I saw
The Blackening yesterday and deemed it "mediocre." There is a fair amount of wit and social intelligence to the enterprise, and the film certainly serves the traditional role of comedy by providing a humorous outlet through which to release social anxieties. The occasional joke (NAACP possibly referring to
Negroes at Applebee's Cook Pasta
, the correct answer to a question about
Friends being that Black people
instead watched Living Single)
sticks. Overall, though, the quality of the writing and the acting strikes me as inconsistent, and I actually thought that Jermaine Fowler's performance was the weakest of the bunch, leaning into caricature too heavily. Indeed, his attempt at creepiness seems forced and thus unconvincing.
The worst aspect is
The Blackening's editing. The movie's construction, shot-to-shot and scene-to-scene, seemed disjointed and limp from the beginning, and given the film's tepid nature, I had time during the viewing to ponder the problem and try to figure it out. I came to the conclusion that the editing is constantly a beat too quick, almost as if director Tim Story (who perhaps fared slightly better with the latest edition of
Shaft, four years ago) and editor Peter S. Elliot (
Shaft,
Baywatch) were trying to force a sense of suspense and shock, while also enhancing the flippant nature of the comedy. Whether this effect proved intentional or not, it backfires:
The Blackening is hardly scary or spooky, and the attempts at humor seem a tad insecure. The rushed editing creates the feeling of a cinematic meal taken out of the oven too soon, without enjoying the time to bake and firm.
For a movie to be genuinely scary and spooky, it needs to create a sense of atmosphere and suspense enveloping the action and violence, meaning that the editing cannot constantly be quick. Indeed, the filmmakers could have learned from a couple of famous musicians in this regard.
(Alternatively, the filmmakers could have reviewed Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho.)
Granted,
The Blackening is more comedy than horror flick, but the potential to fuse the two genres in a dark and dynamic manner—as in last fall's
Barbarian—fizzles, largely because of the editing. And again, the perpetual fraction-too-fast editing makes the comedy seem less confident. Additionally, the movie—even at just ninety-seven minutes—becomes overlong. The final act could have been trimmed, so that even with slightly longer shots throughout, the film could have come out at about ninety minutes instead.
The concept is attractive and worthwhile, which is why I went to see it. But the execution, especially in the editing, makes for a half-baked experiment.
By the way, can anyone summarize what exactly Clifton is complaining about regarding his old, traumatic experience with these "friends"? It involves game-playing, of course, but he repeatedly gripes about "when you said that." What exactly was it?
If
The Blackening had played for another week in my area, I may have seen it once more just to try and pick that up—preferably on the Discount Day, as the dozen-plus dollars that I spent on it last night was already too much for a movie of this caliber.
