Starring Grace Byers, Dewayne Perkins, Jermaine Fowler

Directed by Tim Story

Lionsgate. In cinemas.

When a group of black friends assemble at a cabin in the woods for a tenth anniversary reunion, they find themselves drawn into playing a sinister and lethal board game centred around grotesque racist caricatures.

In BBC Three’s astute comedy drama, Dreaming Whilst Black, aspiring film maker, Kwabena, is asked what distinguishes his Windrush movie pitch when there is at least one other Windrush drama already in production. Kwabs protests that no one asks that question about the myriad films in our cinemas – mostly starring Keira Knightley – recounting how Britain defeated the Nazis in World War Two. He has a point. Every writer I know has faced the ‘We-Already-Have-A-Disability/Gay/Women’s/Asian/Down’s Syndrome-drama’ rejection email (delete ‘minority’ as appropriate), as if there was only ever room for one of these at a time when our screens are packed full of identikit ‘lonely-detective-uncovers-a-small-town’s-secrets’ thrillers and countless wearisome off-the-shelf dystopias.

So it is, that The Blackening has been damned with a certain amount of faint praise, comparing it to Get Out as if Jordan Peele’s movie was somehow the last cinematic word in sharp racial comedy horror. I love Get Out and it’s undoubtedly true that it has opened a door into the mainstream which auteurs like Spike Lee have never quite managed. I’ve been guilty of making the comparison too, but perhaps it’s time to stop seeing Peele’s film as somehow a once-and-for-all benchmark, when there is plenty more to be said, and lots of fun to be had saying it in all sorts of different ways, with a multiplicity of perspectives coming from a wide range of black directorial voices.

For anyone who loves a cheesy Cabin In The Woods movie, The Blackening is full of great post-modern gags using familiar horror tropes as a way into not just how Hollywood stereotypes black characters, but, more incisively, how American black culture is constantly pitted against itself, suggesting, as with all the best horror, comedic or otherwise, that the real demons lie within ourselves. In that respect Tim Story’s movie is closer to the excellent (and unfairly neglected) They Cloned Tyrone, well worth seeking out on Netflix if you haven’t already seen it. So, I don’t regard The Blackening as any kind Jordan Peele lite, but rather, part of a fascinating debate about race, culture and individual responsibility being played out in multiplexes and on streaming platforms through the language of cinema itself.

Verdict: The Blackening is hugely entertaining. It gets a bit tangled up in itself in its final act, but it’s laugh out loud funny, has some decent jump scares, and is a worthy addition to the new wave of populist and incisive black horror and sci-fi. 7/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com