Seven friends go away for the weekend, only to find themselves trapped in a cabin with a killer who has a vendetta. They must pit their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies against the murderer to stay alive.
Release date: June 16, 2023 (USA)
Director: Tim Story
Producers: Tim Story, Tracy Oliver, Sharla Sumpter, Jason Clark, Marcei A. Brown, Brian Dobbins
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Based on: The Blackening; by 3Peat
Budget: $5 million
The Blackening Trailer
The Blackening Story
Things start at a cabin in the woods like most horror movies these days. Morgan (Orji) and Shawn (Pharoah), a couple who are a part of a group of college friends reuniting after 10 years. The plan is to vacation together and have a grand ole party. When the two find a game called the Blackening in one of the back rooms, they get curious. Equipt with a sambo-faced timer, play pieces, and voice over, the duo gets curious and engages with the game. The first question is: “Name a Black character that survives any horror film.” They answer the question wrong, so now there is hell to pay.
The rest of the group Lisa (Robertson), Nnamdi (Walls), Dewayne (Perkins), Allison (Byers), Shanika (Mayo), King (Gregg) and Clifton (Fowler) arrives much later, and made sure to bring all their personal baggage with them. Lisa and Nnamdi are in a relationship again after being broken up for 10 years and Dwanye is upset they’re back together, King is trying to leave his gangster past behind, Shanika and Allison, just want to drink and get high, while Cliffton, the nerd of the group, just wants to fit in. They also stumble upon The Blackening game and let their curiosity get the better of them and they get trapped into a deadly game of Cat and Mouse. The group must now rely on their wit to stay alive. Their life-or-death predicament also triggers introspection about their beliefs on race and identity.
Culture and friendships form the crux of the narrative, presenting an ensemble of homies ready to risk all for one another. The premise of camaraderie is particularly relevant in these divisive times which shows what togetherness does and does not look like. For example, look at Clifton as a character. He’s a Black republican who voted for Trump twice, and he can’t play the Spades card game, which makes the group weary of him, so he’s used to represent those more nuanced relationships among the community.
The script partnered with Story’s direction, capture the culture through an unapologetically Black lens. The characters’ use of African American vernacular, along with body language that are particular to the Black experiences which is always a refreshing change from typical Hollywood offerings. What really sets the film apart is its humor that doesn’t compromise its poignant message for cheap laughs. The comedic bits disarms the audiences, making them more susceptible to the film’s deeper themes.
The Blackening cleverly weaves humor with introspective points on Blackness in the American context. There is a spectrum, there is no one way that Blackness operates, and the viewer sees how that manifests, especially within a group of people under duress. Black culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum and the characters examine that externally and internally. The revelations that come from this examination are applied to the group toolbox of survival skills to use against the killer.
The story also makes a point to showcase the heroes can be someone other than a cis-straight man. Black women, fat Black women, and Queer individuals who are frequently sidelined in mainstream media are empowered here as they exhibit strength, intelligence, and resourcefulness to become the ultimate saviors.
The Blackening is hands-down one of the best comedies of the year. The combined and balanced elements of comedy, horror, and insightful social commentary will have folks talking about the film long after its over.
The Blackening Review
here is an august tradition in the African American community of talking back to the film screen loud enough to jolt the characters on screen. The Blackening doesn’t just hear those cries; it needles its crowd for more reactions, bigger this time.
From Tim Story, the director of Fantastic Four and Ride Along, the film starts with a group of college friends reuniting at a creaky woodland cabin – replete with drinks, drugs and marathon games of Spades. Premiering at last year’s Toronto film festival, Story’s feature releases this weekend pegged to Juneteenth – the emancipation holiday marking its second year in federal observance.
Just when the love triangle between strait-laced Lisa (Dear White People’s Antoinette Robinson), fuckboy Nnamdi (House Party’s Sinqua Walls) and gay bestie Dewayne (the Emmy nominee Dewayne Perkins, who produced and co-wrote the film with Girls Trip’s Tracy Oliver) threatens to kill the vibe, half of the couple hosting the gala turns up dead (SNL’s Jay Pharoah); the fate of the other mate (Insecure’s Yvonne Orji) still hangs in the balance.
The only way the friends can save her is by playing the Blackening, like Life meets Saw but with the most racist Monopoly man you’ve ever seen – a talking sambo doll face. Trivia categories run the gamut from basic TV (How many seasons did “Dark Aunt Viv” get on the Fresh Prince?) to advanced hip-hop math (How many blunts are there on Nas’s One Mic?) When the contest turns on a trick question the friends become fair game for the slaughter.
The film’s fighting spirit is born from a recognizable brand of consciousness. Which is to say there is never a time when these Black people aren’t fully aware that they are in exactly the kind of situation that other Black people will scold them for getting into. Getting out of it means getting the small details right – down to turning a friend’s pistol grip from sideways to upright so the bullets actually hit the big bad. Having all Black characters just complicates the age-old genre problem of whom to kill off first, an idea Perkins first wrestled with in a 2018 sketch. Even Officer White (The Drew Carey Show’s Diedrich Bader) is hip to his particular dubiousness.
