Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, exclusive, Grace Byers Jermaine Fowler, horror, interview, Jay Pharoah, lionsgate, Melvin Gregg, Sinqua Walls, The Blackening, tim story, X Mayo, Yvonne Orji

The Blackening Director Tim Story on Balancing Comedy & Horror

Director Tim Story (Barbershop) talks to Bleeding Cool about his latest horror-comedy for Lionsgate in The Blackening. challenges & more.

Director Tim Story has done it all regarding action, comedy, and even fronted major IPs like the pre-MCU Fantastic Four in 2005 and, most recently, the 2021 live-action hybrid Tom & Jerry film. His latest challenge was an ode to the classic slasher films with a comedic twist. While self-aware horror films are certainly nothing new with Scream and Scary Movie franchises, Story, along with writers Tracy Oliver (Harlem) and DeWayne Perkins (The Upshaws), offer their unique take in The Blackening that follows seven Black friends who reunited for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain't no game. Story spoke to Bleeding Cool about tackling horror, overcoming initial doubts, horror influences, and filming.

The Blackening: Story's Creative Exploration in Two Genres

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'The Blackening?'
Story: What intrigued me was that the script was hilarious. What's cool about what I've been able to do in my career is that when a script talks to you and you see the movie after you read it, I've learned not to hesitate too much and go for it. This script came from Tracy and Dewayne, and I loved it. I was a producer on the project, but I had been looking for something in the zone, and I thought, "Why not? Why not me? Why not give it a shot?" We were able to find some time to crank it out quickly.

While working on this, did it remind you of anything you've done before or you've seen or read before?
Not anything I had done before, and that's what was fun about it because it was horror. I never dipped my foot into doing anything that was horror. As I started to prepare for the film, I realized how much I loved horror, how much I grew up on it, how much I watched it, and you got a chance. I was going to have an opportunity to try kind of all these things that I'd grown up seeing done or seeing affect me as an audience member, and I thought, "Wow! This would be cool if I could do this." That's what was interesting about the fact that it felt like I was in virgin territory and that I was in a world that I hadn't dealt with. The other part is it took me back to doing my indie films and knowing that I wouldn't have anywhere near as big of a budget as I'm used to. It was fun to think about being able to use your instincts without breaks kind of and go for it. I had to do it.

What horror films influenced you that helped shape the film?
What's interesting and once I was going through it with the writers, we talked a lot about their inspirations for their writing. One of the cool things was for me to think back since this was a comedy based on slasher movies; it was great to go back and look at the slasher movies that I grew up on, like, 'Texas Chainsaw [Massacre]' (1974), 'Halloween' (1978), 'Friday the 13th' (1980) and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (1984) and all these things. Even 'Child's Play; (1988), or we should call it 'Chucky,' those were kind of these slasher movies that I grew up on. It was fun to go back and watch them with a different eye. Those were the inspirations I went back and checked out because they showed you about chases and those moments, the quiet before, there's jump scare and all that stuff. Those are the films I went back and looked at.

Compared to your other work, was it challenging to find a balance between seriousness and parody and not reach that breach that border?
It's interesting. It probably wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I'm comfortable in the world of comedy, but when you add this other genre, whether it be romance, action, or in this case, horror, on one side, you're a little bit on edge. Am I doing justice to the other thing that I'm doing? Am I doing justice to the horror in this case? Once you start, it is getting into the groove, and once you start seeing some edited material together, you realize that it's the same kind of tightrope I deal with and the other kind of mashups like the hybrid of romantic comedy. You have to respect both genres you're dealing with, and I find it to be quite fun. Like anything, your test audience is always the judge or jury; if they're laughing or scared when they need to be, you feel like you have something. I had a lot of fun walking this tightrope.

Can you break down the casting and how it came together? Was there anything the cast did together to prep for their roles?
What was cool about the casting process was that we looked for the best people for the roles, which was fun. We looked at everybody and could choose because we were going with a genre picture. We could determine who was best, the cast members, and everybody we found. What was great about them was that they brought their own stories because the parts were so specific. They got their personal touch to these characters that were already entirely filled out, but then they would add their thing. That's what was cool about this cast; we could find people that were a lot like the characters already written. In doing that, we ended up with a cast that made my life extremely easy. One of the great things about them is that this movie hinges on the audience believing that the friends have known each other for a decade or more. The great thing about these actors is they came in, made this family and friendship unit work, and would hang out after. When we weren't shooting, they would hang out. It's always lovely when you have that kind of energy on set because I believe it seeps onto the screen.

Was there any aspect of production or a scene that was a little more difficult than the rest?
One of the hardest scenes to film was putting X Mayo in a lake at one and two in the morning. We first had to find a lake we could get into. I shot this movie in probably a third of the days I'm used to, so we also had to move quickly. You couldn't move cameras to the other side of the lake. You had to do some trickery, instructing, "When you're swimming towards us, we'll shoot it this way. When you start swimming away from us, we'll act like you're going the opposite route." We had to figure it out and then put X Mayo in that late at night, she's got on a wetsuit, and there was a lot of safety that we had to be conscious of. That was probably one of the harder ones, and to keep the energy up while you're dunking your actress in the middle of a cold body of water.

Lionsgate's The Blackening, which also stars Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, and Sinqua Walls, with Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji, is currently in theaters.

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