening” not just a send-up, but a send-off to this old cliché. Here’s to finally killing “the Black character dies first” trope once and for all, and crossing our fingers that it doesn’t pop up again, Michael Myers style.
The Blackening tells the story of friends reuniting over the Juneteenth weekend, the US holiday which celebrates the end of slavery. "Growing up there was always the one black person, the token black person that would get killed first," Story says.
There are nods to plenty of horror films, and horror parodies like “Scary Movie” and its many sequels, but this film is so much smarter than those. It's inspired by films like “Saw,” “The Shining,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and others, which are subtly referenced rather than just reenacted for comic effect.
The tradition originally began as a cleansing ritual among the farming communities of rural Scotland to prepare women for marriage. It involved washing feet after blackening them with soot from the chimney. Ellie Ordish, who lives near Dingwall, says she hopes the tradition continues for years to come.
Metal blacking refers to the process of chemically altering the surface of metal objects to create a black oxide layer. As well as improving general durability and corrosion resistance, this can also minimise left reflection, making the process especially useful in certain industries.
Physical comedy becomes violent and bloody when weapons are involved. This, too, harkens back to the way Bruce Campbell took comical beatings in the Evil Dead movies. The Blackening is a satire, but the danger is real.
Horror purists might find the picture lacking in genuine scares, but go into it expecting a hang-out comedy with a few jumps rather than a horror movie with a few jokes, and it's unlikely to disappoint. Content collapsed.
A woman's body is dumped in a well. The man is shot with an arrow and is kicked into a well. One of the masked killer gets his head bashed with a candlestick after getting beat up and shot. The bashing is mostly offscreen, but you can see blood splatter and blood on the candlestick.
Parents need to know that The Blackening is a horror comedy about a group of Black friends who have to survive the night against a killer with a deadly board game about Black American culture. Expect violence (peril, killing, torture, blood), much of it racially motivated.
And while The Blackening avoids nudity, its frequent sexual banter still feels quite crude and gratuitous. Likewise, though the movie avoids extreme gore, blood is not just shed, but splattered. Movies such as The Blackening might feel to some like fun and games.
"The Blackening" made an estimated $6 million. "This is a fantastic weekend for movie theaters because there's a depth and breadth of content that is amazing, but that means they're sharing the wealth," says Dergarabedian. "The collective box office was incredibly strong.
They look through his pockets to see that he is the first killer's twin brother, and they deduce someone hired them to be there. The friends go into another room, where they find Ranger White's and Clifton's bodies, only for the latter to spring awake and reveal himself as the mastermind.
If you're looking for a good comedy, especially one that properly lampoons everything about horror films, then The Blackening is for you. Post-Credit Lowdown:There are some scenes right at the beginning of the credits, but nothing after.
Then, the early box office returns came in: “The Blackening” grossed $2.5 million in its first day, opening in 1,775 theaters. Independently produced by Oliver and Story with MRC films financing, the horror-comedy carried a production budget of $3 million, with a final tally of $5 million after factoring in P&A.
Physics. In the visible spectrum, black is the result of the absorption of all light wavelengths. Black can be defined as the visual impression (or color) experienced when no visible light reaches the eye. Pigments or dyes that absorb light rather than reflect it back to the eye look black.
The Blackening's ending does leave the door open for a possible sequel. Dewayne, Lisa, Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls), King (Melvin Gregg), Allison, and Shanika are all alive in the end and question what they should do. They get a good laugh out of the idea that they should call the cops before deciding to call firefighters.
With that, the movie's final act reveals that Clifton orchestrated the whole thing, desperate to make the others pay for "revoking his Black card" after he fluffed up a game of Spades 10 years prior.
Black Beauty, the only novel by Anna Sewell and the first major animal story in children's literature. The author wrote it “to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses”; it was published in 1877, shortly before Sewell's death.
Introduction: My name is Rev. Leonie Wyman, I am a colorful, tasty, splendid, fair, witty, gorgeous, splendid person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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