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Highly Suspect Reviews: The Blackening

The Blackening Movie Review

THE BLACKENING MOVIE REVIEW

The tag line for this new horror comedy reads “They can’t all die first”. Because it’s a (largely) all-black cast and the trope is that the black people always die first. Just in case you were out of the 30-year old oft-repeated loop. This is the tone for a new horror comedy by director Tim Story (Barbershop). A group of former school friends have a reunion at a cabin out in the woods. And yes, the characters almost immediately comment on why would black people choose to do this in a cabin in the woods in the middle of nowhere. It’s not long before a creepy and racist board game is discovered that a masked killer is forcing them to play, else they begin to be killed. Hijinks ensue as they are forced to confront their own ‘blackness’ in order to survive. Chris, Kim, Wright, and Alan take on The Blackening and are as surprised as anyone that Tim Story made a movie that might end up being a new classic of the genre.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Tim Story

STARRING: Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, Yvonne Orji, Diedrich Bader, James Preston Rogers

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Photo on 2011-10-02 at 13.02Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)

Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others). You can also check out Chris in his videocast, along with Martin Thomas and Danni Danger, that One Of Us does with our friends at Bell of Lost Souls: Crossover Event. He also regularly guests on the video game website Rage Select. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.

 

 

Kimberly Brown (Highly Suspect Reviews)

Kimberly wants to live in a world filled with blue telephone boxes, speedsters, and ice dragons but through an ironic twist of fate, she’s stuck in this reality where these wondrous things only exist on page or film. Kim’s perpetual desire to consume sci-fi and fantasy media as a teen led her to the study of illustration/design at university to better understand its creation. Currently an Austin transplant, when she’s not wearing her critic hat you can find her pretending to like hiking, fielding questions about her hair or maybe even enjoying a local brew at the nearest dive bar.

 

 

Chris HAlan Galinsky (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)

Born and raised in Texas, Alan Galinsky is a lifetime movie fan. As a youth, he would rent multiple movies every weekend and go to the theater for the latest releases, and that pace has remained steady. When Alan isn’t watching movies, you can find him talking about movies. When he’s not talking about movies, you can find him playing music in the band Delicate Boys.

 

 

” width=Wright Sulek (Screener Squad, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Trash in the Can, Audio Editor)

Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox.

 

 

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