The Blackening
The Blackening
Seven black friends go away for the weekend, only to find themselves trapped in a cabin with a killer who has a vendetta. They must pit their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies against the murderer to stay alive.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 2, 2025
I’ve been really looking forward to this slasher comedy ever since I heard it’s announcement, and I can definitely say I had a awesome time at the theater even if some of the elements hold it back from horror comedy greatness.
A group of friends gather for a reunion at a cabin in the woods, but find themselves caught in a deadly trap by a crazed killer. Largely centered around the horror trope wherein the black character always dies first, what happens if all of the characters are black? The predicament has the group humorously examining black culture with their own experiences in an effort to determine who is the “blackest.”
The Blackening first and foremost is really funny and experiencing it in a large crowd is absolutely the way to see this. The largely unknown cast was really excellent (and ridiculously attractive). I hope to see some of them in some new projects soon. Holding it back slightly, though, is that as a horror/slasher, it doesn’t quite live up. A low kill count, light gore, and minimal scares left me a bit wanting. And despite a really cool setup with a haunting and creepy game at its center, the fairly obvious killer with pretty lame motivations underwhelmed when it was all said and done.
I don’t want to dwell too much on the shortcomings though, when most of those are mostly just my slasher expectations, where The Blackening is truly leaning way more into the comedy. And in that regard it excels. I would recommend people go see it opening weekend. Even though the humor is centered largely around black culture and stereotypes, I think the humor plays to all audiences (dark Aunt Viv name drop--for example). My score was falling somewhere between 3-3.5, but I’ll round up because I really enjoyed this cast.