The Blackening (15)

To mark Juneteenth, the national holiday which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, hostess with the mostest Morgan and her boyfriend Shawn invite a group of friends to a cabin in the woods to party. Allison, Clifton, Dewayne, King, Shanika, Lisa and her cheating ex-boyfriend Nnamdi are blissfully unaware they are about to be targeted by a deadly adversary, who will force them to play a blatantly racist board game called The Blackening.

LondonNet Film Review

The Blackening (15) Film Review from LondonNet

During a Scream-style prologue which establishes the satirical, blood-spattered tone of director Tim Story’s comedy horror, two terrified characters are compelled to play a blatantly racist board game. For their first challenge, the luckless couple must name a black character who survives to the end credits of any horror film. Get Out, Halloween: Resurrection, The People Under The Stairs and Scream 2 offer some potential correct answers but convention dictates that blood must be spilt and composer Dexter Story obliges with chords of impending doom…

Prefaced by a pithy title card – “This film is based on true events… that never happened” – The Blackening enthusiastically pokes fun at racial stereotypes and horror film tropes, which stipulate black characters should always fall victim to the bladed weapons of a masked killer. Screenwriters Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins rifle merrily through their Rolodex of social and pop culture references including the long-running sitcoms The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and Friends, Beyonce and 1995 buddy comedy Friday. On-screen scares are mild and plot-focussed and will not result in any sleepless nights but rapid-fire banter between old school friends in peril is more successful and generates a steady stream of laughs.

To mark Juneteenth, the national holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, hostess with the mostest Morgan (Yvonne Orji) and her boyfriend Shawn (Jay Pharoah) invite a group of old school chums to a weekend of board games, reminiscence and alcohol-soaked revelry in a cabin in the woods. Lisa (Antoinette Robertson), Allison (Grace Byers) and sassy gay confidant Dewayne (Perkins) arrive first, excited by the prospect of “some reckless, unadulterated fun”, and are met by King (Melvin Gregg), who has brought Lisa’s cheating ex-boyfriend Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls). No nonsense Shanika (X Mayo) follows a few hours later, accompanied by socially awkward misfit Clifton (Jermaine Fowler).

A power cut to the cabin sparks the search for a fuse box and the friends stumble upon a games room where a well-worn copy of The Blackening sits invitingly on a table. A menacing voice commands the group to collectively answer trivia questions about black culture. Each incorrect answer is punishable by death courtesy of a masked fiend wielding a crossbow. In time, the friends are ordered to sacrifice one of the group, based on who they consider to be “the blackest”, and simmering tensions in the cabin reach boiling point.

The Blackening draws more blood with words than kitchen knives or tapered crossbow bolts. Violence is occasionally bloody but grisly interludes, including a protected scene of bludgeoning, are dimly lit by design or staged out of shot. The ensemble cast spars energetically, trading salty insults under the influence of class A drugs. We know what they did this summer.

– Jo Planter