In a movie landscape where comedies can feel like they have less and less of a place when they aren’t forced into the confines of an existing franchise, there is something charming about The Blackening. While the spoof movie is largely a thing of the past, this is a fun little horror romp that does all it can to give it new life even if it makes some stumbles on the way.

Originally premiering back at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Blackening isn’t always successful, with many setups becoming a bit meandering in a way that lessens the subsequent punchlines, but there is enough to appreciate in what does connect. Based on the sketch of the same name, which ends up being recreated here in a central scene, The Blackening follows a group of seven Black friends who go away for a Juneteenth weekend at a remote cabin in the woods. Though they recognize many of the horror tropes that become more and more apparent as the film goes along, that doesn’t necessarily mean these characters will know what it is that they have to do. As day turns to night and everyone is a few drinks deep, they find a board game complete with a Sambo figurehead they are told they must play or be killed by a masked man hiding in the shadows hellbent on hunting them down.
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While it is basically impossible to spoil a film like The Blackening, as the whole point is in how it riffs on predictable genre elements and uses a whole host of conventions as the entry point to its comedic interests, any other details about what exactly happens is best kept to a minimum as humor itself often comes from surprise. Its twists can be seen coming for anyone who has ever seen a horror movie ever, but that isn’t something it ever really invests energy in. Rather, it is all just a means to an end with the end being to goof around with gags galore. Where movies like Scream mix well-crafted horror with pointed humor, The Blackening is merely about getting to the next joke and cares little about whether it is genuinely scary. This isn’t a detriment per se, but don’t go in expecting any actual terror as this is all about the bit more than the bite. The architect behind all of these gags is writer and star Dewayne Perkins who, after writing the stellar original sketch, expands the comedy canvas with the addition of his co-writer Tracy Oliver who was behind the delightful and chaotic 2017 film Girls Trip. Their collaboration and a committed cast helps to smooth over some of its clunkier components just enough to hold together even as the getaway starts to fall apart.

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‘The Blackening’ Boasts Strong Characters

Image via Lionsgate

With a film like this, everything lives and dies by the characters. If you aren’t buying into their various personalities, with how they interact and even clash, then the whole comedy could fall apart. While The Blackening does have a bit of a belabored setup, with some dynamics falling into being almost overexplained and a long time spent overlooking how the characters that invited them there are nowhere to be found, it pays off once it kicks into gear. Allison (Grace Byers), King (Melvin Gregg), Dewayne (Perkins), Shawn (Jay Pharaoh), Morgan (Yvonne Orji), Shanika (X Mayo), Lisa (Antoinette Robertson), Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls) and Clifton (Jermaine Fowler) are all quite different from each other with their well-defined personalities ensuring their distinct reactions to events keeps things moving. Without giving away the game, some of the characters don’t make it very long and the film winks at us by acknowledging how it is common in horror for some of the more broadly famous names to bite it first. While not all bets are off once they do, as the characters remain mostly confined to the same handful of rooms, the cast is what sells it. There is a playfulness to their performances that, while the film isn’t to be taken seriously in the slightest, still comes from complete seriousness.

Though it is all delightfully absurd, comedy is serious business as it requires dedication to the exact timing of both every single word and the precise manner in which they are delivered. While the dialogue in The Blackening is not always efficient in terms of its setups and punchlines, especially in comparison to the superior punchiness of the sketch, the talented cast makes the most out of it. Even while the pace of the edit can often do them no favors, with many in-between moments lingering too long to the point that they lose the sharpness that comes from more punchy timing, they keep things moving. The lack of gullibility that horror audiences themselves have is shared by the characters, making it all the funnier as they do what we would normally be screaming at them to do and still have it backfire. In particular, one subversion surrounding a character played by comedy veteran Diedrich Bader is great in how it kicks everything up a notch. While the subsequent revelations that play out are not always as fun as this, the unraveling does lead us to humorous places where even a glance exchanged between two characters can get a laugh. At the very least, it’s nice not to see Walls have to act in the abysmal attempt at a comedy that was the White Men Can’t Jump remake and instead be able to work alongside other actually talented performers.

‘The Blackening’ Is More Than One Reference

Image via Lionsgate

As for how the film engages with the horror genre itself and the way it has depicted race, this isn’t going to be an experience in the vein of the films of Jordan Peele. Nor does it have to be as its more straightforward and silly skewering is what gives it its charm! However, there are already some reviews that have oddly pointed to him as an influence in a way that ends up feeling like a broad and superficial minimization of both works. While The Blackening does specifically reference the distinct iconography Peele has created in his films and his recent star Keke Palmer in a couple throwaway jokes, this is much more a riff on Evil Dead crossed with The People Under the Stairs with a whole heaping of Scream than it is anything else. While all films are in conversation with each other and there can be an analysis made about how they build off of what came before, what The Blackening is doing is a combination of many different things that deserve to be praised as such rather than pigeonholed.

Some of the best jokes in the film are ones involving the language of slapstick from the way an arrow hits a particular spot to a fight that takes place in the woods. While there are many references throughout The Blackening, including a standout one surrounding O’Reilly Auto Parts, the humor itself largely works because of what it does independently of that in building out its dynamic characters who transcend tropes. Even as not all the jokes land, the rare experience of getting to take in a spoof comedy like this makes it worthwhile all the same.

Rating: B-

The Blackening is in theaters starting June 16.