You know the joke: in horror movies it’s always the Black character who dies first. Well, what happens when everyone is Black? That’s the hilarious question at the center of The Blackening, a horror-comedy that made a splash at TIFF for its outrageous look at Black horror movies in a post-Get Out landscape.
Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along) and co-written by Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver and actor Dewayne Perkins, The Blackening follows a group of African-American friends, reunited from their college days in a remote cabin in the woods for a Juneteenth celebration. There they are trapped by a masked killer who targets them in order of their blackness, forcing the group to try and survive while denying horror movie tropes.
Basically, it’s got the self-awareness of Scream with the smarts of Get Out, a deadly combination for laughs. Having seen the movie myself just last night, I can confirm that it’s extremely funny.
The film is led by Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Yvonne Orji, Jay Pharoah, and Perkins who wrote himself one gem of a role.
The Blackening opens in theaters on June 16th.
