written by Erik Pederson, Deadline
They can’t all die first — right?
Here is the first trailer for The Blackening, Tim Story’s horror comedy that debuted at the Toronto Film Festival. Have a look above at the clip set to Nas’ “Made You Look,” and the new poster is below.
A Juneteenth getaway reunites a group of old friends in, um, a cabin in the woods. Searching around after the lights go out — natch — the pals stumble across The Blackening, a creepy-looking board game one of them dubs “Jim Crow Monopoly.” But things turn ugly when the voice of a twisted killer on a TV reveals that one of their entourage is tied up and if they refuse to play the game, she’ll die.
The first card chosen reads: “In your predicament, the black character is always the first to die. I will spare your lives if you sacrifice the person you deem the blackest.” Then the games really begin.
Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, with Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji star in the pic based on a Comedy Central short. Shaft and Ride Along helmer Story directs from a script by Tracy Oliver & Dewayne Perkins, who also scripted the short.
Lionsgate unleashes the MRC-financed film, which the studio acquired after its world premiere in TIFF’s Midnight Madness segment, in theaters on Juneteenth, June 16. The film features cinematography from Todd A. Dos Reis, ASC.
