Jay Pharoah

The Blackening

02/09/23

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Spoof horror movies have been around for a very long time – so any new contender in this crowded field, has to offer something radically different. The Blackening manages it. For starters, almost all the characters in this story are Black. Furthermore, they are cine-literate enough to know what generally happens to Black people in such movies. Hence the film’s strap line: ‘We can’t all die first.’

Morgan (Yvonne Orji) and Shawn (Jay Pharoah) have booked a remote cabin in the woods (what could possibly go wrong?) where they plan to host a ten-year reunion with some old school friends. But when said friends turn up, their hosts are nowhere to be found. So they settle down to wait for them.

The guests include promiscuous Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) and – rather awkwardly – her old flame Nmandi (Sinqua Walls). There’s the resourceful Alison (Grace Byers), sassy Shanika (X Mayo), super-snarky King (Melvin Gregg) and nervous Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tracy Oliver.) Dewayne is Black and gay, and has seen enough horror movies to know he is especially at risk. There’s also geeky Clifton (Jermaine Fowler), who the others remember from school – but none will admit to inviting him to this gathering.

In the ‘Games Room,’ the guests are compelled to play the titular board game, which features a really racist-looking mechanical face that asks a lot of difficult questions. How many Black characters appeared in Friends, for example? Tricky… and the stakes are high. Get an answer wrong and one of the hosts will be kaput.

So far, so generic, but what makes The Blackening rise above most of the competition is the fact that, though it’s occasionally quite bloody, it’s the wisecracking dialogue that keeps up the momentum, as the various players snipe, bicker and squabble their way through the ensuing chaos, never losing sight of wanting to be the coolest person in the room. The story heads off in a whole variety of different directions, some of which come as genuine surprises. However, the film is uneven, sometimes propulsive enough to keep me hooked in, but too often slowing right down for long conversations.

There’s a much lower body count than I’m used to seeing in a film like this – and I have to say, it loses a couple of points when a late ‘reveal’ comes as no surprise to me whatsoever… but maybe I simply see too many films. Overall I enjoy The Blackening – and in several scenes, it has be laughing out loud.

3.7 stars

Philip Caveney

Unsane

Steven-Soderbergh-Haywire-image

21/03/18

Continuing what must be the most unconvincing retirement in cinematic history, Steven Soderbergh is back once again with this energetic little exploitation movie. Allegedly shot on iPhones, it’s the story of a young woman’s struggle with an obsessive stalker. It’s fast-paced and occasionally gripping, even if the plot line sometimes causes the involuntary raising of eyebrows.

Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy, a long way from Buckingham Palace), has relocated to Pennsylvania after suffering two years of being terrorised by David Strine (Joshua Leonard), a man who first became infatuated with her when she nursed his dying father. But when she starts spotting a familiar bearded face around the office in which she now works, she starts to wonder if her mind is playing tricks on her. She decides to visit a psychiatrist and, during an apparently informal one-to-one,  confesses that she  sometimes has thoughts of suicide. She is asked to sign some papers, which she does. Before she quite knows what’s happening, she realises she has just committed herself to be an inmate of the Highland Creek Behavioural Centre, a place that specialises in admitting ordinary people and exploiting them until their medical insurance runs out.  Foy handles the slow realisation of her predicament brilliantly and Soderbergh maintains a steadily mounting sense of paranoia throughout, even though the  concept does seem decidedly far-fetched. We are reminded several times that Highland Creek isn’t averse to bending the rules, but really? It’s that easy to find yourself locked up? Gosh, I hope not.

Things rapidly get worse for Sawyer, with the arrival of a hospital orderly who looks and acts exactly like her old adversary, Strines. But is he real… or just a product of Sawyer’s disturbed mind? As the tension racks up, she has only two people she can turn to for help – her estranged mother, Angela (Amy Irving), and fellow inmate, Nate (Jay Pharaoh), a man who may not be exactly what he seems. Everyone else she speaks to treats her like somebody who has, well, lost touch with reality.

To fully enjoy this, you’ll need to be able to suspend your disbelief – and it’s not always easy. It’s well acted and queasily credible at times, but scenes that show Foy running around an apparently deserted building do make me smile at inappropriate moments. What’s happened to all the staff? And how can a hospital orderly exercise such total control over the place in which he works?

Still, it’s nice to have Soderbergh back, even if this doesn’t quite measure up to his finest work. And if this is an example of what can be achieved using an iPhone, then surely we really have entered an age where becoming a film director is as easy as pulling out your mobile – although most of us won’t be able to call on old pal, Matt Damon, to put in a virtually uncredited cameo role as a security expert.

Still, no worries. Pass me that phone. Now… quiet on set, please! And, action!

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney