A group of friends at a cabin for Juneteenth find themselves in the middle of the ultimate horror scenario in The Blackening. Lisa (Antoinette Robertson), Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins), Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls), Allison (Grace Byers), Shanika (X Mayo), King (Melvin Gregg), Clifton (Jermaine Fowler), Morgan (Yvonne Orji), and Shawn (Jay Pharoah) are a group of friends who have rented a cabin in the woods for a Juneteenth reunion weekend. However, the friends soon find themselves stalked by killer, who asks black horror trivia using a board game called “The Blackening.” Since the black person usually dies first in these scenarios, what happens when the entire group is black?
The Blackening is a horror-comedy directed by Tim Story (Barbershop) and written by Dewayne Perkins and Tracy Oliver, based on the 3Peat Comedy sketch of the same name. The plot comes across as a mix of Scream and Saw, as this group of friends has to answer trivia questions to save the lives of themselves and others. With black people unlikely to survive such a horror scenario, these friends have to band together if they expect to survive the night.
Arguably, I would say that The Blackening peaks in its opening scene since it has a premise that works as a short film, or in this case, a comedy sketch, but quickly loses steam as a feature. The film relies heavily on populist humour aimed toward a black audience, and the horror almost takes a backseat for much of the film. While The Blackening is sure to be a film that will find an audience, I do believe that the film believes that it is more clever than it actually is.
Trailer for The Blackening – TIFF 2022
