The Blackening follows a group of college friends reuniting for a Juneteenth party when they are hunted by a mysterious figure in the middle of the woods. For whatever reason, I really didn’t see much marketing for this movie outside of the trailer before Evil Dead Rise. It’s a shame because I had a lot of fun watching this movie.
To start, this movie is insanely funny. I think it helped that my theater was also getting into it, but there were a lot of jokes that hit home for me. The cast is genuinely funny and they played off each other very well. One of my favorite bits was about how the characters were able to communicate with each other just by the looks they were giving. It had such a funny payoff that legitimately had me laughing. All the interactions honestly were just really enjoyable, regardless of the tone.
The Blackening‘s ability to be self-aware of itself, but not to the point of parody, was very impressive and only added to the comedy. If you couldn’t tell by the name of the movie, it really revolves around race. And if you couldn’t tell by the genre of film this is, there are a lot of stereotypes about black characters in horror movies. The Blackening handles them pretty well. There is a scene where two actors are talking about how Scream 2 killed off Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett Smith because they couldn’t afford to keep them the entire time and then they look at each other like “damn that might be us.”
It works well for me because they are all aware of the stereotypes but they are all compelled by their own logic. They have a scene where they say they need to split up but talk through it and form groups instead of everyone making a run for it.
The horror is pretty basic and underdeveloped. A bunch of people in a cabin in the woods getting hunted down by a masked killer. While the atmosphere was definitely tense, I found the horror elements to be lacking. It’s not graphic and relies a lot on jumpscares of people popping up behind other people. It felt like the movie wanted to focus more on the comedy, which is fine. But as a big horror fan, it would’ve been nice to see this movie try to build on the basic framework and make it stand out a bit more.
The movie also has a twist in the third act but is super predictable. I’m not sure if that was the intention but it wasn’t a surprise when the killer was revealed and their motivations were discussed. It definitely was a factor in why I felt like the horror elements were super basic.
Final Thoughts
The Blackening is a really funny movie. It is at its best if you look at it through the lens of a comedy movie taking place in a horror story. The characters are all really easy to get invested in and I genuinely liked seeing them just all talk to each other. This movie feels a lot like Bodies, Bodies, Bodies last year, and it’s one I think is worth your viewing.
