What’s “The Blackening” About?

Seven black friends go away for the weekend only to find themselves trapped in a cabin with a killer who has a vendetta against them! Will their street and hood smarts and knowledge of horror help them to stay alive and survive the night? Probably not!

Setting The Foundation For My Review With The Overall Perspective From My Point of View

As we ALL are aware – there is only ONE individual culprit responsible for the way our minds think & operate …that culprit is society. SOCIETY is comprised of a diverse amount of individuals very similar to social networking – ideally, it is very similar for the simple comparison that in social networking, individuals talk about various topics and what? Network and what is that called? SOCIETY! BAM! See the connection I made there. This is where I will transition into my review of the film. I can only deduce there may be some lashouts/controversy from individuals surrounding the movie strictly based on race, the excessive use of the “N” word in the film, and other ethnicities feeling uncomfortable with this film being made specifically for the Black culture, and/or other reasons. To be brutally honest, racism will NEVER end …it will only either be tolerated sadly or masked exceptionally well by someone with serious prejudices. I had to set the tone for the remainder of my review by writing this FIRST and FOREMOST out of respect for YOU – and I thank you for proceeding IF you are in reading my thoughts on the film which are very positive and good. 

Black Characters in HORRORIC Places & Spaces

Why do black actors the majority of the time have to die within the first 10 minutes of a scary movie? That is the million-dollar question! I cannot answer that for you, but what I can answer will always lead you back to the above and first paragraph and the answer will ALWAYS REMAIN THE SAME, and that is society (NOT all people – only the ones who were swayed, convinced, brain-washed, or whatever the term you’d prefer to use to be prejudice or see things and life one way and not clear). In this movie, all of these black friends were in a Cabin in the woods all alone when all of a sudden a mysterious masked man began torturing them with The Blackening Game – again …bringing it back to Society… their minds went directly to race with how they behaved saying that they would NOT call the police; when the WHITE police officer arrived to the Cabin and saw a group of black people, he reacted a “certain way” towards them. All of these examples are indeed frightening because they STILL do and sadly will always exist in the world. Why African Americans have such a bad stigma on them is totally beyond me and this movie may be a comedy, but it brings to light everything that has been hidden in the dark for long enough!

Unity Brings Fourth Survival

These friends fought for their survival! They fought effortlessly to stay alive while also very high on some drugs, too! LOL! Every single stereotypical behavior that you might have heard, witnessed for yourselves, or could even dream up about blacks was displayed on the Silver Screen in this movie right here. NO JOKE! I was laughing in my seat so hard at it. How could I not? Watching these friends stick together through one of the scariest and darkest nights of their lives and watching death happen right in front of them – that deserves mad RESPECT! Unity. It counts. It is what matters. 

Trav’s Closing Remarks

I feel that certain movies are made and catered for African Americans, although any ethnicity has the free agency to see any film of their choosing. But, there are some, yes, some that speak to me that talk to me and invite me to watch them and this was one of them. We have a long way to go before we can even begin to heal this disgusting disease of injustice of individuals due to private and yes, some public racism/injustices. Actress Grace Byers as a variety of you know her from playing Anika Calhoun from ‘Empire’ was in the movie and she displayed the TRUE behavior of a 100% African American woman and how they are supposed to carry themselves although in the film her father was half Caucasian, but never stopped her from “speaking her Truth.” Lastly, a piece of advice: When I see an individual, me personally, I don’t see color, I see what I just wrote, I see an individual, but what they say to me next is going to alert me of WHAT TYPE of individual they are – the eyes, the ears, and the mouth. These 3 senses are miraculous if you use them to be an exceedingly good judge of character.