DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE
Black Death
Tim Story mines laughs and screams from the African-American experience in The Blackening
Grace Byers as Allison looks to be in a spot of trouble.
IN ONE OF EDDIE MURPHY’S most famous stand-up moments, from 1983’s Delirious, he makes fun of the idea of black people in horror films, joking, “Why don’t the people just get the hell out of the house? You can’t make a horror movie with black people in it cause the movie would just stop.” Murphy’s voice changes to a disembodied voice growling “Get out!” and mimics a black protagonist making an immediate sharp exit.
Jordan Peele has said this line was the inspiration behind his horror masterpiece of that name, but the satirical horror comedy The Blackening further expands on the theme, with a group of black friends trapped in a sinister racist boardgame and a deranged crossbowwielding killer determined to kill them in order of “blackness”.