There are countless horror films with the same movie plot: a diverse group of friends all come together to have a good time but then get shockingly interrupted by a mysterious killer who tries to take them all out one by one. Of course, the only Black friend out of the group typically dies first with just one person surviving all the chaos.
While most of those films are arguably good and highly entertaining, how many movies are there featuring an all-Black cast? While we wait for you to figure that number out… for the first time in a long time we finally get to see just that on the big screen!
A new film titled “The Blackening” which is directed by Tim Story and written by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins, follows a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a killer who has a vendetta. Although it’s a horror film, the trailer shows a peak at some of the comical scenes because as we all know, we always find a way to crack a few jokes… even during a serious situation.
While speaking with actor Jermaine Fowler on the black carpet at the Apollo Theater for the New York City premiere, he shared how he was able to contain himself from laughing while filming some of those funny scenes for the horror film. He admitted, “You start laughing when they say cut but we’re professionals.” Flowers who plays Clifton in the film went on to say, “It was hard! I’m not going to lie,” he said while laughing. “But that set was nuts, we had a lot of jokes.”
Melvin Gregg who also stars in the film added, “The comedy in the film comes from the honesty of the characters in the moment. It’s funny but understanding the stakes in the situation… a lot of times you don’t find things funny when someone is trying to kill you,” he said with a smirk. Gregg went on to say, “Everyone has that friend who jokes when shit isn’t funny. Like ‘yo relax it’s not the time.’ It’s not really comedic but it is when you understand that comedy comes from a place of relativity and honesty.”
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So Why Do Black People Always Die First In Horror Films?
Gregg believes the strange pattern is simply because those movies aren’t made for us. He further explained, “they got to hide us in there or else they gonna get backlash so they throw the token Black person in there and knock them off early and that’s it.” He went on to say, “hopefully after watching this film that won’t be a question that’s commonly asked.”
Gorgeous comedian X Mayo also walked the carpet and came down to chat with us. She also expanded on that topic and gave a straight-up response on why she believes this often happens in most films. She said, “Because white people don’t respect our lives. They don’t see us as human beings so we got to go.” However, with this new film she also strongly believes that’s all about to change thanks to producers like Dewayne Perkins.
“We haven’t had writers like Dewayne Perkins,” actor Sinqua Walls said. “Now we’re doing something unprecedented because we had writers who were creative enough to say let’s do something different.” Black Enterprise’s Selena Hill added, “we should not be the first to die in films because we’re here!”
The good carpet conversations were wrapped with the talented and booked and busy actress, Yvonne Orji who also stars in the film. She said, “We here now and we all can’t die first.” Period!
The Blackening will be released theatrically on June 16, 2023, by Lionsgate.