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Sinqua Walls, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji and More Star in Horror-Comedy The Blackening

Sinqua Walls, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji and More Star in Horror-Comedy The Blackening

Sinqua Walls, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji, and more are starring in MRC’s The Blackening, a horror parody that was just picked up by Lionsgate after premiering at TIFF.

Tim Story directed The Blackening based on a script Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins co-wrote. Perkins also stars along with Melvin Gregg, Antoinette Robertson, Grace Byers, X Mayo, and Jay Pharoah who round out the cast.

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The Blackening centers on a group of Black friends who go away for the weekend only to find themselves trapped in a cabin with a killer who forces them to play a game with life-or-death consequences.

The masked killer demands that they rank their degrees of blackness so that he can determine the correct order in which to kill them, and must rely on a combination of street smarts and their own knowledge of horror film tropes to survive.

The film is inspired by a 3Peat comedy sketch of the same name, written by Perkins, that aired on Comedy Central in 2018. The idea asks a reasonable question: since it seems that Black characters are usually the earliest victims in horror films, so what happens when all the characters are Black?

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Shortly after the premiere, three offers were on the table for world rights. Those offers were just short of $20 million with Lionsgate winning the bidding battle to acquire the film’s worldwide rights. With the deal The Blackening will have a wide theatrical distribution, and Lionsgate is handling sales at AFM.The deal was negotiated by Constantine, John Biondo, Grace Duplissea and Eda Kowan on behalf of Lionsgate.

The Blackening  is produced by Marcei A. Brown, Jason Clark, E. Brian Dobbins, Oliver, Story and Sharla Sumpter Bridgett. Perkins serves as a co-producer, with Vicky Story as associate producer.

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