Spades, sugary Kool Aid, and murder? Just ingredients for your run of the mill night at a cabin in the woods if The Blackening is anything to go by. The hilarious film takes aim at all of the various stereotypes and complicated history of Black folks in horror movies and makes for an engaging time at the theater.
The Blackening opens with Morgan and Shawn, a couple planning a 10 year reunion with some friends at a cabin in the woods. One night the stumble upon a “game Room” with a game called The Blackening. Upon choosing to play, the two quickly find out that it’s not just some racist novelty game, but something with dire consequences.
The rest of the friend group arrives the next day, completely unaware of the horrors that have befallen their friends and more concerned with trying to reconnect with each other 10 years out of college. The dynamics between them have shifted and there’s some low key drama afoot, but all that gets thrown out the window when they themselves get caught up in The Blackening game and have to fight for their lives.
Specificity is the name of the game folks. Often times films approach their subject in bland ways to attempt to be universal that it ends up not being relatable. The Blackening makes its hay by digging into the minute of horror movies and their tropes, as well as the Black experience, to craft a really great script. There are so many jokes, themes, and situations that are unique to the Black experience and the movie does not waste time trying to explain it to the audience. Not only does this allow for unique characters, but it allows the movie to move at a great pace. We don’t need to waste time with explanations when there’s more fun quips and set pieces to get to. While the movie never genuinely gets scary, the movie knows that just the spectre of fear is good enough to really sell the comedy.
The actors in this movie are all solid, taking their cues from the script to keep the audience laughing one moment and rooting for their survival the next. Everyone is game, but of the ensemble, Dewayne Perkins and X Mayo stood out the most to me, for sheer laughs per minute and best characterizations.
If there are any qualms to be had with this film, it was that while the character relationships were all there, I did want a couple of them to break out past their stereotypes and give a bit more personal information. Particularly as it pertained to the film’s lone gay character played by the aforementioned Perkins, it was strange to have him so involved and concerned with his female friend (played by the always great Antoinette Robertson) and yet we know relatively little about his life/interiority by the end of the film. Not a fatal flaw, but it does stick out particularly as it relates to other characters mentioning their partners.
The Blackening manages to rise above these small quibbles to provide a fully realized film that manages to be both be engaging on its surface and well rewarding deep dive, even as you’re laughing your ass off.