Morgan and Shawn rent a cabin in the woods for a Juneteenth party / ten-year college reunion. While setting up, they come across a board game called The Blackening. The board demands that they draw a card. Morgan draws a card asking for the name of one black character who has survived a horror movie. Answer correctly or die. Shawn shouts out Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett-Smith in Scream 2. Shawn gets an arrow in the neck.
We meet the rest of the folks as they are heading to the party, learning just enough backstory for some B-plot conflict. When they get to the house, they party for a bit before coming across the same board game. The game has a specific piece for each of them. The board tells them to pick a card and save Morgan.
Will they be able to save Morgan, or will the game take them too?
If you’re looking for well-rounded, nuanced characters, you’ve come to the wrong movie. If you came for something scary, you’re also barking up the wrong tree. This movie is a comedy about the depiction of Blackness in media.
The jokes are pretty good. Obviously, most of the humor wasn’t written for me, but the stuff that intersects with growing up working class hits. For example, I laughed out loud when they sang the O’Reilly Auto Parts theme song glumly.
I hate that I saw the twist the moment they set it up, but it works, so I can’t be too mad.