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The Blackening Is Smart, Funny, Scary, And Questions What Does It Really Mean To Be Black?
The Blackening: We Can’t All Die First combined several things that I love all in one — Juneteenth, get-togethers, Spades, board games, trivia, the horror movie genre, and comedy. I mean, this movie was funny — side-splitting funny. I laughed out loud several times, and so did others in the theater. It was the best kinda laughter you could find in a theater — collective Black laughter with a little side banter sprinkled in here and there.
The premise of the movie is that nine college friends reunite ten years after graduation for a Juneteenth celebration. A couple, Morgan and Shawn (Jay Pharoah and Yyonne Orji), are the hosts and arrive first at the cabin in the woods. (Sidenote: you’re not going to find many Black people willing to vacation at this spot, but there wouldn’t be a movie if they didn’t defy this trope.) They discover a board game that’s akin to “Jim Crow monopoly” called The Blackening. The couple soon discovers that the game questions your Blackness by asking you questions that you should be able to answer as a Black American. What ensues next is blood, gore, jump-out-your-seat scary moments — and confronting — then turning horror movie tropes on their head (think the Scary Movie franchise). The Blackening is a game with life or death consequences.
