- Release year: 2022
- Director: Tim Story.
- Producers: Marcei A. Brown, Jason Clark, E. Brian Dobbins, Tracy Oliver, Tim Story and Sharla Sumpter Bridgett.
- Screenplay by: Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins.
- Cinematographer: Todd A. Dos Reis.
- Music by: Dexter Story.
Synopsis: A group of friends meet to party in a cabin in the woods. When they get there, they are forced to play a game to survive.
Shotgun Commentary: This film is a must-see. It’s hilarious, sarcastic, stressful and terrifying all at once, a true example of horror comedy done right.
Source: The Blackening (Tim Story, 2022).
Review
The Blackening is the perfect example on how to do a horror comedy. The raw, candid humour is spot-on. The setup of every joke is perfectly timed and the social critique inherent in all quips is always clear and undeniable, adding a constant layer of roast to society that is delightful to watch. However, the success does not end there. The humorous content is masterfully intertwined with the horror genre.
Winning combo
The combination of stressful, tense, borderline nerve-wracking situations with jokes about the history of cinematic horror and black people representation is a mind-blowing work of art. Both genres are so well blended that there will be several moments throughout the viewing of the film where you’ll feel like the movie is too funny to be horror and too scary to be comedy.
The small but
Sadly, the film did not completely hit the spot because of one detail: the ending. The discovery of the evil mastermind behind everything that is happening is both refreshing and unfortunate. It is innovative in the sense that it differs from the usual ending in horror movies with such a strong comment on racism. Nevertheless, it is very predictable for any horror fan since it follows a very overused strategy. Had the film been mediocre, it would have been a nice ending, but the film is absolutely fantastic, which makes the ending quite disappointing.
Getting horror to the 21st century
Story aside, the big highlight of the film is the characters’ creation and development. It is very exciting to finally see in American horror a group of people reacting like normal humans to a threatening situation. I had only seen this before in parodies or Spanish horror. Seeing it in a more international, mainstream horror product means that the worn out American hero act is finally being recognised for what it is: utter rubbish.
The second, and quite obvious, change this film represents is black representation in horror. It is so stimulating to finally see black characters with their own unique personalities, background and a relevant role to the film instead of just being different physical versions of the same stereotypical supporting role that they have traditionally been boxed in.
In this case, the white characters are stereotypical and secondary, which enhances even more the nonsensical nature of racial discrimination in cinema throughout history, more specifically, horror cinema history. This use of character creation is a very interesting way to transcend the verbal critique and make a more rounded, coherent message.
The character creation and development, as well as their actions and reactions throughout the film, feel like the promise of a thrilling future for horror. A future in which horror will surpass stereotypical characters and behaviours, making the movies all the more unpredictable and exhilarating to watch.
Advice to take from this movie:
- Don’t tell people to leave without you if you don’t mean it.
- You can blame others for your actions, but that is not going to change their outcome.
- Get to know what you are voting for before voting for it. It might save your life.
Source: The Blackening (Tim Story, 2022).
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