The 'Torturous' Reason The Blackening's Killer Uses A Crossbow As A Weapon [Exclusive]
"We can't all die first." That's the eye-catching tagline for "The Blackening," the new horror-comedy that's set to turn a longstanding genre trope on its head. Appropriately arriving on Juneteenth weekend, the feature film is based on the wildly popular 2018 short film of the same name from Comedy Central's 3Peat. Featuring an all-Black cast, the premise pokes fun at the classic slasher setup where the Black character is usually the one to die first.
Befitting a post-"Scream" era of horror that's decidedly more meta and self-aware, "The Blackening" features a killer who's aware of the stereotype and can't decide which of the film's characters to kill first. In a clever reference to "Clue" and the murder mystery board game it's based on, a group of friends celebrating at a remote cabin for the weekend discover a one-of-a-kind board game with a racially-charged mascot that proceeds to ask them challenging questions about their own viewpoints on Blackness. In another nod to "Clue," they all take up makeshift weapons from around the cabin to protect themselves from the killer in their midst.
The unconventional horror comedy also features a murderer who chooses an unconventional weapon to inflict the maximum amount of pain on any potential victims. Selecting a butcher knife, a machete, or even Candyman's hook seems way too cliché for a modern-day slasher, so director Tim Story ("Barbershop," "Fantastic Four") wound up going with a crossbow in the hopes of exploring more of the ideas presented in the film instead of relying solely on over-the-top kills.
Killing them slowly
Part of what makes "The Blackening" such an effective work of horror, in addition to a broad comedy, is its ability to immediately take away any preconceived notions or theories the audience may have going in. No one knows who will die first or be the last one standing, which is an incredibly compelling jumping off point. Director Tim Story wanted to sidestep the typical "Friday the 13th" formula where the kills get more creative and the campers become expendable canon fodder.
In an interview with /Film's Ryan Scott, Story touched on why he didn't want the deaths in "The Blackening" to feel so sudden and ultimately pointless, leading him to go with the crossbow as the killer's weapon of choice:
"I think one of the main ideas in figuring out what the killer was going to use is one, to be perfectly honest, we didn't want to make something that killed too quickly. We wanted to be a little bit torturous where it could, if he got you, he might put a few in you, which I know sounds a little crazy. But we wanted to be able to extend some of the kill moments."
One of the challenges of making something like "The Blackening" is being able to parody the genre while still delivering on the moments that make a horror movie so rewarding to watch in the first place. "We didn't want to be too gory because although we were making kind of our version of a slasher movie, we didn't want that to overpower the film in terms of the gore of it all," Story explained.
Drawing out the kills for maximum impact
Tim Story went on to say that the crossbow allowed for more opportunities to let the violence linger and provide a few chances for chase scenes that could give the latter half of the film a little more room for action-packed mayhem. The director explained:
"I don't want to give much away, but we knew where we were going and we knew that this weapon would be the best for us having a lot of fun. But at the same time, still pretty horrifying, which is in the trailer when you see these moments happening, for somebody to be chasing you and shooting things at you, it would be pretty terrifying. So it was definitely a choice, something that would allow us to have a lot of fun and extended moments throughout the film."
It's clear that Story not only wanted to challenge the tropes of the genre in a new way but also make sure to fill "The Blackening" with plenty of crowd-pleasing moments that would be wildly entertaining without undermining the ideas about race in horror.
Countless horror films from the '80s — including, but not limited to, 1982's "Alone in the Dark, "Gremlins," "Killer Workout," and the horror-comedy "Love at First Bite" — all fall victim to the stereotype where a person of color is the first one to die. Whether it's an unintentional oversight or it's parodying the trope, it's time for a movie like "The Blackening" to tackle the problem head-on and make a definitive statement about the issue. The fact that Black horror is enjoying a renaissance right now, courtesy of filmmakers like Jordan Peele and Story himself, only makes the timing all the more appropriate.