I love a well done horror-comedy!

“The Blackening” follows a group of friends who come together to celebrate Juneteenth at a cabin, only to be hunted by a masked killer. Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji star as Tim Story directs.

At this point I sound like a broken record, but I think when done right there are few film sub-genres better than a horror-comedy. From “Freaky” to “The Babysitter” (and one could argue “Scream” and “Scary Movie”), there’s something about a tongue-in-cheek slasher. And while “The Blackening” certainly leans much more into the comedy than the scares, it is a delightful surprise of a movie that can be enjoyed by all horror fans.

The tagline of the film is “we can’t all die first,” playing off the cliché that black characters are often the first to get killed off in horror movies (see: “Scream 2”). While it’s more a meme than actually a film fact (the black characters rarely die first, if sometimes even at all), it shows that “Blackening” is aware that it is a scary movie and has “rules” to play by. Characters cringe at the idea of splitting up, are aware they shouldn’t investigate strange noises, and arm themselves instead of just being lambs to the slaughter. I think that the film could have been a little sharper in its satire of tropes and clichés (it mostly points them out then moves onto the next thing), but it’s always fun to have a meta film.

All of the cast is great, with the standouts being Jermaine Fowler and Grace Byers. Fowler (who I have liked since his show “Superior Donuts”) has great timing as a nerd out-of-touch with Black culture (he doesn’t even know how to play Spades), while Byers has several lines that made me laugh out loud. X Mayo also has two deliveries in particular that had my friend and I burst out laughing, and we were still snickering long after the scene had continued.

The horror aspects aren’t anything too tense or creepy, but there are a couple effective sequences. This is much closer to “Scary Movie” than “Scream” in terms of blending genres, so anyone hesitant about going into a scare-fest can rest easy. The kills aren’t too crazy or memorable, that’s probably my biggest gripe, but like I said, director Tim Story and his team are concerned about making a comedy first, horror film second.

“The Blackening” was a welcome treat, and one that I knew within the first five minutes was going to be my cup of tea (my friend turned to me after one of Byers’ first lines and said “this movie is already delightful”). It may be a little light in plot or scares for some, but I think that in a packed theater or room full of friends, it’ll be hard to not have a good time.

Critics Rating: 8/10