The Blackening

Grade: B-

The characters in The Blackening have found themselves in a slasher situation, and they have seen enough movies to know the drill. There is a scene where almost everybody believes they should stick together. Safety in numbers. One person has a good reason why she thinks they should separate into two groups, and she can barely get the sentence out without vomiting, because it’s such a cliche. But finally she manages to eke out “We…should…[gurgle] split up.”

Director Tim Story (Barbershop, the Ride Along films, many Kevin Hart stand-up specials) brings us The Blackening just in time for Juneteenth weekend. That’s when it takes place. Seven black men and women meet at a cabin in the woods to celebrate. After a fairly sluggish and lengthy first act, it gets better when the Scream/Bodies Bodies Bodies-style horror comedy we know is coming begins. They find, in the game room, that somebody has planted a board game called The Blackening, with an archaic Little Black Sambo face in the center. Somebody is able to communicate with them through the face. They know everybody’s names, and they know when they answer a question right or wrong. The face gets angry when someone eventually gets one incorrect. As the tagline says, they can’t all die first.

There are killers, plural, but only one person orchestrating everything. When we find out who it is, and why, I appreciated how it went down. I enjoyed how far somebody took the “make sure they’re really dead” advice. The villains are less invincible than your typical slashers who just keep coming no matter what. Roger Ebert coined the term Fallacy of the Talking Killer. The killer has the hero cornered. All they have to do is pull the trigger and kill them instantly, but instead they do a big ol’ monologue, just long enough for either the hero to find a way out, or for the hero’s friend to show up and put an end to it. The main killer in The Blackening yaks up a storm, but no advantage is gained during this. It’s just an opportunity for an actor to go off for a few minutes, and is perhaps making fun of the convention.

The Blackening is fairly solid campy summer fun that will bring in loud and lively audiences, and probably deservedly become a cult classic. I usually like to keep theaters I attend nice and quiet. After a lot of benefit of the doubt, I shush, as a last resort. At a movie like this, right before Juneteenth weekend, did someone who looks like me dare shush any of his fellow viewers of The Blackening? Oh no I di’in’t.

Grade: B-