Directed By Tim Story

Starring – Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls

The Plot – Seven black friends who go away for the weekend only to find themselves trapped in a cabin with a killer who has a vendetta. Will their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies help them stay alive? Probably not.

Rated R for pervasive language, violence and drug use

(2) The Blackening (2023) Official Trailer – Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo – YouTube

POSITIVES

The horror comedy subgenre isn’t always the easiest to pull off successfully, and while this film has issues with the first half of that hybrid, its comedy very much delivers on what was advertised, giving audiences, especially of the horror variety, an uproarious good time that has much to say about black characters and their usage in horror franchises. What I find refreshing here is that the comic beats aren’t particularly telegraphed or heavy-handed in their dispersements, and instead Story relies on his gifted ensemble to carry and influence the merits of the material, in turn not only cementing some meticulously effective direction from him that allows “The Blackening” to stand out from subgenre predecessors, but also limitless potential from each of his decorated standouts towards stealing more than a couple prominent moments during the energetic engagement. Because the plot plays so candidly around this group of college friends, with meticulous exposition illustrating their many dynamics, it makes the movements later on between them feel all the more earnest with believability, proving that strength in numbers is their best chance of getting out alive, especially against such dangerous adversity. The performances are unanimously great across the board, but particularly from Grace Byers and X Mayo, who each embody these boldly blunt personalities that are a blast to entertain when under the influence of mind-altering substances or surrounding fear that often leave them thinking on their toes. Byers is often the subject and speculation of much internal unrest, as a character of mixed heritage, leading to some funny balances of character display between her ‘two sides’, and Mayo commands attention as a character with unapologetic honesty in spades, especially acting as the conscience of the group that has definitely seen her fair share of black characters in white-dominated horror movies. Lastly, the duo of writers Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins (A lead in the film, himself) conjure effortless accessibility in the conversations of its characters, leading to topics and challenges that demand audience interpretation, especially when they have trouble attaining the right answers to survive. This is certainly the case for the conflicts that they face with a certain masked racist antagonist, but even just the topics of discussion themselves during low-key moments of group interaction, with organic nuance to the way vital exposition is revealed about each of these characters. Because these actors each embody great charisma and chemistry with one another, it makes the dialogue-dominated scenes a treat to frequently indulge in, especially since they don’t always lead to something relevant in the unraveling of the expansive narrative.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, “The Blackening” is at best a great idea with a lukewarm execution, especially in the depths of an inferior second half of the movie that flies off of the rails fast with undercooked development held hostage by an undercutting run time of 91 minutes. When it comes time to explain the who and why of the narrative, the film finds itself abruptly challenged by disjointed sequencing and convoluted storytelling that feel like the direct opposite of everything appreciated about the film’s first half, especially within the confines of a climactic big reveal that is not only easily predictable when contrasted with the minimal amount of characters pertaining to the film, but also a bit dumbfounding when we’re asked to go alone with what kind of capabilities that this character supposedly pulled off. One unfortunate victim to this direction is the board game itself, which feels less relevant to the proceedings the longer the film persists, which only wastes away the most alluring element to the film’s established plot. On top of this, the aforementioned horror elements of the hybrid team-up are especially underwhelming when compared to their comic counterpart, especially in the lack of creative kills with an R-rating that could’ve afforded Story a darkly devastating side to his direction that the film and his career have been missing. Because the kills are so abrupt with a complete lack of emphasis to their echoing impact, they essentially add little to no tension towards sequences that virtually thirst for them, and in the case of our masked assassin, never effectively measures the magnitude of its ferocity to enhance the urgency and vulnerability of the group’s bleak conflict. Finally, the technical side of the presentation does faithfully mirror the B-movie horror film familiarity, but I found the editing to be heavily choppy during key sequences, either obscuring depiction or overtly influencing the few frights that the film does have in jump scares. An effective jump scare should rely only on the actor and the movement of the lens to generate a jolt, but by including the editing to the scenario here, it forces our eyes into an exercise to frequently seek out something, anything that moves into frame after the abrupt cuts, in turn obscuring the commitment to investment necessary to manipulate the audience.

OVERALL
“The Blackening” ranks somewhere between the game-changing prominence of “Get Out” and the sophomoric shenanigans of “Scary Movie” but garners a unique voice of validation blowing through a generation of horror tropes and racial stereotypes that have since become parody. While the film’s superior first half gives way to an underutilized and inferior second half, full of frustrating turns and stunted violence, Story and company still flex enough comic muscle to get the film over its various obstacles, in turn cementing a soul survivor for the subgenre that slashes with subversive.

My Grade: 6/10 or C