REVIEW: the blackening

THE BLACKENING - I'm late to the party, but I'm here.

On my way to the ATL for business, I was able to watch THE BLACKENING on my Delta flight. Delta usually has the best and most diverse viewing library. Shout out to them. 

Let's discuss black horror films 👇🏾

HOW BREAKING DOWN FILMS HELPS YOUR SCREENWRITING

As a screenwriter, you no longer have the privilege of watching movies for pure entertainment. You can try, but it's our goal to ruin it for you. Kidding... well, not really.

Watching films and breaking down the beats is one of the best ways to learn screenwriting. Knowing which beats are present or lacking and how they are functioning or not functioning in any given story strengthens your ability to execute those beats in your story. It's a great exercise.

So the next time you're watching, pull up your notes app and jot down the beats. Are they tracking? Why or why not? ​

LET'S GET INTO THE BLACKENING

The film was predictable. We all saw it coming, right? The clues were very on the nose, but I'm hoping that it was intentional since it's a comedy. There were some moments of suspense and some thrills, but I wouldn't place it in the horror category. It wasn't made to scare audiences but to make them laugh. Even the tag line - WE CAN'T ALL DIE FIRST - is a play on an inside joke amongst black people. We enter the experience with the expectation to crack up not to be frightened by jumpscares.

The moments of thrill were redundant. They played the "is someone behind the door/is someone watching me" bit far too many times. We already knew no one was there.

How? Because the premise of the bad guy was set up for us in the prologue/teaser. It's in the vain of SCREAM. We meet people who are big enough stars to bring in a crowd, in this case Yvonne Orji, get invested in them, only to see them fall victim to the killer's modus operandi. So, we know that until the group plays the game, they aren't in imminent danger.

Was the film funny? Yes. I didn't find it as laugh out loud funny as many people stated. But it was enjoyable. What I found interesting is that a lot of the funny lines of dialogue were cultural references from the generation of the writers, not the ages of the characters, who were early 30s. But that generation is obsessed with the 90s even though they were babies. 🤣 So maybe it was appropriate.

Per the pic, the trivia questions were great audience participation moments. And, of course, it's been packaged into an actual game

All in all, it was worth the watch. It brought up a question that I'd love the answer to. We rarely see black straight horror films. We tend to fuse genres and make them spoofs, comedies, or psychological thrillers. So black people watch straight horror films? Do we want to see ourselves in horror films (as the protagonist who lives) like the CANDYMAN remake? Inquiring minds...

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Author

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.