The Blackening – A Hilarious Horror Satire

Based on its muted response following its premiere at last year Toronto International Film Festival, and its mediocre marketing campaign, The Blackening didn’t seem like the type of horror comedy to rush out and see. However, after weeks of positive word of mouth and great reviews, the film surprisingly delivers a really fun time at the movies that anyone can enjoy especially if they can see it with a big like-minded crowd. The film follows a group of black friends (Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharorah, and Yvonne Orji) who go away for the weekend and end up trapped in a cabin in the woods with a masked killer who has a vendetta against them. They are then forced to put their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies together to help them stay alive and survive the night as the killer forces them to play a game of survival.

A large reason as to why The Blackening works nearly as well as it does is because of the excellent cast and the fun their all clearly having on screen which translates to audiences. Each member of this cast is obviously having a blast so much so that it wouldn’t be shocking to find out that a lot of the humor and dialogue was completely improvised. The cast all work extremely well together because of their strong chemistry. While they may not be the most likeable characters, they make them an absolute blast to watch as the film creates such a strong emotional connection with them that audiences will want to see them make it out of this situation alive. Each cast member gets multiple moments to shine but the two biggest standouts are easily Gregg and Fowler whose impeccable comedic timing are responsible for the films’ biggest laughs as King and Clifton. What was even more impressive about its comedy is how consistently funny it is throughout it’s entire 96-minute runtime. The film pokes fun of a lot of horror movie tropes and black stereotypes in horror films that have been around forever in such clever and hilarious ways, that’s it is honestly hard to believe it took this long for something like this to come along and make this much fun of the genre.

Where The Blackening falls short is in the horror side of things which arguably lies in director Tim Story’s clear unfamiliarity with the genre. The first act contains some pretty solid moments of tension and builds up to some of it’s scares really well, but after the first act the film primarily becomes a spoof comedy and its horror elements take a backseat and become far less effective. The kills are all extremely underwhelming and despite its R rating for understandable elements such as language, substance abuse and some mature subject matter, its violence is virtually nonexistent while a lot of its blood looks fake and perhaps CGI. The ultimate reveal of the killer in the final act is also painfully predictable as the film barely attempts to make it into much of a mystery. Thankfully avoiding the whodunit angle, it’s just disappointing that it’s so easy to figure out what’s going on from the opening act alone and its trajectory from there is fairly predictable. Meanwhile, a majority of the comedy works well but there’s some jokes that fall flat and others that deflate the tension or feel wildly out of place.

At the end of the day, The Blackening is an enjoyable time at the movies that offers some great counterprograming to all the superhero films and big blockbusters currently playing in theatres despite the lack of a director with more experience with horror that could have taken this to even higher heights. While the film will definitely play better to those expecting a comedy than to hardcore horror fans, it is still a fun horror parody that might just be Story’s best and funniest film to date. Ultimately, it’s worth seeing for the cast alone.

still courtesy of Lionsgate

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/