A group of college friends, Lisa (Antoinette Robertston), Dewayne (Dwayne Pekins), Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls), Allison (Grace Byers), Shanika (X Mayo), King (Melvin Gregg) and Clifton (Jermaine Fowler), arrive at an isolated cabin to celebrate Juneteenth. Little do they know that their hosts, Shawn (Jay Pharoah) and Morgan (Yvonne Orji) died there while playing The Blackening, a mysterious board game that they'll also end playing.

      The screenplay by co-writers Dewayne Perkins and Tracy Oliver spoofs the horror genre like Scary Movie does, but it only manages to be sporadically funny. The plot structure is similar to Scream while the titular board game is similar to Saw. There's a prologue that introduces the masked killer and the board game before the group of friends arrive at the cottage. The rules of the game are simple: each player has to answer a question related to blackness correctly or else they will die. They're asked serious questions like, "What are the 5 black actors who were on the show Friends?" Is that question supposed to be funny because it's not. If anything, it's sad and revealing about how there were too few black actors on the show. The Blackening doesn't seem very interested in exploring its themes of racism or lack of integration with any depth or wit for that matter. Of course, there's a white park ranger (Diedrich Bader) who may or may not be the killer. Unfortunately, The Blackening runs out of steam early on and doesn't regain any of its momentum at any point afterward. It also isn't bold or zany enough nor does it push the envelope, so it becomes increasingly dull. The attempts to generate laughs with dark humor fall flat more often than not. At least screenwriter Tracy Oliver doesn't have a character peeing on a crowd like in the painfully unfunny and lowbrow Girls Trip which she also co-wrote. The third act has a twist, but by then it's too little, too late. The twist, which won't be revealed here, is more silly and preposterous than funny or surprising. If you can imagine Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween without Madea to invigorate the film, you'll get an idea of what it's like to watch The Blackening.

      Unfortunately, no one in the cast except for Diedrich Bader manages to rise above the stale, witless screenplay. They don't have enough comedic chops and some of their performances are either evry bland or so over-the-top that they're just annoying, i.e. Jermaine Fowler. A better example of a horror spoof that's more audacious, outrageously funny and delightful is the recent Summoning Sylvia which also has a musical scene and other surprises while also trying to be a little provocative and campy. The Blackening also suffers from poor lighting and camera work, choppy editing ,and a very rushed third act with an ending that's very abrupt. At a running time of 1 hour and 36 minutes, which feels more like 2 hours, The Blackening is sporadically funny, but mostly repetitive, choppily edited and dull without being zany, hilarious, campy or bold enough. It’s like Boo! A Madea Halloween without Madea to invigorate it.