In what has to be one of the funniest trailers of the year, Lionsgate’s The Blackening might have its viewers screaming with laughter.
As seen in the trailer above, a group of Black friends reunites for a Juneteenth weekend getaway…only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer on the loose. As any (Black) person knows the Black person in the group is the first to die in horror movies but what if everyone’s Black? This is when an interesting proposition is made, whomever is the Blackest in the group decides first. In a world where Black people are not a monolith, how that choice is made leads to some laughs as one proclaims he’s the least Black because he thought Black Twitter was a seasoning and he voted for Trump…twice.
Debuting at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival to high praise from fans and critics, it generated and three major distribution offers. with Lionsgate’s winning the rights. Based on a 2018 comedy short by the same name, the self-aware, it’s clear to see the influences of Scream, Saw, Friday the 13th and more.
Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and screenplay and screen story by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) & Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
Starring Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji.
The Blackening with make its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival with a screening at the Apollo Theater on June 13, before hitting theaters nationwide on June 16th.
