As a director, NAACP Image Award-nominated Tim Story brought us Barbershop and the Ride Along movie franchise. As a screenwriter, Tracy Oliver brought us Girls Trip and the TV series Harlem. Now, the two of them have joined creative superpowers with writer and actor Dewayne Perkins who, along with the comedy group 3PEAT, brought us the viral sketch “The Blackening” on Comedy Central. Together, they are the collective visionaries responsible for championing the horror comedy The Blackening to the big screen. Their shared history should serve as an indication of the impact of this film. Yes, we have another modern-day cult classic on our hands.
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The setup for The Blackening is that a group of friends reunites at a secluded cabin to celebrate Juneteenth, a day set aside to commemorate the freedom of enslaved African Americans. A well-written and hilariously acted film, this horror comedy takes the stereotypical trope in scary moves where the Black character always dies first and flips it upside down. Uh-oh. All the characters in The Blackening are Black. Now what? Cue the comedic shenanigans when a creepy game is revealed and challenges them on their “Blackness.” Just like that, they are all in danger of dying, and the audience is in for a treat because of it.

The Blackening unflinchingly puts Black culture in the spotlight — celebrating it instead of getting rid of it at the first sign of the killer — while also highlighting fully fleshed-out characters who are friends and happen to be Black. The collective image of this film is one that is as refreshing as it is an enjoyable genre-changer. Black characters are not throwaway characters, screams the theme, but are essential.

In an exclusive with MovieWeb, Story, Oliver, and Perkins sat down to discuss how this film came to be and the importance of its existence.

Viral Roots: How The Blackening Began

In 2018, the sketch comedy group 3Peat, featuring writer and actor Dewayne Perkins presented a sketch on Comedy Central, also entitled The Blackening. It was hungrily received by viewers and quickly went viral for its comedic effect. Screenwriter Tracy Oliver, who along with other things, previously wrote the hit friend-movie classic Girls Trip starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah, said that when she saw the sketch she was inspired to do something with it.

“I just loved Dewayne’s short on Comedy Central,” said Oliver. “There was something about the premise and the really diverse Black characters that was really interesting to me.”

In a rare stroke of great fortune for a hopeful in Hollywood, Olivers said that she didn’t hesitate to just pick up the phone and reach out to Perkins. “I kind of just cold called Dewayne one day and said, ‘Hey, I want to turn this short into a movie.’” She said Perkins, who was of course excited, started asking questions about the approach for the adaptation.

Said Oliver, “I was like, ‘I don’t even have it figured out yet, I just know that there’s something here.’”

Related: The Blackening Review: Fun, Funny, and Fearlessly Black

Oliver shared that while Perkins’ sketch was the solid inspiration for the feature, and that together they began working on the screenplay, the script didn’t really feel like a viable movie idea until a few drafts in. Enter Tim Story, the eventual director, who said he when read the script the first time, he loved it, and didn’t hesitate to sign on to direct.

“Once Tim signed on,” added Oliver, “It was a mad dash to making it a movie, like three months.”

Story, who produced as well as directed, agreed. “The script was so well done that the process of making the movie from there took no time.”

Dewayne Perkins Keeps the Script Steady

Lionsgate

Rewinding farther back, Perkins shared more about what inspired the 3Peat viral sketch on Comedy Central. The feature film version, The Blackening, expanded on that sketch and added layers to the characters to really emphasize the friendships, but Perkins took us back to the origins of the plot idea to begin with.

“I’m a big fan of horror so when I had to write that original sketch, I was just watching horror and thinking like, ‘Oh, I think there’s something very fun if we just forced this to have all Black people.'” Perkins continued:

There was the idea of the trope that the Black person dies first and then that there would have to be some kind of conceit as to how we pick that person if all the characters are Black. And so, I was like, okay, if you’re Black and in that environment, you wouldn’t want to be the one to die, so you’d have to figure it out. Like, okay… “What’s my plan? How do I like, just stay alive?” So that was the inspiration for the premise of the original sketch.

After the Greenlight

Dewayne Perkins

The Blackening stars an unimaginably equally talented ensemble of actors including, as mentioned, Dewayne Perkins (The Upshaws TV series), along with Grace Byers (Harlem TV series), Jermaine Fowler (The Drop), Melvin Gregg (Nine Perfect Strangers), X Mayo (Swarm TV series), Antoinette Robertson (Dear White People TV series), Sinqua Walls (White Men Can’t Jump, 2023) — and also briefly — Jay Pharoah (Resort to Love) and Yvonne Orji (Insecure TV series).

With a cast this incredible coupled with such a fun and innovative storyline and witty script, how did Story, as the director, keep everyone on-script? Certainly, with a cast so full of life and personalities, a lot of the scenes have to be improvisation?

Related: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster Review: A Fresh Frankenstein

“Actually, you’d be surprised at how much was scripted,” said Story. “When we got the final script from Tracy and Dewayne, it was hilarious. I read it, laughed, and so when it came down to any ad-libs during filming, we were always open to letting it happen and always willing to give the actors the freedom to add a little bit more accidental magic, but, at the end of the day, that script gave us and the actors so much clever humor. It made my job — I won’t say easy — just easier.”

Blackening the Culture

Lionsgate

The Blackening, as indicative from its title and plot, is culturally specific. It has the potential to isolate those who are not from the aspects of

Black culture reflected in this film. Regarding if this is at all problematic or something that the team behind The Blackening cares about, Story was clear.

“First of all, I don’t think we do,” he said. “But at the same time, what’s so great about this movie is that because we made it so specific we’re finding that other cultures are seeing characters and people that they also know as well. That’s what I think makes films like this accessible. Because it’s so specific, it is embraced by everybody.”

Story makes a very wise, though perhaps ultimately not needed, redeeming point. If one examines the huge popularity of such culturally particular films such as Coco, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Joy Luck Club, perhaps it is the lifting up of cultural distinctions that is a means to societal togetherness, universal appeal, and a direct path to a smashing success and memorable film.

“Go see it,” Oliver encouraged moviegoers who haven’t already done so. “It’s the type of movie where you just have a lot of fun with other people. I haven’t seen a movie in a really long time that’s this feel-good and maybe that’s weird to say about a horror film, but it is. You feel good when you leave from seeing The Blackening. Call up your old friends and your family and go.”

Added Story, “Yes, it’s very communal. You gotta see it with a bunch of people.”

Now in theaters nationwide, The Blackening was produced by MRC, The Story Company, Tracy Yvonne Productions, Artists First, and Catchlight Studios, and released by Lionsgate.