THE BLACKENING

Name: THE BLACKENING
Item: THE BLACKENING
Author: Gaby Gaduh

"Unfunny Politically Correct Horror Comedy"

Family Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

THE BLACKENING is a horror comedy about a group of seven black friends who host a college reunion party in a cabin on June 18, the day that slaves in Galveston, Texas heard about the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The night starts with drinking, drugs and playing spades. However, the college reunion turns sour when they discover a racist-looking game downstairs. They realize that the game is not a game at all. A mysterious voice asks them questions relating to their race. It says, if they get the answer wrong, someone must die. Will they be able to work together to defeat the unknown evil?

Apart from a few funny jokes, THE BLACKENING is very poorly made. The acting is sub-par, the jokes are mostly unfunny, and the characters lack depth beyond the various stereotypes they’re acting out in the movie. It also has some heavy politically correct content and excessive violence, foul language and drugs. Part satire, THE BLACKENING’s comedy and story are lazy and ultimately unacceptable. MOVIEGUIDE® finds THE BLACKENING excessively boring and truly abhorrent.

Content:

(PaPa, PCPCPC, HoHo, LLL, VVV, S, A, DDD, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong pagan, politically correct worldview, with many political elements and characters, such as there’s an openly homosexual character and a character who voted for Trump twice ends up being evil, plus many racist jokes and stereotypes throughout the movie but played for laughs

Foul Language:

More than 70 “f” words, many other obscenities, four GD obscenities, many light profanities, more than 45 uses of the “n” word among blacks who are friends, a crass comment about someone smelling like a man’s genitals, and a character vomits on the killer

Violence:

Extreme violence throughout, with lots of blood splattering, and some milder violence, such as the bad guys in the movie use a crossbow to kill their victims, several characters are shot with arrows in the chest and leg and through the neck, a man is stabbed in the foot with a knife, a woman uses a vase to beat in a killer’s skull, the man’s face is not show, but brain matter is seen in the woman’s hair afterwards, along with lots of blood, a man fires a gun, and they vote to sacrifice whoever they deem the blackest, plus other horror movie elements like jump scares

Sex:

No sex scenes, but there are some jokes about sex and one character is openly homosexual

Nudity:

No nudity

Alcohol Use:

Lots of alcohol use and a man mixes a cocktail of sugar and alcohol, but his friends all say it tastes horrible

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking but heavy drug use throughout the movie, such as characters take Ecstasy pills, Adderall and other drugs, including smoking marijuana; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

The movie lacks any real direction, and apart from a few funny gags, its PC and homosexual content, and commentary on race are lost in a mess of violence, drugs, half-baked comedy, and foul language.

More Detail:

THE BLACKENING is a horror comedy about a group of seven black friends who decide to host a college reunion in a cabin in the woods but run across a racist game that tells them to sacrifice the blackest person among them. THE BLACKENING pokes fun at classic horror formulas and is predicated on the stereotype that the black character often dies first in many horror movies, but it’s a poorly made, unfunny, politically correct movie with excessive violence, foul language and drug use.

The group of friends arrive at the cabin and immediately fall under suspicion of a white park ranger who asks why they are at the cabin. However, Lisa presents him her name and the list of names of her friends who are staying with her at the cabin.

Despite some tension between Lisa’s best friend, Dewayne, and her ex-boyfriend Nnamndi, the group’s night of partying commences without a hitch.

After drinking, drugs, and lots of games of spades, the group discovers a door with a sign that reads “Game Room.” They all agree to check it out but are appalled to find a game called “The Blackening” that’s clearly racist.

While debating whether or not they should play, a mysterious voice notifies them that he’s holding one of their friends hostage in the basement. To free her, they must answer every question he asks correctly. All the questions lead to the mysterious voice asking which one of the group is the blackest. Once they decide, they must sacrifice that person to save themselves and free their friend.

Will the group of friends be able to work together to save their lives and subvert horror movie stereotypes?

Despite its satirical slant, THE BLACKENING is unpolished. The movie focuses on jokes rather than story. Sadly, the jokes are largely unfunny or carry a politically correct worldview. Eventually, it’s revealed that the true evil mastermind is someone they originally thought to be their friend. He also voted for Trump twice.

Apart from a few funny jokes, THE BLACKENING is poorly made. The acting is sub-par, the jokes are mostly unfunny, and characters lack depth beyond the various stereotypes they’re acting out. It also has some heavy PC elements and excessive violence, drugs and foul language. Although part satire, THE BLACKENING’s comedy and story are lazy and unacceptable entertainment.