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-

Don't mind the 1-star and adjacent reviews-clearly these movie goers either cannot appreciate Black comedy or was expecting some Stephen King-type horror plot. You get what you get with this film: some recognizable stars, plenty of good laughs, enough suspense to keep you going.

By all means, there are plenty of areas where the movie could've improved. While I don't think the horror elements need to be too clearly defined for a comedy, I would've appreciated more scary moments without the "cheese" (ie typical slasher film moments that felt cliché). I also think more character development wouldn't hurt. I loved the characters themselves but no one's arc was nearly developed enough.

All this is to say--see the movie for what it is: a dare to turn the narrative of what it means to feature black characters in horror films. It's meant to be edgy with a whiff of political. And if you can't accept that, then this movie isn't for you.

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)

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.