'The Blackening' Film's Tim Story, Dewayne Perkins, X Mayo & Melvin Gregg Talk Shaking Up Archaic Horror-Comedy Rules
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The Blackening cast, from left: Melvin Gregg (King), Grace Byers (Allison), Antoinette Robertson (Lisa), Sinqua Walls (Nnamdi), Jermaine Fowler (Clifton), Dewayne Perkins (Dewayne) and X Mayo (Shanika). All photos by Glen Wilson/courtesy of Lionsgate
The horror film industry has thrived over the last two decades, with directors, screenwriters and producers continuing to challenge the typical (and often incredibly predictable) tropes. The refreshing storylines have often stemmed from diverse creators—notably Black ones like Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us, Nope), Nia DaCosta (Candyman) and Gerard McMurray (The First Purge)—showing that Black characters have plenty more to offer than the being the stereotypical first kill. The latest film entering this arena is The Blackening.
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The horror-comedy (which premiered on June 16) follows a group of Black friends who reunite for a fun-filled Juneteenth weekend getaway. But once they enter a remote cabin, they find themselves trying to escape a twisted killer through an equally twisted board game. The film plays out more like an interactive experience where viewers will be compelled to shout at the screen and laugh at the many Black cultural references. Directed by Tim Story with a screenplay by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins, the film stars Perkins, Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah and Yvonne Orji.
Cast members Yvonne Orji (Morgan) and Jay Pharoah (Shawn) speaking with director Tim Story. All photos by Glen Wilson/courtesy of Lionsgate
The film is based on a short produced by Perkins and his improv group 3Peat, which was released in 2018 on Comedy Central. “I was in this stage show in Chicago at Second City. “They were creating an all-Black sketch review and we needed an opening scene. I thought, ‘What is a great opening scene that you can use the cast and speak to something but was still pretty fun?’” Perkins recalls to EDITION. “Second City was a predominantly white institution. Similar to horror, it feels like all the Black people in this institution are always the most expendable. It was a very easy parallel.”
Horror buffs will enjoy the film references in The Blackening, which includes Cabin in the Woods, Saw, Scream and even Scary Movie. It makes sense as Perkins is a huge horror fan himself. “X Mayo was looking at my bookshelf and she was like, ‘There’s so many Stephen King books. You actually like horror!’ Tracy is also a horror fan,” he says. “So together, there was a lot of information to pull from both to reference directly and then [give] little easter eggs to make it clear that The Blackening could not have existed unless all these other things were created first. And that’s where the [film’s inspiration] came from. Us being Black and seeing these movies and seeing where the hole is with where our point of view could be.”
What makes this film special is that it’s coming directly from Black people, so nuanced moments like the Spades subplot or the board game questions (a notable one asked the group to sing the second verse of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”) feel natural. “We can go a little bit deeper into destroying this myth about us being monolithic. We first made sure the characters were individuals,” director Story shares. “And specifically tried to, as much as possible, represent every type of person that might be in your friend group or your family. We’re pretty proud of giving everybody their own lane in terms of what they accomplished in the movie.”
Grace Byers as Allison. All photos by Glen Wilson/courtesy of Lionsgate
The bond seen on-screen was also reflected off-screen, with Perkins referring to filming a summer camp despite a majority of the cast members meeting for the first time. “We were eating ramen at 2 a.m. together. But I think the dynamic is due to Dewayne’s brilliance when it comes to writing these fully fleshed-out characters that have nuance and are so layered,” X Mayo recalls. “My character Shanika feels like a heightened version of myself. She’s all the girls that I grew up around with. But Shanika got to be scared; she didn’t always have the answers. There is a stunt that you see that she does that Black women, especially Black women of my size, don’t get to do. It’s a testament to the writing and the directing. We were given so much room to play.”
Melvin Gregg initially moved away from acting in horror films, but the genuine factor of The Blackening changed his mind. "We’re not a monolith but there’s a commonality that comes with being Black. And all of us kind of got that. So it’d be inside jokes that we have for meeting the first time. We’d joke with the sound guy who was like us. I believe he was from South Central [in Los Angeles] so he was just so funny," he recalls. "We all were in on jokes. We just got comfortable and we bonded really quickly. And when it came to an end, it was just kike leaving summer camp. We looked forward to going to work. When we weren’t shooting, we all hung out together. People didn’t go back to the trailers—we all kicked it together. We went to the craps table together, we went over rehearsals and it was just it was a very communal experience.
Film still from The Blackening (2023). All photos by Glen Wilson/courtesy of Lionsgate
Gregg continues: “As Black people, we’re survivalists. We know how to veer away from danger,” he says. “So doing a typical horror movie where I’m just there screaming and running is not fun. But this was the complete opposite. It’s probably the realest horror movie I’ve ever seen.”
