Drawing on classics of the genre like “Scream” and “Get Out,” the movie is self-aware and hilarious with rapid-fire one-liners and fresh takes on classic horror beats.

| Original Score: B | Jul 7, 2024

While it felt like there were plenty of jokes and cliches left to address, The Blackening is a satisfying and funny opening salvo. There’s certainly no reason this can’t become a franchise or at least stretch out to a trilogy.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 7, 2023

The Blackening proves to be one of the silliest, smartest and most memorable comedies of 2023.

| Oct 1, 2023

The Blackening proudly stands next to films like Scream, Cabin in the Woods and Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil as a viciously funny horror-comedy and a sharp meta narrative about the whole genre. It’s just a shame it slightly fumbles the bag at the very end.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 28, 2023

While the boisterous result doesn't summon enough story or suspense to earn the extended treatment, the script vigourously subverts racist clichés in slasher movies, right up to the pleasingly daring twist ending.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2023

Nice cast -- killer ideas, too, but we expected more from this creaky, socially conscious chiller.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 31, 2023

The Blackening is more slapstick than slasher but with its self-awareness and engaging, quotable cast, it’s a witty way to kill an hour-and-a-half.

| Aug 31, 2023

Cinematically, The Blackening is the first time the jokes have been on us Black folk but actually felt so darn good.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2023

Horror purists might find the picture lacking in genuine scares, but go into it expecting a hang-out comedy with a few jumps rather than a horror movie with a few jokes, and it’s unlikely to disappoint.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2023

What makes the movie work so well isn’t the horror (minimal) or even the humor (maximal) but rather the characterizations.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 27, 2023

The Blackening gleefully tackles the black stereotypes of horror, and the culture, with boisterous flair and bite.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2023

The results are intermittently funny as the friends find their ethnic awareness tested to the limit... But The Blackening doesn’t make enough of its premise.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2023

This is mainly about a great cast and the laughs, which a razor-sharp script delivers by the bucketload.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2023

The Blackening takes very few prisoners and has a lot more to say about race than people are likely to give it credit for. It is funnier than most horror parodies I’ve seen over the past decade.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2023

Where movies like Scream deconstruct sadism but also appeal to our cruel side, this cabin-in-the-woods movie about what it means to be scared of difference, which boasts an almost entirely black cast, is brazenly sweet.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2023

[The Blackening] ends up toggling between those two modes, with limited – though also sometimes highly amusing – success.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2023

It’s more knockabout, yet its salty, free-flowing dialogue makes sharp points.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2023

Although the killer’s weapon of choice — a crossbow — is reasonably original, the film is rarely scary.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2023

The comedy is raucous, often pithy, liberally spiked with one-liners. But, as an extended joke about the predictability of a genre, it can’t help being predictable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 24, 2023

…even if The Blackening doesn’t offer much new as a horror film, it does have value as a smart comedy that takes names and makes a number of trenchant points…

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2023