We’ll be real with you: At first blush, we thought that Tim Story’s The Blackening seemed like a bit of a played-out riff on one of modern horror’s oldest tropes — you know, that the Black character dies first in any given horror movie — and we weren’t able to catch it at TIFF when it premiered last year. But in retrospect — and in learning that the film was based on a short TV sketch — we’re actually pretty here for the MadTV vibes that the trailer is giving off. One day, someone will write the definitive history of MadTV as anti-SNL, especially since Key and Peele were both cast members on that show once upon a time. So, yeah, this looks kind of fun!
Take a look:
Here’s a synopsis, though a bunch of TIFF reviews are already floating around the internet if you’re so inclined to seek them out:
“‘The Blackening’ centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherfu**in’ game. Directed by Tim Story (‘Ride Along,’ ‘Think Like A Man,’ ‘Barbershop’) and co-written by Tracy Oliver (‘Girls Trip,’ ‘Harlem’) and Dewayne Perkins (‘The Amber Ruffin Show,’ ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’), ‘The Blackening’ skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?”
The Blackening hits theaters on June 16. If you want to see something funny, check out the OG Comedy Central Presents short that the film was based on, which we’ve embedded below. That’s some funny shit, but only time will tell if expanding it to 90-odd minutes was a good idea (though the dude who commented “I’d watch two hours of this” is at least going to get his wish, which is pretty fun).