Image: Lionsgate
The first trailer for The Blackening delightfully demonstrated that the latest from Tim Story (Ride Along, Barbershop) would have great fun skewering the horror trope that Black characters always die first. The latest trailer makes that even more clear by mixing enthusiastic audience reactions in with the jokes and frights.
There are definitely elements of slasher films like Friday the 13th, previous horror satire Cabin in the Woods, and the “let’s play a game” mechanics of Saw contained here—but also more everyday terrors, like the realization that one of your so-called close friends voted for Trump... twice. Noooo!
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Story’s previous credits include The Fantastic Four (the 2005 version) and The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, as well as that truly bonkers 2021 Tom and Jerry movie, but his best-loved films are his comedies (he also made Think Like a Man and its sequel). The Blackening is co-written by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) and Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine); Perkins is also one of the ensemble cast members, along with Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji, and Jay Pharoah.
The Blackening was picked up by Lionsgate after it made a splash at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival; it’ll have its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Festival with a screening at the Apollo Theater on June 13, before hitting theaters nationwide on June 16.
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