The Blackening

I have a soft spot for these kinds of horror comedies. Last year it was "Bodies Bodies," a hilarious takedown of performative ally-ship disguised as a slasher film. "The Blackening" gives us an all-black cast, and has a similar social commentary vibe. In this one, the characters have to decide throughout the movie which one of them isn't "black" enough, which gives the movie a chance to explore the topic of racial identity. But it's never heavy handed, and the movie stays mostly tongue in cheek. I never had to wait too long for an image or a line that would make me chuckle.

And I want the cabin featured in this movie. It's so nice that I'll even take it with the psycho killer included.

Grade: A-

So I watched The Blackening's preview online and it looked really fun so I decided to give it a try. To it's credit it is actually kind of fun and funny. While there are some scary moments here, I wish they had taken a little extra time to further develop those scary moments as they kind of take a backseat to the humour/race aspects of the story rather than getting equal time. That's unfortunate as I think the script writers were a bit heavy handed on the race element and those messages I feel could have been better served and a lot more effective if given a slightly more deft touch, as opposed to the obvious/hit you over the head approach. I enjoyed most of the performances with the exception of the Clifton character. I'm sure he is a very talented actor (I've not seen him in anything else) but this was not the part for him. The Blackening has some serious shortcomings but despite all of that it was still kind of fun and maybe worth checking out if you're curious.

Wasn't amazing but wasn't bad. I don't tend to watch horror comedies but this one was pretty good with a few good laughs in there.

A lot of the humour was racist so only for those who have a good sense of humour and won't get offended easily.

The story is that there's a group of black people who go for a weekend trip away to a house in the middle of the woods. They find a game room in which there's a board game called "The Blackening" and they have to play and answer the trivia questions otherwise they get hunted down by a masked killer.

Overall, I rate it a 7/10 and I do recommend people to watch it.

"The Blackening" is a very surprising movie that I wasn't expecting to like as much as I did. With funny jokes and good pacing, it was a fun time.

Starting with the good, I thought all the acting was very good. Everyone gave personality to their characters. The script was hilarious. I was laughing multiple times throughout the movie and I felt the commentary was handled very well. The satirical nature the film provides I thought was really clever and if you don't get it then this movie isn't for you, but that also doesn't make the movie bad. The pacing was also pretty good, the movie never felt like it dragged and I was enjoying myself. And finally there was a lot of twists and turns that I wasn't expecting and it really caught me off guard. Overall it was a really fun reveal.

Now this isn't a perfect movie and while I think the comedy is great, the horror I felt was lacking a bit. I was never bored when the horror started, but it was very standard stuff. The movie could've used some more blood and more stakes. And finally the body count is low.

Overall despite a somewhat standard slasher narrative, it's saved but a great comedy narrative filled with good acting, fast pacing, and some good twists.

I went into The Blackening without watching any trailers. In a time where comedy movies seem to be going extinct, I instantly had interest in this new horror-comedy. And as someone who grew up on Fresh Prince and Martin, I miss black-themed comedies.

The Blackening definitely scratches that itch. Early on I wasn't laughing much. But the farther we get into the movie and story, the more I was laughing. I cracked up numerous times at some really funny jokes. And the entire premise and story is amusing.

My one criticism would be that it's a little lacking on the horror side. It's more of a comedy about horror than a horror-comedy. I didn't really mind that, but I could have enjoyed it even more if there were stronger horror elements.

I had a great time with this movie and will definitely watch it again. And while comedy movies are still so rare, I'm pretty happy to have two in 2023 that I really enjoyed, along with House Party from earlier this year.

(2 viewings, early access fan screening 6/14/2023, 10/3/2024)