One of the most notorious tropes of cinema is that of the black character either dying first, or, at the very least, not making it to the end credits in one piece. While it’s easy to point the finger at the horror genre in general (cinema’s scapegoat for a lot of things), many other types of movie have placed the survival of black characters low on their list of priorities to the point that iys a regular addition to certain film-centric drinking games. However, in a post-Get Out world, this phenomenon has now escaped the realms of the occasional comedic mention or ironic usage (hello, Scream 2) and now has an entire movie dedicated to discussing its existence in the form of Tim Story’s The Blackening.
Featuring a main cast of black actors who find themselves the target of a race-obsessed killer – even the movie’s poster goes all in when addressing matters, featuring a tag line that reads “We Can’t All Die First” – can the movie do justice to such a promising scenario?
A group of friends have decided to plan a reunion where they all celebrate Juneteenth with a night of games, booze and recreational drug use in a remote cabin located deep in the woods. While this scenario does raise a couple of horror movie-centric questions, the group shows up in installments with a certain amount of baggage that have nothing to do with their luggage. Lisa has decided to get back with her unfaithful ex-boyfriend Nnamdi but is trying to keep it a secret from her disapproving friends, Allison and Dewayne, while the man himself has arrived with reformed gang member King. Elsewhere, brash Shanika has run into the nerdy Clifton at a gas station and is curious to why the unpopular nerd was even invited.
However, awkward social situations are the least of their worries as, unbeknownst to them, Morgan and Shawn, the hosts of the night’s festivities, have already succumbed to a shadowy killer who tests his victims with a board game called The Blackening that selecting its victims by testing their “blackness” and before you know it, the group find themselves experiencing the exact, same trauma.
Tested by such questions as trying to name a string of inventions created by black people, or name five black characters who appeared in Friends (surely impossible), the group has to remain mindful that a wrong answer means that the hulking, masked killer will open fire on them with a crossbow. However, their friendships are tested the most when the most demanding question of the night has them turning on each other – can any of these guys get on the same page to make it to dawn?
Essentially feeding the black experience through a self-aware Scream/Saw filter that mostly prioritizes laughs over genuine scares, The Blackening is an immensely entertaining romp that guarantees a fun night out. While hardly featuring a original plot, The Blackening positions itself as very much a “movie” movie that deliberately fires off as many genre tropes as it can in order for its savvy, literate cast to roast them verbally as they’re forced to endure it. A cabin in the woods, creepy sounds, glowering locals – it’s all here and referenced mercilessly with one character even struggling to keep her gag reflex in check as she suggests that the group actually split up. However, the fact that these potential victims have to justify their existence via a board game that looks the most racist Jumanji variant you could possibly imagine adds a nice wrinkle and quizzes them indecently about their own history, routinely provides the best moments.
The cast are at their best when forced to be at each others throats, as each one are less stereotypical representations of typical black tropes themselves. Be it Sinqua Walls’ serial cheater, to Melvin Gregg’s reformed gangbanger, to even X Mayo’s large, loud black woman persona, each is recognizable, yet each tempered by the movie wisely avoiding Scary Movie type parody. This pays of when The Blackening board game finally makes the fateful demand that the group select it’s most blackest and the fingers and accusations start flying – but because the characters are so richly written, every arguement has an intelligent counter.
However, all these entertaining jabs at African American culture come at a price and while director, Tim Story is more than capable to handle the laughs, the script seems to be completely unwilling to fully pull the trigger on the horror aspects of the film, especially when it comes to the bodycount, leaving the film feeling a little too safe for a horror fanbase more used to seeing Scream and Saw entries virtually purée the internal organs of most of its players. In fact, for a movie that’s based its entire ad campaign on the tope of black people dying first in movies, The Blackening seems oddly squeamish when it comes to taking out its admittedly endearing cast. It’s weird, because after the ranking task sees everyone turning on each other in order to their own skins, it would have been a prime time to go the same route as Saw, or even the recent Bodies Bodies Bodies and hold the cast accountable for their behaviour. However, The Blackening is content to merely provide a harsh, slap on the wrist rather than sacrificing unpredictability for enjoyment, but I suppose it’s very much a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Also, the movie stumbles quite spectacularly when it comes to the ultimate identity of the black faced mask wearing killer as even though their motives are legitimately intriguing, if you haven’t figured out the identity of the mastermind after the first thirty minutes, you probably don’t get out that much…
And yet, when The Blackening scores one of its frequent laughs, it scores big, with cracking running jokes involving characters gleaning entire, almost telepathic conversations entirely from knowling looks and one character taking arrows in the exact same spot more than once managing to successfully blow the roof off the place.
More of a comedic look at racially charged horror tropes than an actual, functioning horror film, The Blackening combats a lot of its lenient nature with some hugely satisfying belly laughs, but you feel that despite the palpable fun, there’s a missed opportunity here to have made something way more impactful.
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