This was my second attempt to see this flick in the theaters. The first time, my lousy theater had the bulb brightness turned down so I could barely see the black actor’s faces in the opening scene (and a movie with an all-black cast? Forget about it). So I walked… and went again once the movie relocated to a smaller screen. Now I just had to contend with the lady who brought two screeching toddlers to the R rated horror comedy. Sigh.

Anyhow, The Blackening is a horror comedy about a group of friends getting together in a cabin (in the woods) for a Juneteenth celebration. Soon a slasher is messing with them via a racist board game and the group have to figure out how to survive… since they know how these movies go.

This flick isn’t particularly scary but when it’s fun, it’s fun. The second act is just a blast as the tensions ramps up and the game gets played. The dialog is snappy, the circumstances get crazier, and the comedy more laugh-out-loud funny. The movie was notching up the rating scale fast.

But sadly the final act is too talky and not snappy enough. It lost too much momentum as it laid out its thesis. But it managed to hold on to just enough goodwill to still recommend the flick (especially after that hoot of a mid-credit sequence).

The flick’s sense of humor and pop culture awareness is fantastic. I caught most of the horror in-jokes and references… maybe I missed some of the black culture ones though (yes, I knew there were two Aunt Vivs on Fresh Prince… no I didn’t know how many seasons each was on).

This is an entertaining and engaging movie that has a pacing issue in the third… but is entertaining enough throughout. When it hits, it hits full blast.

Score: 82