Lionsgate and MRC Entertainment have released the first poster for the upcoming slasher comedyThe Blackening, viaBloody Disgusting. A trailer for the horror comedy is expected to arrive on March 1.
Per the movie’s official plot synopsis,The Blackeningfollows “Seven black friends who go away for the weekend only to find themselves trapped in a cabin with a killer who has a vendetta. Will their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies help them stay alive? Probably not.” The debut poster gives potential audiences a taste of the film’sScream-style meta-commentary, wittily playing with one of the most tired and offensive tropes of the horror genre - namely, thatBlack cast members are frequently killed off first.
Based on a Comedy Central original short from 2018,The Blackeningis directed byTim Story(Tom & Jerry, the 2019Shaftreboot) from a script byDewayne Perkins(who penned the original short) andTracy Oliver(Girls Trip,Little). Perkins (The Upshaws,Saved by the Bell) also stars in the upcoming film. Other cast members includeAntoinette Robertson(Dear White People,Atlanta),Sinqua Walls(Nanny,Teen Wolf),Grace Byers(Harlem,Empire),X Mayo(American Auto,The Farewell),Melvin Gregg(Snowfall,The Way Back),Jermaine Fowler(Coming 2 America,Judas and the Black Messiah),Yvonne Orji(Insecure,Vacation Friends) andJay Pharoah(Saturday Night Live,Out of Office).
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‘The Blackening’ Will Defy Stereotypical Tropes
Speaking to Collider Editor-in-ChiefSteve WeintraubfollowingThe Blackening’s premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Perkins said of the film:
“The intent was to take tropes and then expand them to force the audience to realize tropes are also human beings. My character is a ‘gay best friend,’ which is a trope that is in movies. Usually, they’re [‘gay best friends’] regulated to the side to be a person who gives humor, or they are part of a joke. So being able to take these tropes and find exactly what makes them complex, what gives them depth, and then forcing that in the movie so that when you start watching it, you see what has been in horror movies before and then the goal of the movie is to constantly break down your assumptions of these characters by constantly forcing depth.”
Check out the poster, as well as Collider’s interview with film’s cast and co-writer, below.The Blackeningcomes out July 19, 2025 - the weekend just prior to Juneteenth.
