Podcasts
The Vacay Comedy-Horror Joy of ‘The Blackening’ [Guide to the Unknown]
It’s summer, the temps are climbing, and if you’re anything like me (Kristen) and Will, you’re looking for anything a little breezy, even when it comes to your horror. And boy, does 2022’s The Blackening feel like a breath of fresh air, which is why we’re lucky that a listener suggested we cover it on our podcast, Guide to the Unknown, this week.
The Blackening is a horror-comedy without being a total Scary Movie spoof-fest (no matter what the first Google results tell you), inspired by comedy group 3Peat’s sketch of the same name. It’s actual lol funny, it’s an hour and thirty-seven minutes long, and it just feels like an antidote to the heavy cinematic dreadfests that we also love, but can use a break from sometimes.
The movie operates from a classic premise – friends rent cabin for college reunion/Juneteenth celebration, killer crashes and ruins the party. But the personality that writers Tracy Song and Dewayne Perkins (of 3Peat) infuse into the script turns it into something singular, and the references to horror classics and modern favorites lend it that warm fuzzy feeling of being able to tell that the people who made this really love horror movies.
They also have something to say about the experience of being Black and societal degrees of Blackness, which is also what the original comedy sketch is about. A common horror trope is that the (often lone) Black character is killed first, and since the core ensemble cast of The Blackening is all Black, the tagline, “We can’t all die first,” is explored in different ways that I won’t spoil here.
Will and I decided to make The Blackening a double feature with 2019’s Shudder documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror since we’re two white people with undeniable blind spots. While The Blackening mainly focuses on the “first killed” trope, Horror Noire points out other unfairnesses and dehumanizations that have made their way from real life to the screen. But it also celebrates and re-examines Black horror movies that are meaningful to a lot of people. (Looking at you, Blacula.)
Celebration is definitely a dominant vibe of The Blackening, and it’s that combination of fun, social commentary, and good old-fashioned scary stuff with a twist of goofiness that makes it a great watch. We definitely recommend cranking the AC and putting this one on…or bringing it out to your cabin and keeping your fingers crossed.
For way more about The Blackening, check out this week’s episode and subscribe to Guide to the Unknown on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get a new episode every Friday.
On the DL.
After spending June on explicitly queer texts like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (listen) and William Castle’s Homicidal (listen), it’s only appropriate that Horror Queers celebrate the American holiday with a blockbuster film with a not-so-secret gay connection.
In Independence Day, an unlikely group of people come together when the human race faces extinction from a threatening alien race. After spaceships destroy every major city, pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) must team up with secret tech genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), as well as the US President (Bill Pullman), to execute a daring plan to save the planet from annihilation.
Along for the ride are the two saviors’ romantic partners – WH Communications Director Constance (Margaret Colin) and stripper Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) – plus eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), who is at the center of the film’s most horrific set piece.
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Episode 393: Independence Day (1996)
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day…courtesy of gay German director Roland Emmerich.
As the summer blockbuster celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re looking back on an alien disaster film that scared young Trace (thanks to that alien autopsy scene) and turned Will Smith into a star.
Plus: the death that upsets the most; bemoaning Vivica A. Fox’s career; pondering what could have been with the casting; why Smith’s bravado and the film’s patriotism doesn’t always work for Joe; and plenty of riffing on the atrocious sequel.
Cross out Independence Day!
Coming Up Next: We’re retreating to the country for some questionable therapy courtesy of Joe Dante’s 1981 classic, The Howling!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 503 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on the utterly ridiculous sequel Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), and the conclusion of our Requel Tier coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.