A Geeky Guy's Guide to The Blackening
I avoiding watching this movie for a while. The treason was two-fold. First I am the scardiest scaredy cat in the world. I am not a fan of horror movies. Because I get so emotionally involved in films, I think I just get too into horror movies and I am genuinely scared. Not fun scared but, miserable scared. As a result, a horror movie has to be very special for me to push through it. Second, I was a little leery of the movie just exploiting black move tropes.
Luckily for me, my daughter convinced me that I would enjoy this movie and I should give it a try. I am so glad she did. This movie is special. I went into it thinking this was going to be a slapstick comedy similar to scary movie from back in the day. But I was very wrong. This is a legit horror movie that happens to be funny. It is not a spoof. It has a real plot but it also works in a ton of jokes.
It is also a great satire. While not a spoof of horror movies, it is a satire of one. It pokes fun at a lot of typical horror movie tropes. But it also satirizes the treatment of black people in horror movies, movies in general and in society. I was very pleasantly surprised at how they shed a light on these issues while staying true to the plot of the movie. And like all good satire, it really made me laugh. I later found out this was a skit from one of the actor's comedy shows. That made it even more impressive for me as it is usually very hard to write a complete story based on a short skit. I mean for every Wayne's World there are 5 Night at The Roxbury.
Without providing any spoilers, the movie centers on a group of friends from college who have a 10 year reunion in a fancy cabin in the woods. From the very first scene, we are all in on the joke that nothing good is going to happen at a cabin in the woods. Because it is a comedy, the writers really played up the fact that every stereotypical college type was represented in the friend group. Some have become huge successes in life while others are just extending their college identity. There is of course one outsider to provide even more comic relief. And of course there is a couple who used to date in college and have now rekindled that romance. If it weren't a comedy, I would have rolled my eyes at the cliche roles. But that is the point of the movie. It is making fun of those cliches in many hilarious ways.
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he best part of the movie for me is that it honestly wasn't that scary. It was more a vehicle for laughs than jump scares. It also wasn't overly gory. I honestly don't remember ever being really scared while watching . It was more a feeling of anticipation waiting for the next attack or laugh. If you love to be scared, that is not the point of this movie.
I do feel it is important to give one caveat. Although there was nothing too brutal or graphic, they use a specific word way too many times for my comfort. As a teacher, I always stress that I try to avoid hateful words even when they are used by the group that is trying to take the power from that word. But seeing as the writers put a lot of thought into everything in the movie, I had to accept the dialogue and I had to change my point of view a little bit so that I could still enjoy the movie.
Has anyone seen this? What did you think? Are there any other Halloween movies that are heavy on the comedy and light on the horror?
Me too. I love horror movies but I don't have the guts to watch it. Maybe I can read the plot. Because I am a traumatizing person. Always thinking of the things I saw
I honestly thought The Blackening would be just another ordinary parody, but your review has proven me wrong. Especially since you said that it sheds light on real issues in society as well as being humorous, I think everyone will really like it.
Greetings friend, it's a pleasure to see your reviews of the movies you recommend for those of us who, like me, don't have time to search for them and find the best references. Thanks to you, we now save that time and can go directly to watching them while enjoying them at the same time. I'm not one to watch horror movies either, let's say I don't like them much, but with your little review, I would love to see it to laugh a little and, well, feel that sensation of fear 😱 so that it doesn't scare you so much.
A fun horror movie, something very common lately and that sells a lot. I haven't seen it, but based on your review, I might try to see it and give my opinion, although it may not be my favorite genre (horror), but I have nothing to lose.
I haven't heard of this one, but I am not a fan of scary movies that much either. I spend too much time in my own head as it is, so when I let some of those plots in there, it can be a pretty dark place. Actually, what I typically do is I read the plot summary of scary movies on Wikipedia after the fact because I enjoy seeing what the big twist was without subjecting myself to all the mental pitfalls!
This one really didn’t get in my head at all. Was pleasantly surprised.
A few days ago, I also watched a similar horror movie with my friends. My friend's house has a sound system. The sounds are quite loud, so we ourselves get scared a lot, but still we like such movies a lot. When I get time, I will try to watch this movie too.
I have seen some of these actors' films before, and scary films should not be watched alone, they should be watched with another person, because too much fear can cause something to happen to a person