The Blackening – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Tim Story
Writers – Tracy Oliver, Dewayne Perkins, StarsGrace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg

The 19th of June became a new federal public holiday in the USA when President Biden signed the Juneteenth Independence Day Act. It celebrates and commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. The Blackening is set on a Juneteenth Weekend when a group of black college friends decide to reconnect and choose a remote log cabin as the place where the reunion will take place. A trip to a local store by two of the group on their way to the log cabin demonstrates that in this redneck back-of-the-woods, their presence is not welcome. A further inhospitable encounter with a park ranger before they have unloaded their car is another reminder that this diverse group of black Americans are in alien territory. A log cabin is in many ways a symbol of the pioneering spirit of the so-called “land of the free” but it does not necessarily include black people within its embrace.

The whole film is a trope on black characters in horror movies. In horror movies a black character is often the first one to die – they are disposable. But in this horror movie, all the characters in the log cabin are black. That raises the awkward fact that “we can’t all die first” which is the subsidiary title of the film. After entering the cabin and one or two spooky experiences including the kidnapping of an early arrival, they encounter in the game room a board game entitled “The Blackening”. The board has a black sambo head with bright red lips and white teeth which asks questions in a spooky voice which have to be answered in a limited time frame. The questions come from the world of black culture. With a fine degree of tension and a good deal of comedy, the friends initially manage to answer the questions but then they fail. The price of failure is that one of them must die. That one is to be the blackest person. Needless to say, that leads to all sorts of squabbles amongst the friends. Each reveals all sorts of secrets about their ancestry or private life including one who relies on the fact that he voted for Trump not once but twice!

In the log cabin, they are under constant attack from a black-clad figure armed with various weapons, including a crossbow, who is determined to kill them. There are a load of comic lines and a good deal of violence and even blood, but somehow the violent scenes manage to be less than scary because they are outlandish and comedy is not far away.

The acting is razor-sharp throughout.  Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) plays a pivotal role as she has a close friendship with Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins) who is ostentatiously gay. She has an on/off intimate relationship with Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls), who has not developed the monogamous side of his personality. All the group members are out of the ordinary, including Clifton (Jermaine Fowler) the Trump supporter.

Undoubtedly, if you were born in the USA and are black you will hone in and appreciate a great deal of the text and subtexts that will bypass a white European. However, the subversion of the film is a joy. Given the apparent rise of white supremacists, this is a fine subversive countercharge made all the more endearing in that it makes its case with such a great deal of comedy. It stands all sorts of stereotypes on their heads and it creates a great deal of laughs as it celebrates the emancipation of African Americans in its unique way.