Lionsgate has shared the official trailer for upcoming horror comedy The Blackening. The feature is based on the 2018 Comedy Central sketch of the same name. The movie is set to release June 16 only in theaters.
The movie follows a group of Black friends who go on a weekend getaway for Juneteenth. Their trip is quickly ruined as they find themselves trapped in a cabin and forced to play a game devised by a deranged killer. When they realize the game comes with very real and fatal stakes, they must work together to protect themselves and stop the killer, using everything they know about horror tropes.
The trailer wastes no time in poking fun at age-old tropes, beginning with the seemingly harmless, remote cabin in the woods in which the group has their fun until the power goes out. However, it quickly turns its focus to the one trope the movie refuses to succumb to: the Black friend always dies first. So, the group finds themselves in quite a predicament when a wildly offensive board game called "The Blackening" forces them to confront the trope. The trailer also teases other tropes the group will face through direct references and subtle hinting through other situations they'll find themselves in.
The Blackening was written by the sketch's writer Dewayne Perkins, who co-wrote with Tracy Oliver of Harlem and Girls Trip. The film is directed by Tim Story. Oliver, Story, Marcei A. Brown, Jason Clark, E. Brian Dobbins, and Sharla Sumpter Bridgett produced, with Perkins as co-producer, and Vicky Story as associate producer. Perkins stars in the movie alongside Yvonne Orji, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Jay Pharoah, Antoinette Robertson, and Sinqua Walls.
Dewayne Perkins Wanted to Subvert Tired Tropes
As demonstrated in the trailer, The Blackening will go against the grain of stereotypical tropes – and it will ensure that audiences get the point. During the Toronto International Film Festival, Perkins told Collider's Steve Weintraub that he wanted to force viewers to acknowledge the characters behind the tropes. Along with defying the Black person dies first trope, Perkins also aimed to repurpose the gay best friend trope, with Perkins' playing said friend.
"Being able to take these tropes and find exactly what makes them complex, what gives them depth, and then forcing that in the movie so that when you start watching it, you see what has been in horror movies before and then the goal of the movie is to constantly break down your assumptions of these characters by constantly forcing depth."
The Blackening heads to theaters on June 16. Watch the official trailer below: