Although the genre seldom goes out of fashion, fans of horror comedies have been particularly spoiled for choice of late, with Henry Selick’s animated film Wendell & Wild, indie found footage film Deadstream, and Netflix’s Addams Family spinoff series Wednesday all turning heads in the last few months. But Fantastic Four director Tim Story’s new film The Blackening offers a fresh look at the genre.

While it is hardly unusual for horror comedy movies to go, shall we say, a little “meta,” the Scream franchise being a case in point, The Blackening takes the concept one step further. What would happen in a situation where the mechanics of the plot are driven not by the availability of murder weapons or a wrong turn taken at the crucial moment, but the question of who is the most Black? Here’s what we know about the film so far.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

The Blackening: The Plot

HBO

The Blackening’s plot centers around the misadventures of an all-Black group of friends staying at a cabin in the woods. While there, they encounter a board game set up by a murderer whose image wears a blackface mask, who forces them to rank themselves in order of their blackness, so he can determine the correct order in which to kill them.

Related: Wednesday: Why Wednesday’s Relationship With Enid Is the Most Important in the Series

When it comes to social commentary, the complete lack of subtlety is, of course, the point. The white police officer who arrives on the scene, played with relish by Diedrich Bader (Napoleon Dynamite, Meet The Spartans), is indeed named Officer White. But the interplay between the characters, echoing that found in the 2018 Comedy Central sketch by the improv group 3Peat, which formed the inspiration for the film, is both on-point and slickly delivered. Like the redshirt in a Star Trek episode, the Black character is always the one who gets killed off first in a horror film, a joke that never fails to land on rewatches of the original sketch, and which sets the tone for the characters, who not only know their horror, but are all too aware of what the clichés, stereotyping, and tired tropes mean for their immediate future.

The self-awareness and the near-constant interrogation of the genre’s most visible and risible tropes when it comes to the treatment of ethnicity and race makes for dialogue that crackles with tension and laugh-out-loud moments aplenty.

The Blackening: The Cast

Fox

The ensemble cast features a panoply of comedy talent. In the role of Allison is Grace Byers, whose onscreen work has been almost entirely in television. From 2015 she played Anika Calhoun in Fox’s Empire, and followed her success in that series with a role as Reeva in the same channel’s superhero series The Gifted. Presently, she is appearing as Quinn in the comedy series Harlem, which was renewed for a second season earlier this year.

As one would expect of a film derived from improv comedy, many of the cast are veterans of the improv and stand-up scenes. Dewayne Perkins, who not only stars but also co-wrote the screenplay, is an alum of The Second City, the same Chicago improvisation group that fostered the careers of Hollywood stars such as Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, and Jordan Peele. Jermaine Fowler’s extensive background is in comedy. He came into acting through stand-up and was the star and producer of CBS’s sitcom Superior Donuts. That isn’t including his voice work on BoJack Horseman, Family Guy, the recently cancelled Tuca & Bertie, and others. All of this experience gives him the chops to play outcast Clifton in the film.

Related: What Makes Horror-Comedy Such a Beloved Sub-Genre?

In the same way, Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah appears in a supporting role. Pharoah’s SNL work extended to spot-on impersonations of celebrities and famous personages from politicians such as Barack Obama and Ben Carson to actors such as Peter Dinklage and Denzel Washington. His extensive television and film work includes appearances in the 2020 comedy slasher film Bad Hair, the Chris Rock vehicle Top Five, and the Showtime sitcom White Famous, as well as a slew of voice work on shows as varied as Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.

Other cast members include Primetime Emmy Award nominee Yvonne Orji (Insecure, A Black Lady Sketch Show), Antoinette Robertson (The Haves and the Have Nots, Dear White People), Sinqua Walls (The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Once Upon A Time), who is due to appear in the remake of White Men Can’t Jump that is currently in production, and Melvin Gregg (A House Is Not A Home, The United States vs. Billie Holiday).

Release Date

Showtime

The Blackening premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September to positive reviews. It will go on general release in the United States on June 16 next year. This also happens to be the weekend of Juneteenth, adding to the lack of subtle social commentary surrounding the film.