'The Blackening' is a smart, funny, at times gory, takedown of racist horror movie tropes

There are certain rules in horror movies, and “The Blackening” — and its characters — know them all, even as they’re trapped in one.

One of those rules is that the Black character is the first to be killed — a sacrifice made to establish the danger of the situation that leaves other (white) characters still standing to fight for survival. But what if, as in director Tim Story’s film, based on the 2018 short, all the characters are Black? What then?

Or, as the movie’s tagline says, “We can’t all die first.”

That’s the jumping-off point for the at-times hilarious horror comedy to delve into deeper questions of systemic racism in movies and in life. If that sounds like it’s a lecture, it’s not. It’s really funny. It’s also really smart.

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What is 'The Blackening' about?

The premise is mostly familiar. A group of friends get together after 10 years for a Juneteenth reunion at — where else? — a remote cabin in the woods. There is Allison (Grace Beyers), whose father is white and believes that her friends don’t think she’s Black enough. King (Melvin Gregg) has given up his street cred and married a white woman. Hard-partying Shankira (X Mayo) winds up bringing nerdy Clifton (Jermaine Fowler) to the cabin after they bump into each other at a gas station on the way there (not the only nod to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”). Attorney Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) is secretly back together with Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls), who cheated on her in college, much to the chagrin of Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins, who co-wrote the movie), who hasn't gotten over it.

Their other friends (Yvonne Orji and Jay Pharoah) arrived early but are nowhere to be found.

Thanks to the prologue, we know the secret to that, which establishes that this is indeed a horror film.

The friends are eventually drawn to a game room, where a game called The Blackening is on the table. It’s racist from the get-go (“Jim Crow Monopoly,” one character calls it), complete with a blackface character that demands that they play along.

The game is basically a series of questions on cards. The first question asks the player to name a Black character who survives a horror movie.

Other questions follow in a similar vein — it’s a form of a Black cultural history quiz with serious consequences for wrong answers.

As in, death.

A psycho is roaming the woods — and occasionally the house — dressed in a blackface mask and armed with a crossbow. The game devolves into a more straightforward story of survival, but one peppered with observations and questions about Black life.

The characters recognize that they, too, fall into certain stereotypes — yet their acknowledgment of them in part refutes them. They’re self-aware, as is the film.

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The film references 'Saw,' 'The Shining' and other horror films

There are nods to plenty of horror films, and horror parodies like “Scary Movie” and its many sequels, but this film is so much smarter than those. It’s inspired by films like “Saw,” “The Shining,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and others, which are subtly referenced rather than just reenacted for comic effect.

Credit goes to Story and the cast for the loose tone of the film. That is, it has a loose feel; the bits themselves are precise. There is a fair amount of gore, not all of it played for laughs. But that honors the horror part of the comedy-horror equation.

All the actors are funny — Mayo and Perkins especially so. And there is something about Gregg’s performance that is both comic and kind of touching. It has to do with his delivery, a kind of weariness (also he has a hole in his shoulder from an arrow for much of the movie).

Not every bit lands and the social commentary is not always exactly incisive. Sometimes it is, though. When a character says they should call the police and everyone breaks out into simultaneous guffaws, the point is made — fittingly, with laughter.

'The Blackening' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Tim Story.

Cast: Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls.

Rating: R for pervasive language, violence and drug use.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, June 16.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'The Blackening' movie review: This horror movie is parody at its best