After striking out three times in a row with the Ride Along movies, Shaft, and Tom & Jerry, I can’t say I was looking forward to what director Tim Story was going to make next. Hell, I probably would’ve just missed it entirely, as I plan on doing with his other film from this year, Dashing Through The Snow (not enough reviews left in the year to devote time to intentionally disposable Christmas fluff). Then I started hearing… good things about it? Like, not since Barbershop has the man’s work garnered this much praise and success. And considering this is the same year that got critics to turn around on Saw, I figured it was worth giving the guy another chance in this instance, and frankly, I’m glad I did.
Following in the footsteps of more recent satirical slasher movies like Bodies Bodies Bodies, this Juneteenth-set black comedy is endlessly irreverent towards the clichés of the genre. To the point where those who go into this expecting a proper horror film will likely walk away disappointed. The threat faced by Allison (Grace Byers), DeWayne (Dewayne Perkins, who also co-wrote) and their group of friends throwing a party in a literal cabin in the woods comes through as something exciting, but not quite scary.
But I can easily forgive that because the focus on levity turns out really damn fun. Co-writer Tracy Oliver, who also worked on Girls Trip, brings a similar sense of togetherness and real solidarity to the group dynamic here. They bicker, they laugh, they trip out, they bicker some more, and throughout all of it, their status as actual friends is never really brought into question. There’s no artificial tension here, which adds to what is frankly a relief in how this, also like Girls Trip, engages by expressing Black joy and contentment rather than trauma. Yes, even in the presence of crossbow-wielding serial killers, there’s a lightness in tone that kept a smile on my face throughout.
Then again, ‘lightness’ is part of the main point of the script since, along with poking at the clichés of horror movies (specifically when it comes to Black characters), it also prods at the sociopolitics within the Black community. When the group encounters the titular board game, itself part of a Saw-esque death trap for the party, they are given a series of questions that are meant to 'prove' their Blackness. A lot of the dialogue involves one-liners and asides to do with these kinds of purity tests, where complexion or parentage or sexuality or political slant or any number of other things are brought up to see if a given character passes said purity test.
Now, as a melanin-challenged dude on the other side of the world from wherever the cookout is taking place, I’m not going to make any sweeping statements as to the ‘right’ answer to those sorts of questions. The only way to make that line of questioning even more awkward is for someone completely removed from such things to start giving their unqualified opinion (as I got into with You Can Go Now!, I’ve seen enough of that shit already). But that debate is presented here as an interior discussion, framed by a celebration of Black consciousness and togetherness in Juneteenth (the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the U.S.). The film explores the underlying questions behind those questions in a refreshingly organic way, maintaining the light tone while still feeling like the characters are actually addressing their own flaws in how they judge their fellow men and women.
As good as that whole discussion is, though, the main reason to watch this is just that it’s really entertaining. The characters are fun, the dialogue doubly so, the direction is some of the best I’ve ever seen from Tim Story (it may not be all that scary, but it gets tense at times), and it’s a solid addition to this new wave of spoofy slashers; with the next Scream movie going through so much behind-the-scenes turmoil, it’s good to know that its legacy lives on in such gratifying fashion.
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