By [Your Name]
In answering that question, The Blackening does more than survive the tropes of horror. It resurrects them, embarrasses them, and finally—joyfully—buries them. The Blackening
But here’s the twist: The questions aren’t about Black history or civil rights leaders. They are about respectability politics . One character is asked to name the most racist Friends episode. Another is forced to rank which member of the group is “the least Black.” The camera lingers on the faces of Lisa (Antoinette Robertson), a medical student whose fiancé is white, and Shanika (a scene-stealing X Mayo), the militant "Blerd" (Black nerd) who uses slang aggressively to prove her authenticity. By [Your Name] In answering that question, The
As Shanika famously growls while wielding a curling iron as a weapon: “We survived 400 years of this country. You think we can’t survive one night in the woods?” The Blackening is not a perfect film. The second act drags slightly under the weight of its own cleverness, and the killer’s final motivation feels like an afterthought. But those flaws are superficial. They are about respectability politics
Released in June 2023, The Blackening arrived as both a much-needed antidote to decades of cinematic marginalization and a razor-sharp comedy that refuses to let its audience laugh without also squirming. Directed by Tim Story ( Ride Along , Barbershop ) and written by Tracy Oliver ( Girls Trip ) and Dewayne Perkins (who also stars as the fan-favorite character Dewayne), the film is not merely a parody. It is an intervention. For generations, the horror genre has had a well-documented blind spot. The "Black character dies first" trope is so pervasive that it has its own Wikipedia page. From Friday the 13th to Scream , Black characters were often disposable—plot devices to raise the stakes before the white final girl took her stand.