Get ready for a great time when the acclaimed horror-comedy The Blackening releases in theaters on June 16, 2023, just in time for Juneteenth.
The Blackening “centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherf****** game.”
Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like a Man, Barbershop) with screenplay and screen story by producer Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) & Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), the horror-comedy infectiously subverts horror tropes, beginning with the central question, “if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?”
Joe Lipsett wrote in his 4-star TIFF review, “The humour is successful, the violence is fun and frequently cheeky, and the characters are loveable,” Joe’s review for BD continues. “In a slasher film, that’s saying a lot!”
Ahead of The Blackening’s release, Bloody Disgusting spoke with Story and Oliver about balancing the laugh-out-loud comedy with the slasher thrills.
Oliver, who co-wrote the screenplay with Perkins based on his ‘3Peat Presents” short film, smartly dissects the horror within the humor. While she makes it look effortless, writing The Blackening turned Oliver into an extensive horror student.
Oliver says, “Every time I take on a new genre, I’m like a student. I watched so many horror movies because there are rules to follow, and there are structural things that you have to understand about the genre to get it right. I took it seriously, and I watched a bunch of things and even wrote down stuff to keep in mind or wrote stuff like, ‘Oh, I really like how they did this. Maybe we could figure out a way.’ We did a lot of homework and research.”
Grace Byers as Allison in The Blackening. Photo Credit: Glen Wilson
Perkins and Oliver’s screenplay provided the foundation, and Story’s collaborations with his cast elevated it to an infectious degree. The Blackening is so effective at endearing its characters to viewers. Story elaborated when asked if the character focus was the key, “When it comes to characters, look, you want to be sure the character’s authentic. The great thing about it is we found actors that were really close to what the characters written were. And look, we looked forward to that because they could bring personal experiences to the characters. When you get that, it allows you to give the freedom to them—things like letting them choose their own wardrobe. There were a few times here and there when they wanted to add something to a line because they just felt it would be more authentic. And we allowed for that. So, it’s great when you can have a project that allows you the freedom for the actors, and it allows the comfort for us that the actors are bringing forth a great representation of what’s been written.”
How much of the film’s zippy dialogue and jokes were written versus the actor’s ad-libbing, you might be wondering? Story answers, “You’d be surprised at how much of the funny stuff in this movie was already on the page. Tracy and Dewayne gave us an amazing blueprint for what we were doing. It gave me, as well as the actors, the comfort that in the event you weren’t able to come up with that crazy idea that’s going to make a scene bounce, it was already on the page, and so you just had to deliver what’s there, and you’d be okay. It’s great when you start a project where you’re already in a great position no matter what happens.”
Oliver adds, “I’d say we got really lucky with that cast because there was so much chemistry, and they still hang out after the movie. You can’t manufacture that stuff. Either you have it, or you don’t. We got really lucky that they actually did feel like a real friend group. So, kudos to them as well.”
Oliver’s number one rule with the film? To entertain. She explains, “I think just tonally, what’s always important to me is commercial and fun. If I’m bored watching something, then I don’t want to continue watching it. For some reason, that doesn’t seem to be high on the list sometimes for content. But for me, entertainment and fun are really high up on my list. That was the most important thing. I think whether you’re doing comedy or horror, they’re very similar. Because I do broad comedies, too, I don’t do cerebral comedies where they’re not comedies. I do big set pieces and jokes. Horror is very similar, where every few pages you’re like, ‘Okay, someone’s got to die, or something crazy has to happen.’ And in a comedy, it’s like, ‘Okay, something super funny and broad has to happen here.’ You have to keep reinventing every few pages.
“I think they were very similar in that sense. I think that’s why you see actually a lot of comedy people seamlessly transition into horror or vice versa because it’s so many set pieces, and you have to entertain throughout. In horror, it’s all about scares, and then in a comedy, it’s big jokes. But it’s the same principle, I think.”
The Blackening nails that constant reinvention that keeps you reeled in, and you can see for yourself on June 16 when it arrives in theaters nationwide. Don’t miss this one.
The post ‘The Blackening’ Director Tim Story and Co-Writer Tracy Oliver on Balancing Smart Scares with Infectious Comedy [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.