The Blackening Review: Funny Twists Make Up For A Predictable Plot
Warning: This review contains spoilers for Blackening.
While booking tickets for the new horror movie Blackening, I started to worry. There were few offers! Was this horror movie meant for another generation of psychedelic moviegoers? It could be worse? I was embarrassed to see the characters skipping the "n" word during the intro. The scene after the title, where my grandmother can't drop a black woman in a wig and she can't drop dead, I sighed, ready to go crazy. However, I soon found myself laughing out loud.
“Blackening” tells the story of a group of African-American friends who meet in a cabin in the woods during the June 19 holiday in the United States. At night, the group will be attacked by assassins who, curiously, are armed with crossbows.
There are really no surprises in the story. People who look like villains are just that. But there are plenty of fun twists. The Blackening is excellent at breaking stereotypes with his sense of humor.
meet the team
The characters parody racial stereotypes of blacks. Duane (Dwayne Perkins) is an androgynous boy (“androgynous”) with full lines and undulating hips. King (Melvin Gregg) is a reformed mobster ("bad guy" or "mobster"), though he still has a concealed weapon. Shanika (X Mayo) is a huge, loud and aggressive woman ("Ruby"), she lashes out at the assassins yelling "Are you shooting arrows at me? Don't stop."
Allison (Grace Byers) is a mixed-race woman (“tragic/liar mulatto”) who decides to prove herself by giving up her white heritage. Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) is a graceful and eloquent lawyer (the "Dark Lady") who explodes with anger. Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls) is a personal sports trainer who has experience turning women into blackheads. Finally, Clifton (Jermaine Fowler) is a weird white-haired loser (“Uncle Tom” or “Carlton”).
These stereotypes are clearly deliberate: not only do the characters spend the first few hours playing spades (a popular game played by many African-Americans), but Shanica mistakenly calls Clifton "Carlton" when trying to remember his name.
The film sheds light on the question of black stereotypes through the harrowing performance of the killer. Around the grotesque sambo, another racist caricature, the team must answer a series of questions that measure their "darkness level". Each person is represented by a game icon that symbolizes their stereotype. This refers to the historical role of sambo in the dehumanization of African Americans.
Sambo mentions the first film appearance of these metaphors in The Birth of a Nation (1915). Referring to the DW Griffith film, The Blackening points out the dangers of these stereotypes. And while we laugh about it on screen, accepting it as reality reinforces the oppression and abuse of black people.
interrogation and performance of the "black".
The film explores other important themes in African-American culture, including homophobia, notions of "true" blackness, interracial oppression, drug use, and violence between blacks and whites. For example, when trying to determine who is the "blackest" among his friends, Dwayne claims it can't be him because he's gay and—as his homophobic family insists—"homosexuality isn't whiteness wrapped up in a dirty bag." . ». .
Duane's comment highlights homophobic definitions of black masculinity, Afrocentrism (a worldview centered on people of African descent, as opposed to Eurocentrism, centered on whites in the West in cultures such as the United States and the United Kingdom) by intellectuals such as philosopher Molefé. . Asante considered homosexuality. destructive to the black liberation struggle.
However, the film confirms the logic of black intellectuals such as Cornell West, Mabel Manning and Audrey Lord who argue that liberation is fragmented when fighting racism but other forms of oppression such as homophobia are tolerated.
In another mission, Friends will have to name five black actors who starred in Friends. After his success, Sambo's manager yelled, “Wrong! The correct answer is: “I have not seen this program. » I saw “I Live Single”.
The conversation refers to the performative nature of blackness as "damned if you do, damned if you don't." If they are clearly black in their behavior and clothing, as our characters show, then they confirm destructive stereotypes. But if they reject this discourse, they will be criticized for not being "black" enough.
This theme is the structural theme of the film. Although the characters behave in stereotypical ways, their racist actions are often accompanied by deep, introspective notes that contradict them. When Lisa attacked Nnamdi by calling her a stereotypical "bad black woman," I kept apologizing, saying that she expected it. As the film acknowledges from the start, African-American culture is neither stable nor homogeneous, but constantly changing and diverse.
Think about the stereotypes
“Blackness” also raises questions about hypocritical stereotypes about black drug culture. When Alison accidentally pulls Adderall out of Lisa's bag of drugs, she appears drunk, like a supercharged video game character.
Adderall seems like an odd choice because it's a drug not normally associated with African-Americans but with white college students. While black people all too often associate cannabis with lawlessness, the level of legalization and decriminalization in the United States means that it's the only legal substance in Lisa's bag. In this way, Black highlights our tendency to categorize different drug cultures along racial lines. It also highlights the racial biases that affect prison sentences for drug use, with blacks receiving harsher sentences.
After defeating the attackers, the crew thinks about how to report what happened. They reject the idea of calling the police and offer a safe solution where the rescuers will not shoot them because they are unarmed. However, this does not save them. This is the heart of the problem.
Arguments about who is black enough and who is not are useless and destructive. African Americans face violent psychological and social attacks by ordinary citizens outside and within Black communities to resist violence sanctioned by legitimate authorities. This is where the horror lies.
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