At last year’s TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), one of the most raucous screenings I attended was The Blackening. Directed by Tim Story (Fantastic Four, Barbershop), the movie is a horror-comedy mashup about a group of black friends who rent a cabin together for the weekend, only to be stalked by a masked killer. While it may sound like standard stuff, the movie actually works as a pretty funny satire about the role of black characters in horror, which, in the eighties and nineties, often saw them killed off first. They have fun with the genre conventions and ultimately craft a movie that works well as a comedy but at the same time isn’t “zany” in the way something like Scary Movie is.
I was happy to get the chance to speak to many of the people involved with the film recently, and the faith they have in the movie is infectious. Director Tim Story and writer Tracy Oliver go on record saying that the movie was always meant to be scary and seen in theatres, while Jay Pharoah (who compared me to Billy Corgan – lol) and American Vandal’s Melvin Gregg relate how white audiences are enjoying the movie too. Grace Byers, Antoinette Robertson, & Sinqua Walls also reveal that the film was changed a bit since its TIFF screenings (being given a nice post-production makeover courtesy of Lionsgate). At the same time, Dewayne Perkins (who also co-wrote the movie) recalls coming up with the concept years ago, to co-star X Mayo’s delight. Finally, Jermaine Fowler, who turns out to be a JoBlo superfan, reveals his deep bench of movie knowledge, revealing he based his character on the film Funny Games, as well as Paul Dano’s performance in Prisoners. Overall, these were some of the most fun interviews I’ve done in a while. Even if you think The Blackening isn’t for you, you might want to give it a watch. It’s a lot of fun.