Too Scary; Didn't Watch - THE BLACKENING with Dewayne Perkins

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Old friends, a cabin in the woods, plenty of party drugs and the most racist board game you've ever seen -- we're recapping THE BLACKENING!! Honored to be joined by writer and star, Dewayne Perkins (Brooklyn Nine Nine, The Amber Ruffin Show) for an interview at the end of this episode! After that, unfortunately, we do *gag* have to......split up :( Movie Intro @ 18:50Recap starts @ 25:45Interview with Dewayne @ 1:02:05TrailerFollow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content!Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy.Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those too scared to watch for themselves. I'm Emily, and I am too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Henley and I'm also too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Sammy and I love watching scary movies.

And so I watch them so that you don't have to. And we have a exciting episode for you guys today. I can't wait to get into it. And if you are too excited and also can't wait, there are timestamps in the show notes because first I want to check in with my two friends and ask Emily and Henley, did anything scary happen to you this week? Well, this didn't happen to me, but it happened in the world and I'm reacting to it. Good, good.

We need that. Which is that Bobby Flay and Brooke Williamson are dating and you guys, the degree to which this absolutely rocked my world this week, mine and Joel's, we were absolutely freaking out, shocked, couldn't believe it, huge news, huge news in my world. And nobody we know cares. So like this news broke and Joel and I were both like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. And like, no, like had no one to talk to you about it.

Like nobody cares, nobody cares. At least nobody in my world, people obviously do care. And then I went and I did a little deep dive. I like had to Google search what other people were saying about it because I was like, I need to know. Yeah, there's definitely a Reddit thread about that. I went on that Reddit thread and they are not nice to Brooke and Bobby on that Reddit thread.

Oh no, do you feel positive about the relationship? Look. Okay, she has thoughts, She has a lot to say. Joel, in this house, we support Bobby Flay. Now I know that that's controversial. A lot of people don't like Bobby Flay. What's controversial about Bobby Flay again? His dating history, he's had many relationships.

There's usually a significant age gap. He's been married three times. He was very famously caught cheating on his wife with January Jones. People are really, really mad about that. Oh, wow. He was in the mix of baby daddy? He was in the mix of baby daddy.

And disproven. Yeah, it's not his, but look, people really don't like cheating and cheaters. People have a lot of feelings and thoughts. To me, I'm not concerned with what consenting adults do. Everybody makes mistakes. I'm not a part of the relationship. I don't know.

You figure it out. God bless you. I hope everybody's okay. Right. In this house, we support Bobby Flay. Bobby Flay loves cats. Bobby Flay is good food television. We love his shows.

We love Brooke Williamson, have loved her since Top Chef. She is one of Bobby's triple threat titans on one of our other favorite cooking shows. It just, I just didn't see it coming. I just didn't see it coming. They've known each other for a really long time. She was married. Apparently they've split up like two years ago.

She is younger than him, but not like insanely. She's 46 and he's 60 and like you're grownups, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's all above board. All of our brains are fully developed. That's all above board for me. I think potentially there's a lot of people on Reddit were like, oh, I can't believe she'd stoop so low

and to be with Bobby and have you seen her lately? She looks ill and I don't, that doesn'toop so low to be with Bobby. And have you seen her lately? She looks ill and that doesn't look like someone who's in love. People on the internet are fucking nuts. For the record, I think she looks great. Also it's none of my business. While I proceed to talk about the relationship of two people that I don't know.

But they're both incredibly talented chefs. They're both insanely competitive. They love food competition. They're both insanely competitive. They love like food competition. They're both TV personalities. I think they potentially have quite a lot in common. Yeah. Yeah, they have a huge history together. They've worked together for many years.

Like I think, you know. They probably know a lot of the same people. And if you're working together and you've got feelings, like what do you, you know, like it happens, man. Who amongst us? And I really wish them the best. I wish them the best. I really wish that. Bobby Flay also loves cats, you know, like it happens, man. Who amongst us? And I really wish them the best. I wish them the best.

I really wish that. Bobby Flay also loves cats, you guys. I just, yeah, in this house you sit for Bobby Flay. You're like, people don't like him, but he likes cats. He likes cats. Like, can we all give it another shot? I mean, you know, I'm just saying. So I'm-

You know who else liked cats, Emily? Dr. Evil. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Ah. What a good point. You can't argue with that logic. Anyway, it's just really taking up a lot of my brain.

Nobody else really cares. And the other people who do seem to be pretty mean about it. So I- Joel cares though. Joel cares. Joel cares if to be pretty mean about it. So I... Jol cares though. Jol cares. Jol cares if Jol's not mean about it. Yeah.

Thank God. You guys found each other. Truly. I'm excited for them and I really wish them the best and it's huge news. It's huge news in a certain world. I love those. Like when Scoop McNary and Kevin Zosie-Bacon started dating, like a very, very small amount of people that probably cared about that.

For me, that was like earth shattering. It was like, what? Yeah. Yeah. This is earth shattering news. Well, speaking of coworkers falling in love with each other, I was seeing that Glenn Powell, Sydney Sweeney's at Glenn Powell's sister's wedding. Did you guys see this on DuMont?

Yeah, but isn't she engaged? That people can't get over if they're a thing or not a thing. Well, it's of course, because she's at his sister's wedding. It's really funny. I think they were best friends, I guess. And now she's part of his family.

They could absolutely be just friends because they worked together for a while. No, I think that that's probably it, especially because she's like definitely in a very serious relationship with someone else, but it just is funny that it's like fueling the flames. Yeah. But also it's keeping them top of mind,

which is the thing that if you're a public person, you want. So I also can't blame them for being like, yeah, sure, fan of flames. Yeah, they seem very aware of making headlines and don't seem to be trying to. Be secretive about anything, so I wouldn't be surprised if you are. They're just like, cool, people will be talking about us and that's good. Good for business.

I also I saw a thing on Instagram this week that it may be Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have quietly broken up I don't know. I tried to get confirmation on that one, too. Again. These are people I don't know But I really do just wish them all the best I was and I know people really hate Ethan Slater too and that is you know troubling the timeline because he had a young child And that's not nice and I did love Lily J's article that she wrote But again people I don't know and I just really do wish everybody the best. And I hope that they're all, you know,

taking care of themselves and finding love where they can. And it's been, I, it makes me feel really insane when I'm invested in the relationships of celebrities. But I also- It's really hard not to, yeah. Yeah. Oh, you guys. If anybody cares about any of those things I just said,

let me know. Oh, Emily, I forgot to tell you that I mailed you a little early birthday present. Oh my God. I gotta check my mail. I love to get mail. It didn't give me the option to like send a gift note or anything, so you're just gonna get a weird little package

in the mail. I've told you guys about how I received a Shake Weight with no note once. I hate you. And it took me like a month to figure out who it was from. It was very funny. A mystery gift is pretty fun, Henley. It is pretty fun.

Shouldn't be that funny. That's true, I think I did send. A mystery gift is pretty fun, Henley. It's pretty fun. Shouldn't have said anything. That's true. I think I did send you a mystery gift one time, Emily, and it was the pasta candle, right? Yep. Yeah. It was a pasta water candle. Candle that smelled like pasta water.

That was a luxury candle. It was like an expensive candle that smelled like pasta water. It's like a very subtle sweetness. It's like, it's just kind of very soft pasta water scent. Wow. So how's your pasta purse? Hasn't arrived yet, but it is coming soon.

That was a birthday present I bought for myself. But did anything scary happen to you this week or are we just gonna keep chatting? Cause I love that too. I'm deflecting cause I can think of a single thing. I guess I can tell you guys about my day yesterday, which was what I went to a women's conference at the church and had the time of my god damn life.

I went to a seminar on how to live the good life. How to live the good life. Yeah, well, is that the whole- That's what it was called? Yeah, yeah. Wow, yeah. What was the answer? The answer is like, not the things that you think it's going to be.

The answer is basically like fully believing that you are enough. And like you have to like figure that out. Well, that is really nice. Oh, yeah. No. And she was like, this woman is unbelievable. She had a daughter with Down syndrome 20 years ago, and it like totally cracked open her world and like changed the way that she thought about everything. Cause she realized she didn't have the imagination for what like joy could look like in her family

after having a daughter with a disability like this. And she like looks back on herself now and is like, I have so much like sympathy, like empathy for myself because I didn't, it wasn't like in the discourse and I didn't have the resources to understand that like this child would actually be like such a gift to me and like bring us so much joy because like the narratives we have in our world

around hard things happening like this, the only thing we know or expect to feel is like a sadness and suffering. When actually like when hard things happen, there's always like joy on the other side of it. And just that and then also just like, yeah, just really knowing that you're enough and like, oh, that's hard to do. So I did that. And then I did yoga in a sunlit loft with a bunch of other women who are probably 40 years older than me,

easily 40 to 50 years older than me. I was essentially stretching. I loved it, I loved it. And then I went to a seminar on how to have invisible conversations with aging parents. That's also a tough one. Invisible conversations? Yeah, like tackling invisible conversations,

like things that have gone unsaid for a really long time, but sometimes you just really need to have really difficult conversations. Making them visible. Yeah. I see. I thought it was like with yourself, like running through what might say. Or I thought it was like how to say things, how to like trick them into your saying things

that they don't know, right? I think that it's- How to trick your aging parents, that's not what it was. No, it was like the complete opposite. Wrap the message in like a slice of bacon and feed it to them type of thing. It's a complete opposite. It's like how to just have direct real conversations

about what people want at the end of their lives, which can be really hard to talk about. So I did that and then I took Silas to a birthday party where he just ran around for like an hour straight, got drenched in sweat. I thought he was convinced he was gonna throw up, like he was not stopping. And then we went to a trampoline place

where he jumped on a trampoline for like another 30 minutes. Also wild behavior. So many tears. Everyone at that birthday party cried at least once, if not multiple times. I remember those days. I mean, maybe not three year old, but that continues for years and years where everybody cries at birthday parties. He dumped a whole cup of apple juice all over his shirt and his pants. And then when we were leaving, he just fully got butt naked. So butt naked, leaving the birthday party, going back to the car, butt naked all the way home.

Waving goodbye to all his friends. I had such a good time. Thank you. Here I am naked, fully butt naked. And then Tim and I went to a dinner party last night. It was like a really crazy day. Yeah, that's too big of a day. That's a really big day.

But this is the first time I've ever thought about that. It is funny that we call it butt naked when everything else is naked too. I know. Well, you want to know how naked and how naked it is, is butt naked. Is butt out. Yeah. Naked.

And I guess butts are funny and everybody has one. So it's like, what do you say? Back naked, foot naked. Those aren't funny. Right. No, butt naked. The butt is the part that we all have under a swimsuit. Yes, it is.

We all have butts. Everybody has a butt. Butts are so cute. We all have cute butts. We love cute butts in this house. In this house we love cute butts. Anyway love cute butts. In this house. In this house we love cute butts. In this house we love cute butts. Anyway, so nothing's scary except that

too big of a day. I need to learn how to feel like I'm enough. And then once I can do that, I'm pretty sure I've cracked the code. Yeah. It does seem like kind of the biggest thing actually. The biggest thing. Yeah.

Like that you are enough and you have enough. If that were true, and it is. It is true. You wouldn't need anything else. That's the thing that's crazy is that it is true. Right. You are enough and you have enough. That is true.

And then that means you can be happy right now. You don't have to wait to be happy. Right. Because you can be happy right now in this present moment. Yeah. Living the good life, living the happy life. Living the good life.

I think there's something to it. Sammy, tell us about you. Anything scary? Did you learn how to live the good life? I did not learn how to live the good life this year. I mean, this week. This year either. Until right now.

So thank you, Henley. I went to dinner this week and as we were finishing up, I started feeling real weird. Got up to go to the bathroom, kind of felt like I was gonna fall over. And then just proceeded to get more and more dizzy. Like I was, I had like vertigo and it's just so unsettling feeling away

that you're not supposed to feel. Like I just couldn't process it. I was like, I'm not supposed to feel like this. Yeah. Especially in like a public space where you feel like exposed and vulnerable. Yeah. And I had had a martini, but I've had many martinis before in my life. And I was like, at first, like, maybe it's just the martini hitting me a little harder than expected. And then I was like, no, I don't think so. And I was having having the spins and then had to leave and at home. I mean, we were finished,

so we left and then I went home and laid down and just had to lie really still and just had spins for the whole rest of the night. I feel like your anxiety about it kind of feeds into it. I was like, this could be nothing, or it's like I could die in my sleep tonight, you know? So like- Do you think you're like roofied? I kind of had that thought, but the only other thing that I think it could have been,

and apparently this I backed up with some Reddit research, as I always do with all of my medical issues. I mean, it's honestly better than going to the doctor these days. Is that I had forgotten to take my antidepressant for four days. And I took it that night with dinner. And so I think it was a side effect of the antidepressant kind of being out of my system and then jolting back into my system.

But I just didn't put that together until the next day. And so for the whole duration of it, I was just so freaked out. It was like genuinely scary because I was just like, I don't know why I feel this way. And it's not a way that I'm used to feeling like you can feel different, like be like, oh, wow, my throat really hurts, this sucks, I know what this feeling means. Right, a new feeling, a new feeling. It's not good.

At this age, when you think you've felt it all, is no, it is really unsettling to be like, I don't know why this is happening. Yeah. Also the spins, were you getting it when you closed your eyes? Like you felt like you were spinning. That's just the worst feeling in the world too.

That just, that sucks. It probably was. It was probably going right back into antidepressants plus a martini. Yeah, yeah. Not a good call. I just did not like even really think twice about it. This is like in college.

It's reminding me of in college when I skipped my birth control one day and so then I took two birth control pills the next day and like an hour later I was like in class and I was like, why do I feel like horrible? And then I threw up for like three hours straight and was like, what's this? And then I was like, oh, it's probably

because I took two birth control pills at once and that really fucked my system up. So don't do that either. So everybody set your timers. Set your timers, take your pills. Pill organizers. It's crazy how quickly antidepressants leave your system. Prozac is actually the longest one too.

Okay, yeah, that's true. Which is I think why I was a little cavalier about it, but I think I waited too long. So I know that I pushed the limits. Three days, two or three days, I'm like, oh, I'm depressed. Oh. Oh no, I'm depressed again.

Yeah. So everybody take your pills and also watch your drinks. Yeah. Not like don't drink too much alcohol, I mean also that, but I just mean like sometimes that people do put things in drinks. Yeah. So, be careful about that too.

Careful out there. Just be careful out there, but also know that you have everything you need. And that you are enough. You are enough and you have enough. You are enough and you have enough. Amen. If only you'd known that then, Sammy,

you wouldn't have been worried at all. I know. I know it now. And so I'm protected forever. I'm enough. I'm enough. I have enough. I have enough.

I've had enough of this. You guys wanna talk about this week's movie? You better believe it. There's nothing I want more, please. Let's do it. This week, we are going to be recapping the Blackening. It came out in 2022, directed by Tim Story, written by Tracy Oliver and Duane Perkins,

starring Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, ex-mayo, Duane Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, and Dedric Bader. It is streaming on STARS or available to rent on VOD. I'm excited. Do you guys remember when this movie came out? I do remember. I remember seeing the posters and I remember the tagline, which is a very, very, very good tagline.

An incredible tagline. What's the tagline? It is, we can't all die first. That's a very good tagline. An incredible tagline. What's the tagline? It is, we can't all die first. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Really good. I'm excited that we're covering it. Me too, me too.

I can't wait. Yeah, I'm very excited. Yeah, I saw it around when it came out and then rewatched it again recently. It's so fun. It's like just- Gotta love a fun horror movie. Yeah, give me the fun ones.

Give me the fun ones. It's very fun as you probably guessed from the title, playing into a lot of the slasher and horror tropes of black characters in horror, obviously with the tagline. Typically black characters die first, or with the tagline, typically black characters die first, or at least historically have in slashers. And so it's like a very meta commentary on, you know, like black representation in horror films.

And it's so funny and a little bit scary. We're gonna have a good time. I'm excited. I also love, I do love just like, it's a group of people. I mean, slashers basically, just like that. That vibe is, it works for me every time. So fun to hear about.

Also give me a fucking meta commentary on race and horror movies. Like that's really interesting to me as a white woman who's like stupid and doesn't know anything. But I really want to, I really want to know. I really want to know. I really want to know. I really want to, I really want to laugh.

And I'm excited to do that. Yeah. The Blackening has an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, 67% on Metacritic and a six on IMDB. IMDB continuing to not make me feel great about the people on IMDB. Their demographic. The budget was five million,

it made 18.6 million. Dang, that's good. Hell yeah. And as far as trivia, we're not going to get into too much trivia right now, but we will at the end of the episode because we will be talking with the co-writer and one of the actors in the film, Duane Perkins. So stick around to the end to hear our conversation with him. But right now we are going to watch this trailer.

Yay. Yeah. Okay. So let's take a look. Fun. There better not be any scary stuff in this trailer. It does start with the jump scare. Oh, you start with the jump scare. God damn it. I'm just trying to my wife the white man, alright?

What the fuck we do on Juneteenth? Hell no. Where are you going? Look for the fuse box. What kind of house is this? Hello, nothing killed. The blackening? Whoa! She has a full monopoly.

Shit probably runs on race, here. Pick a card and save Morgan. What do you mean, save Morgan? Refuse to play and she dies. I think we have to play the game. In your predicament, the Black character is always the first to die. I will spare your lives if you sacrifice the person you deem the blackest. The blackest?

Nobody should judge anybody in here, bruh. You have two minutes to decide. Sonika, she say nigga the most. Nigga. See? Swag. Y'all can't pick me. I'm gay.

Clifton. Yeah. That can prove I'm not the blackest. Prove it. I've never seen Friday. What? I voted for Trump. What? Twice.

You're the one who's up! Stop! Big money, playboy, your time's up. We need a plan. I'm saying don't you dare. We- Don't say this, don't you. We have to split up.

Your time has run out. It's time to die. There's a crazy person out here hunting us. You got Rosa Parks on your shirt, right? Would she be sitting down right now? I mean, that's exactly what she did. You can shut up! Made you look. Made you look. What? Black women gotta save everyone on this damn time! Our made you look.

Yo, stop playing. I got a gun! Damn. Hell! That's too DMX. What are you doing? ["Dreams of a New World"] This looks so good.

It's very fun. Yeah, great. Oh, great. Wow, I'm really excited to get to do this. Love the tone of this. Also, it's written by also Tracy Oliver, who did Girls Trip, right? And I feel like Girls Trip was maybe the last movie

I saw in theaters where I laughed so, like the hardest I've ever laughed. Like I feel like I haven't seen a movie where I've laughed in theaters like in so long, you know? And dang, Girls Trip made me laugh. Like I was like peeing my pants. Funnily enough, the co you know, co-writer, Dwayne Perkins, did it right,

but appeared in One of Them Days that... Oh, which made you laugh very, very. Is the last movie that made me laugh really hard in theaters. Because as you guys know, I think comedy is dead and... Yeah, you're not interested in comedy. Nothing's ever funny and I only like to feel bad. So imagine my surprise. Something made you laugh.

How dare you make me laugh? How dare you? Yeah. Okay, great. Please, I need that in my life. Yeah. Okay. Let's get into this recap.

Wow. I'm excited. I can't wait. You guys know that I am recently very obsessed with my romantic comedies. I can't stop reading them, and so that's why I'm so excited to introduce you to Dipsy. Do you wish a thrilling fantasy lived rent-free in your head instead of your endless to-do list? I know I do. With Dipsy Stories, you can trade mundane thoughts for spicy narratives that will make you feel like

you're living in a romance novel. Dipsy is the female-founded app for spicy audiobooks and more. It was created by women for the female gaze, and their app has over a thousand spicy audiobooks, all crafted by a team of professional writers and top-tier narrators. So whether you're looking for a rugged cowboy or a Scottish sailor or a sexy rendition of Pride and Prejudice, you'll find characters you'll love on Dipsy. With their easy-to-explore app, you can search for your favorite romance genres like contemporary, historical, sports, western, romantic, and more. New chapters are released every week, so you'll always find

something new to enjoy. Right now, listeners of the showcom slash to scary to start your free trial that's D I P S E A stories dot com slash to scary for 30 days of full access for free visit dipsystories.com slash to scary do you say data or data now that i've asked the question i don't actually know which one i say okay show me the data show me the data show me the data, show me the data. What does the data say? What does the data say? Well, whatever way you say it, for the longest time, I thought paying a fortune on my monthly data,

yep, I say data, was just normal. That was until I found out about Mint Mobile and their premium wireless plans that start at just $15 a month. Say bye-bye to your overpriced wireless plans, jaw-dropping monthly bills, and unexpected overages. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you. All plans come with high-speed data or data, your choice, and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all your

existing contacts. Ditch overpriced wireless and get three months of premium wireless service from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month. No matter how you say it, don't overpay for it. Shop data plans at mintmobile.com slash too scary. That's MintMobile.com slash Too Scary. Okay, we begin with some text that lets us know the following is based on true events that never happened. Perfect. You know? Some of like the truest things never happened. I know.

You know what I mean? It's like. So true. That's a really deep thought. Oh, so true. That is so true, En true. That is so true, Enly. Thought that was so true. We are at a cabin in the woods. We see a character named Morgan played by Von Orgy

who is from Insecure, Molly in Insecure, if you guys remember. Yes. She is looking around this cabin. They are renting it for the weekend to have all their college friends together. So she's kind of going around the place, getting ready for other guests to arrive. She walks past a creaky, creepy door that says game room and opens it. And it's kind of a lower level. It's not quite a basement, but it does. The steps do go down into this room.

It's a sunken room. It's a sunken room. And there's like a fake out jump scare where her boyfriend, Sean, scares her and we find out they're the first two to arrive. So it's them that are waiting for their friends. And we see a POV shot from outside of the cabin implying somebody is watching the cabin. Mm hmm. Classic. Classic. Morgan says, you know, the game room's a little creepy,

but maybe there's some fun games in here that we can play. So they start going through the shelves on the walls to see if anything looks interesting. But then they notice that already set out in the middle of the room on a table is a game called The Blackening. So this is just the two of them at this point. Just the two of them. No one else, okay. Okay. So they are pretty surprised by this board game's name. What the fuck is this?

Open it up, it has a very racist caricature as the centerpiece of this board game that talks to you. It seems like it's like a pre-recorded thing that is maybe motion activated. We're not sure. But it immediately as they open it speaks to them and says like time to play the game. And they at first are like, Oh, this is weird. like put it away. And it then becomes clear that it's actually responding to what they are doing in the room. So it says like, don't put me away, or like, I'll fucking kill you or something scary. It's not that intense, but it is something to let them know that it is someone actively watching them and responding to them.

It's sentient. So they are scared and decide to go along with the game and they ask, how do we play? What is this? And the game asks them to name one black character that survived a horror movie. And if you can't name one, you die. And Sean immediately says, Jada Pinkett Smith from Scream 2. No!

Wait, what? Doesn't she die within the first two seconds? So immediately the game says, incorrect time to die. And from nowhere. This is fun though too, because it's also pulling from Scream. Right. And it is, yeah, like the opening scene of Scream 2 is Jada Pinkett Smith dying. And yeah, so it's just like a very funny reference. From somewhere that we don't see, an arrow shoots Sean through the neck, killing him.

Morgan screams and tries to run out of the room, but is grabbed by someone wearing a dark mask. That's like a a dark mask. That's like a really gross mask. It's like leather stitched together somehow reminds me of a lizard, but not in a few weeks. I love lizards, but not this one. Like a bad lizard, really bad lizard. I think it has a lot of teeth too, it's nasty.

And so this guy grabs her and pulls her out of frame, cut to full frame lettering that just says black. It's very funny. Ah, really made me laugh. And then slowly pulls out to reveal the title, the blackening. And now we meet three of our other characters driving to the same cabin.

This is Lisa, Allison, and Dwayne. They are listening to their voicemail. They have a message from Morgan saying, we're at the cabin, can't wait to see you guys. Crew's gonna be all back together for the first time in years, we're gonna have so much fun. It's gonna be so great. And I think she might say something like,

we're going out to get groceries, but we'll probably be back by the time you guys get there. But there is something that like kind of doesn't immediately alert them to any danger with them not being there. There's also a cute moment where Dwayne says something like, I can't wait for this weekend as long as NAMdi isn't coming. And Lisa and Allison kind of share a look that tells us Namdi is coming. And we hear voiceover of them two being like, you didn't tell him Namdi is coming. And she's like, of course I didn't tell him, but I'm gonna tell him. I mean, he's gonna find out. And then the conversation continues past a point of what eye contact can

construe. And it's like, by the way, I love your haircut. And she's like, oh, thanks, girl. Like, just keeps going. So they have a very, very in-depth telepathic connection. Wow, that's beautiful. Very funny. We cut to another one of the friends that's headed to the cabin, Shanika, at a gas station. She runs into

another guy, Clifton, who she seems surprised to see. Clifton is kind of a dork, but she recognizes him. He also went to college with them. He says, are you going to the cabin? She's a little surprised that he got invited, it seems. he's maybe not a close friend of theirs as much as the others. But she's like, yeah, I am. Oh, you're going too. Okay. I just wrote down some lines that really made me laugh.

So this is not- Tell us, tell us. Doesn't matter, but when- I wanna laugh. I wanna laugh, I wanna laugh. When she first sees him, she says like, what are you doing here? And he says, my Hyundai died up the road.

And she's like, what? He's like, my Hyundai died. My Hyundai died. My Hyundai died. My Hyundai died. He says it like three times, it really cracked me up. Hyundai, I do always feel weird about saying Hyundai. I always never know how to say it properly.

I never know if I'm messing it up. Yeah, but yeah, she finds out that yes, he is going to the cabin as well. I only never know how to say it properly. I never know if I'm messing it up. Yeah. But yeah, she finds out that yes, he is going to the cabin as well. She's like, OK, I guess see you there. And she turns to leave and almost bumps into this huge, creepy white guy that I can't tell if he works at this gas station or what. And he's missing an eye, but there's just an ominous moment of him looking at her menacingly that puts us a little on edge.

And she like brushes past him and gets her car to go head to the cabin. And we all know if that happens to you at a gas station, you turn right, back around and leave. Yeah. So now the first group, Lisa, Allison and Dwayne, and I think Shanika, they're all like pulling up roughly at the same time to the cabin,

just as a park ranger is also there. This is Diedrich Bader. It's kind of a that guy. You guys would recognize him. Yeah. He's a, yeah a park ranger. His name tag says be white. His name is like Brian White or something. Very funny. He, of course, asks them what they're doing here, asks for ID. He says, I know the odors of this house. I didn't know anyone was going to be here for the weekend and is clearly like stereotyping them and unfairly stopping

and like searching them. And they all know this. And eventually he, I can't remember if they like show him the reservation they made on Airbnb or something, but they have to go through, you know, an unfair amount of conversation with this man to like prove that they are indeed supposed to be there. So Ranger White leaves. I really love that his name is B White. And they get to all go in the cabin. So, okay, we're all in the cabin now.

Morgan and Sean aren't there, but we're not too worried about that. In another car arrives King and Namdi. And so now Dwayne gets his first look. Namdi is here. We find out that Namdi is Lisa's ex-boyfriend that cheated on her. Dwayne is Lisa's best friend, so harbors a lot of resentment about this, but he was part of the college crew, so Lisa's like, come on, it's like all of us back together. It's like, doesn't have to be a big deal.

I'm like not mad at him anymore. Like, can't we all just have fun? And so we're trying to smooth over but there is some tension there and Part of the way that we're deciding to everybody relax and calm down is by doing drugs great We start doing some Molly Drinking or just having a party or just having a party. While everyone is partying and like dancing downstairs, Lisa and Namdi go upstairs into her room

and start making out. They are secretly back together. She's just too nervous to tell Dwayne. But it seems like everybody else knows it's just being hidden from Dwayne. Oh, that's not going to end well. Yeah. Okay.

And then at this moment, the lights in the cabin go out. Oh man, telltale sign. So they go down by all the rooms, doors to all the rooms looking for if there's a, what do you call the power box thing? Circuit breaker. Circuit breaker fuse. And that leads them to the game room. It's a room they haven't checked yet.

So they're just looking anywhere to see if there's circuit breaker. And as they go into the room, the lights all come back on anyways. So they're like, okay, no big deal. And notice the blackening game splayed out on the table, obviously catches all of their eyes. Again, it has like a very big racist stereotype like face in the middle of it. They're all like, oh my God, what the fuck is that? And they're, I think, gonna turn to leave and they realize the door has locked behind them.

And once again, the voice from the game says, it's time to play The Blackening or whatever. And they are like, we're not playing the game. What? Like, what are you talking about? And then it says, play the game to save Morgan. And that catches all of their attention. They say, what did you just say? And a TV in the corner turns on and we get a security camera

feed of Morgan tied up somewhere with the man in the mask, you know, right in front of her threatening to kill her. So not what you want to see after you've popped some, some drugs. No, not so much. That's going to be a bad trip. Really bad timing. Yeah, really bad. So the game tells them that if they are able to make it through all of the questions correctly that it will release Morgan, but if they get any wrong, Morgan dies. So it asks them a series of questions. One of the questions is who is Sojourner Truth, which has like a multiple choice answer. First one is an abolitionist. Second one is an entrepreneur. Third one is Harriet Tubman.

Oh my god. Really made me laugh. And then one of the questions it asks that's also very funny is it says like name six guest actors on Friends Who Are Black. And all of them at first are like, we don't watch Friends, we've never watched Friends. And then one by one, I think it's Shanika that stands up first. She's like, yeah, I mean, obviously, I've never seen the show. But I do know that Gabrielle Union was a special guest. And one at the time they each step up and go, I obviously never watched it either, but I do know that. And eventually they miss an answer. I can't really remember, but the game says you have to sacrifice someone to get Morgan. And the person you sacrifice should be the person you all deemed the blackest.

So you have to decide between yourselves who of you is the blackest, which leads to a very funny conversation of pointing fingers and being like, he's actually from Africa. And all of them are saying reasons why they're not the blackest. Dwayne is like, I'm gay. And they kind of all turn on Clifton because he's not really as close of friends with him. And they're a little bit like, well, I guess it's probably Clifton. And Clifton says he's never seen Friday. And then he in a plea of desperation is like,

I voted for Trump. You really want to kill him now. Yeah. And then he says twice and they all freak out and they're like, it's him. It's a we're sacrificing, sacrificing Clifton. Here you go. And they're pushing him out. The door unlocks automatically for them and says like, send out the player that you think is the blackest. And so they push Clifton out of the door and as they're

pushing him out of the door, he goes, all lives matter. And they send him out as a sacrifice. And the TV in the room changes to security footage of Clifton now walking outside of the cabin and pretty quickly being shot by an arrow. And he really was sacrificed. Yeah. And so they all are like, yeah, ooh. It's true. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. This is not good. Like, yeah, ooh. It's real. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. It's not good. They figure Morgan has to be somewhere nearby or maybe even in the house. So they're a little obviously like panicking, trying to see if they can figure out other other doors they haven't looked in. It looked like Morgan was in a basement. So like, is there a basement here? And they do find a door that they haven't opened yet

and hear footsteps coming up and eventually the guy in the mask comes through. I think Morgan might come through first and the guy in the mask kills her. I think he does. I think he comes up behind before they can save her. Morgan dies. Mm. Morgan. And he's about to come out of the basement to attack the rest of them,

but they like shut the door on him and just his foot is sticking out of the door, like trying to pin it open. And they have a knife. And one of them stabs him in the foot, causing him to pull his foot back, fall down the stairs. They close the door, lock it, lock him in the foot causing him to pull his foot back, fall down the stairs, they close the door, lock him in there. They're now all panicking, what the fuck do we do? Phone lines are dead, can't call for help, and Allison is like really panicking, and I think someone is like, you need to take

some Xanax or something, and like hands her a pill. And turns out it's Adderall actually. Oh no. So Allison throughout the rest of the movie just is like getting more and more. It's very funny. Like aggravated. It's almost like she's getting,

this is such a specific reference, but there's an episode of Futurama where Frye bet someone that he can drink a hundred cups of coffee. And he, yes, progressively gets more and more like shaky and very fast and irritable and like screaming at people and he's getting crazier and crazier. And then when he has the hundredth cup, he like goes into slow motion and like is glowing and it's like very heavenly experience. He like passes a point. So she almost gets to a point where she is just operating on another level, it seems. Oh, okay. Okay. That's fun.

Like anxiety and Adderall combined turned her superhuman. Yeah, exactly. Like in like a good way. like is she like limitless? Is she Bradley Cooper and limitless? Yes, yes. Okay, great. It's springtime and that means vacation season is nearly upon us. I myself am going on vacation for a couple weeks.

I'm going to miss you all very much, obviously, but I'm really excited. And I'm also very excited to discover that Quince has high quality travel essentials at fair prices. I have been shopping at Quince for a while now. I love their clothes, specifically their washable silk collection. I've loved their jewelry. I even have their bedding. Love, love, love. But I didn't know that they had luggage and travel accessories. So I'm really excited. I'm looking right now at the website and I am going to

buy this Italian leather travel cosmetic case. And I'm like struggling to decide between that and the Nappa leather toiletry bag. These look like such good little travel cases, really chic, and lots of compartments so that you can keep all your stuff organized and clean. I just, I gotta have them. And of course, I don't have to remind you that all Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands by partnering directly with you that all Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with Top Factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman

and passes those savings on to us. Bless you, Quince. So for your next trip, treat yourself to the luxe upgrades you deserve. From Quince, go to quince.com slash tooscary for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order. That's q u i n c e dot com slash to scary to get free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash to scary. But before that's all kind of kicked in there. They're all standing around not knowing what

to do. And she says her delivery here is really good, she's like, hup, hup, hup. I can't believe I have to say this, hup, but I think we should split up. Shit. Yeah. Like, what? No, and she's like, yeah, I think we should

because like we don't know, oh, I think maybe that they like saw the killer like run out of the house now, like bust through another door and now the killer is outside. And so some of them want to stay inside the house because they think it's safer and some of them are going outside. So they split up. Alison King and Shanika go outside to look for help. They come upon a lake and we see from another POV shot that someone is watching them. And sorry, I can't again remember how this happens,

but at some point Shanika goes into the water. I think she's like, oh, I'll get help across the lake or something. And they don't want to go with her, but they're like, okay, we'll stand here and wait for you. And as she goes in the water, someone starts shooting arrows at her. We get a look at the killer and he's, yeah,

just like a huge guy with this crazy mask on and he has a crossbow. So it's not just arrows, it's fucking crossbow and he's shooting at her, but Allison, by now, is the Adderall's kicking in, and she's like climbed up into a tree on top of him. And she's, I think at one point, like puts war paint on her face, like mud, and it's just like going

like a hundred miles an hour, she's like, I got it, I got it, I'm gonna get him. And jumps on top of him, attacks him. As he falls, I think he shoots King with the crossbow, but just in the shoulder, but King's injured now. Shanika comes back from the water, and the three of them together are able to overpower and kill him.

Whoa. Oh, they kill the killer? They kill him. Uh-oh. But as they do, first they peel off the mask and we see that it is the big one-eyed guy from the gas station. But then they notice his feet are intact.

Yeah. No stab. Always more than one. No stab wound, no hole in his shoe. So yes, there are multiple killers. Cut back to our second group, Dwayne, Lisa and Nomdi. They're also outside, but they're like right outside the cabin.

And at that moment, Ranger White shows up and they're explaining to him what happened. Someone has been killed. We need help. And he's like, well, what are you guys doing? Where are the rest of your friends? And they say, we decided to split up. He says, you split up? Yeah.

And he goes, but you're all black. It really made me laugh. And then through his little walkie talkie, he's like, this is white to base, white to base. And they get in the car with him, his like ranger vehicle, and he's like, okay, we're going to get back up. And then as they're driving down the road, I hear something or see something,

and he stops the car, gets out to investigate, tells them all to stay in the car. And he goes a little bit out of sight. We can't really see, it's like, you know, middle of the night in the woods. He's immediately out of our field of vision. They're creeped out, like, can we trust this guy? And then Lisa

leans forward and finds one of the killer masks on the floor of the car. They're like, fuck, he's one of the killers. They lock the doors and then at that moment, he runs back to the car screaming is like, he's here, he's here, the killer's here. And he's like, trying to get into the car. They've locked the doors. They show him the mask. They're like, we know you're the killer. Like, you can't fool us. And he's like, I know that looks bad, but I found that by the lake. And I'd like thought that it would be helpful to have. And they're like, no, sorry, like we're not letting you in. And just that moment, he gets shot in the head. He is killed. Ranger White was not one of the killers, but they start screaming, try to get into the driver's side of the car, but the killer is like at that correct angle

to be able to shoot perfectly into the driver's seat. And so is shooting through the windshield. It's like not safe to be in the car and especially in the front of the car. So they all just like get out and get down low to the ground to try to run through the woods back to the cabin while they're being shot at. And Dwayne is like about to run but there's just all these little bullet ricochets or arrow ricochets, can't remember, and Dwayne says like, you guys run and save yourselves. And it's Namdi and Lisa and they just do, they just run. Dwayne is, offended and was like, that was a joke. I can't believe you guys left me. But eventually they make it, they all make it back to the house, back to the cabin. And they're hiding because they know the killer is right behind them, obviously has seen where they're going,

follows them. So they all go into hiding spaces in the house. I think they get into like the crawl space. And so they're in the vents. And we've established earlier that Dwayne gets nauseous when he's nervous. Uh-oh. Oh no.

So they're trying to be really quiet and he's just like, huh, huh, huh. Oh no. And the killer hears where they are and his head pops up in front of the vent and I think the killer even says surprise and Dwayne just projectile vomits all over him

and they all tumble out of the vent crawl space on top of him and he's like covered in vomit too. It's like disgusting. So it's really taken a, he's struggling to recover from that and it gives them the opportunity to Lisa grabs a big like concrete sculpture statue thing that was in the house and just absolutely bashes his head in over and over and over and over

to the point that now everybody's watching her like, uh, Lisa, he's dead. You did it. They take the crossbow from him so they're getting more weapons. All of them have grabbed weapons at this point. I think the other group gets back to the house as well. So we're all back together and they think maybe it's over.

Maybe we've killed both of them, but we're all still going to be holding on to our weapons regardless. There's a comment about how a crossbow seems like an exclusively white person weapon. Also made me laugh. They're trying, they try to like look at this killer's face to identify him, but it's like, oh, his face is just completely gone. But they find his ID in his pocket. He's the twin brother of the other killer. And we do see that there is a family photo on one of the shelves in this cabin. It's their cabin.

There's their family cabin. These are like adult men though. They're not children. They're very much like men in their 30s. So they think, okay, like we got them both, but why were they trying to kill us? Like what's happening? And then they also in his pocket find a list

with each of their names on it. As if someone has hired them and told them who to kill. It also has numbers by each of their names that they think mean the prices of how much it was to kill each of them. And they're like offensively low. So all of them are like, what the fuck? Like, this is it? This is it?

This is it. So now they're like, there seems to be another piece of the puzzle where someone was the one authorizing or like asking for us to be killed. So what the fuck is going on? They're all still holding their weapons. They're like looking around the house for any other clues. They go down to the basement where the killer's like layer was. And they're like, maybe we can like find

something out in there. In the basement we see, I think it's Clifton and Sean's bodies with the arrows through them, like seated at the table. Like someone has arranged them to look like they're seated at like the dinner table type of thing. Very gross. And they see that there's a note on the table and go and read it. And it's actually a newspaper clipping talking about an accident

where a woman was killed and she was killed by a hit and run or like a car accident. And the driver spent four years in prison for it or was sentenced to four years in prison. And it says that the driver's name is Clifton and they're like, what? And just then Clifton pops back up, pulls out. He has like a remote because they all have weapons. They all draw their weapons like what the fuck? And he's like, ah, I got this whole place wired with explosives. Like nobody fucking move. Clifton. He makes them all drop their weapons, they do. And he starts going on his little like evil plan. Turns out that King and Allison, by the way, are not in the basement.

King had been shot by an arrow, so she was kind of like tending to his runes and they got locked out. And so they now hear that something is going on, but Clifton has locked the basement door so they can't get down there. But they're up at the top of the basement at the door trying to break in while everybody else is listening to Clifton say how they all were really mean to him in college and there was a party where they were making fun of him for being a square and not drinking enough and so he wanted to prove to them that he was cool so he got like drank more than he had ever drank before and got really drunk and then drove home and killed somebody and spent four years in prison for it.

And wow. So they just like hadn't seen Clifton again and didn't ask any questions. Pretty interesting to like no one knew what happened to Clifton. Yikes, okay. So this is his revenge and he says, okay, we're gonna play one more game. And he says, actually, it's the same question, I just want you to answer it, like which one of you is the blackest? We've also seen footage of, there's a well in this basement

and there's footage on the TV of Clifton dumping Morgan and Sean's bodies into this well after killing them. So there's like no question that Clifton has really been pulling the strings. He tells them to tell him which one of them is the blackest. Lisa is refusing to play. We're not playing your game anymore, Clifton.

It's over. And at this moment, Duane and Nomdi, by the way, have been taking digs at each other all night, but also been through a lot. And so there's some amount of like tolerating each other. But at this moment, Dwayne uses telepathy to talk to Namdi. He's like, Hey, can you hear me? And Namdi like looks at him like, what the fuck? Like, yeah. He's like, okay, I'm gonna tackle him from below, you tackle him from above.

Like, we'll knock him down. He's like, how is this happening? I didn't know I could talk to you like this. He's like, I don't know either, but it's working, so we need to do it. And then they look over at Clifton, who's looking at them, and nobody's mouths are moving, and they're like, oh shit, Clifton, did you hear that?

Clifton's like, yeah, motherfucker, I heard it. Yeah. Yeah. Shit, Clifton, did you hear that? Clifton's like, yeah, motherfucker, I heard it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they just like, they say you lost the element of surprise

so they just lunge for this crossbow. Clifton gets it first, shoots Nomdi in like the side, doesn't look like a fatal hit but it's a not good and then the lights go out again. And I think it's, I think it's Alison and King that have made the lights go out. I can't remember, or maybe they just go out. But now they're trying to kill Clifton, but it's dark

and they're like saying like, someone has a gun. And And they're like saying like someone has a gun. And so they're like, shoot him, shoot him. And they're like, I can't see anything. I can't see shit. And then the lights come back on. We see that Dwayne has like grabbed Clifton near the well. And right as the lights come up, Shanika has a gun. They also had a gun earlier. I guess I didn't mention it,

but they shot, shoot Clifton and he falls into the well. They got him. Ooh, bye Clifton, bye Clifton. And then they all stand over the well looking into it. And one of them goes, guess he's not doing too well. It's really stupid. It's really stupid. I loved it though.

And then the credits start to roll, but we get like a little side screen in the credits. So we're seeing what's happening next, which is it's, you know, the next morning sun's coming up. We're all looking worse for wear, like covered in blood and like looking so gnarly. They're like, so what should we, like, what do we do now? Someone's like, call the cops. And they all start laughing and laughing and laughing. They're like, no, hell no, we're not doing that.

And then someone comes up with the idea of, I know what we need to do, we need to call firefighters because firefighters are cool and cops are not. Okay, great, that's good, great. And then you like see one of them making the phone call and some time passes and then you hear sirens arrive and they're like, great, the firemen are here, the firemen are here. And then you see them all just getting fire hosed. And

that's the end of the movie. Wow. Wow. Yay. And the blackening, that's it. Sammy, thank you. Thank you for that reprieve in my day. I needed to feel happiness for a moment. That was great, thank you. It's very funny, everybody's very good in it. And I do just love a well-made movie.

Yeah. Yeah. Just like really executing on its goal. Just really love, just really love when that happens. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like, yeah, we've talked about how horror and comedy are kind of two sides of a similar coin

in terms of like set up and punchline versus like anticipation and payoff type of thing. And horror comedyies just like... They hit different. It's just a match made in heaven. It really is. It really is. It just works.

It's like Bobby Flay and Brooke Williamson. I know. And it also is like, it's really hard to make a funny movie. Like it's really hard to make a funny movie. Like it's really hard to legitimately make something funny. That is also good. And I'm always very impressed and so pleased when it happens.

And this one seems like it really was great. Like I was laughing at you telling the jokes that, like, you know, like that's funny. If it's transferable in a recap, I'm impressed. Yeah. And I feel like there have been some whisperings of a Blackening 2. We'll see.

They should absolutely make more. It made money. It's a great premise. Yeah. They're making a scary movie, aren't they? Another scary movie. Yeah, I think so, actually. I want to see that.

I'm curious what they'll do there. Yeah. So horror comedies, I'm coming around, you know, like I said earlier, I typically don't like to laugh. I don't like to have fun. I like to feel bad. But when it's done well, it's just like you can't help it. Laughing does feel really good.

Laughing is nice. It will feel the world. Some say it's the best medicine. Some say that. It is. So I am very glad to have watched this movie again and I'm very glad to get to talk to Dwayne Perkins. Woo hoo!

So freaking stay tuned. Well, I guess you did stay tuned and now here's your award. Now you get a treat. Now you get a treat. And the treat is Duane Perkins. First of all, thank you for joining me today. Of course, thanks for having me.

And I just wanted to ask, we ask all our guests, our first question is just if you could tell me your relationship to horror movies growing up, an earliest memory is just, if you could tell me your relationship to horror movies growing up, an earliest memory of horror, if you were scared of them, if there was one that kind of made you a fan. Yes, obsessed with horror movies. Yeah, since being a kid.

Since being a kid. There was something very special about video rental stores. I would go to Black Buster or Hollywood Video and I was very attracted to like the covers. Yes. Obviously like that like elicited a certain kind of feeling and my parents hated that I loved horror movies cause I would be terrified.

But I would still be like, let's rent them. I would say the one that really solidified kind of my love and also like deep fear was Candyman because I lived in Chicago. I had family that lived in Cabrini Green. So that was like the first horror movie that felt real because I was in the environment that the horror movie existed in. And then when my family went to that movie for the first time, our power went out in the middle of watching it.

And my father was standing like in the doorway and his silhouette was very reminiscent of Candyman. And I was like, oh, this is it. He's here. This is the end for us. And then my father was like, no, I'm your father. Cool. Cool.

Cool. So yeah, I would definitely say Candyman. Yeah, I had a similar experience with The Exorcist where while I was watching The Exorcist for the first time, a window in the house shattered. So that really adds a level of really cements in your brain as like, okay, this is real. There's a level of authenticity that's a little too authentic. It's a little too much. And when did you and your co-writer, I guess, first have the idea for The Blackening?

How long did it take for that to come to fruition? Yes. So The Blackening started off as a sketch that I wrote for a live show in Chicago at Second City, the improv theater. I was tasked to write like an opening scene for an all black sketch show. And I wanted to write something that felt like it spoke to the journey of being the token black person

within an all white ensemble. Cause at the theater, that's kind of the position that a lot of the black artists was in, that we were kind of like the black token in these ensembles. So that was the first show we were all together. Yep. And it reminded me of horror movies. And I was like, oh, if all of the token black people in horror movies were in one movie, how would they decide who dies first? So that was kind

of the original premise of the sketch. And then that sketch got put into a larger Second City show that was a theatrical show in DC at Woolly Mammoth Theater. And at the time, me and my improv group, 3Pete, had a web series deal with Comedy Central. And so they told us to submit sketches to them to see which ones they were going to film and put online. And The Blackening was the first sketch that we filmed. At the time, it was called Horror Story. And so we filmed it. Comedy Central put it on YouTube and their website and it went viral. And then that's how Tracy Oliver saw it. And then she called the theater that my improv group had a standing show at and was like, Hey, I saw this group did this sketch. Who wrote it? I think this should be a movie.

And then she called me because I wrote it and she said hey This could be a movie and I said oh, oh god. Okay and then we came up with the pitch for like the movie version of it and then Interesting enough the day that we were supposed to pitch it all the pitches got canceled We had nine pitches they got canceled and I was so terrified because I was like, I don't know how Hollywood works. And then it was pretty silent for a couple of days. And then I was so, oh, all the pitches got canceled

because there was already an offer based on the sketch and the team. I was like, oh, thank God. And that was MRC who made the first movie. Great. I mean, yeah, it's an incredible idea. The tagline, absolutely perfect. Thank you. And I believe the sketch was written in 2016 and then we sold it in 2018. It was made in 2020, I believe. And then it premiered at TIFF in 2022, came out in 2023.

Has being, or like the process of writing and being in a horror movie changed your experience of watching horror movies at all? Um, yes, it just makes me think of what the process of the artist had to go through, because writing is so hard. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a lot of like mental work. And if you're really trying to like make it good, you just really have to like think deeply

about what you're doing. Thinking about like the reveals and like surprises kind of what tone you want to hit. So it just made me kind of pay attention more to the background, kind of like, how is this recipe made? Yeah. And then I think it has a little bit taking some of the joy out, because my brain is just like thinking about work. So I love when a horror movie could make me get out of that mindset.

Yeah. Because I'm thinking like, oh, what's coming next? Like, OK, well, like act one just ended, act two, like what is gonna be the turn into act three? And so it's always telling for me, like if a horror movie is good, if that can get me out of that. That's why I was obsessed with the substance.

Cause I was like, girl, where's this going? Yeah, truly we did not see that ending coming at all. And I draw it was on the ground. I said, oh, okay. going. Yeah, truly. We did not see that coming at all. I draw this on the ground. I said, oh, okay. I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that before from other people that have been involved in the filmmaking of horror movies that it takes you out of it a bit when you're watching because of exactly that of just like picking apart like, oh, these prosthetics are so cool. Wonder how they did this effect and picking apart like, oh, these prosthetics are so cool. Wonder how they did this effect and like not being able or not being as scarable, I guess.

And so I get that something has to be a little more unpredictable, I guess, for you to fully get immersed in it and take that. I like even remember being a child like Tony Todd and be like, oh, that is Candyman. And then when I got older, being like that is an actor named Tony Todd. He's like seeing him like other stuff and being like, oh, that is Candyman. And then when I got older being like, that is an actor named Tony Todd. He's like seeing him in like other stuff and being like, wait, why is Candyman in this other movie? Right. And then just on set when you guys were filming,

how much, was there any improvising going on or was it all pretty sticking close to the script? There was quite a bit of improv. I think because of my background, which is improv and sketch. Something that really was funny to me is that the cast was very shocked at how loose I was. I think they came in thinking, well, the writers in the movie, that might be a more sticky dynamic to navigate. And then they would come to me and I'd be like, more sticky dynamic to navigate. And then they would come to me and I'd be like,

oh, I don't care. We know where we have to go, we know what we have to do. At this point, this character is yours. Like, yeah, you're not gonna go make a brand new scene because that's just not how this is going to work. But if you want to say the instead of the, I don't care. And I think that allowed us to really dive deep and really make the characters ours.

And I think that really helped elevate the performances and bring a lot of camaraderie. I feel like the friendship aspect of the movie really reflected the relationship we were building in real life, in real time. And the movie was, for the most part, filmed sequentially. And so it was nice to see by the end, when I watched the movie, I have such a consciousness of the relationships. And being like, oh yeah, that's when we were very close. Just being like, oh, tracking

that with my feelings. But yeah, there was a lot of improv and I think that helped the comedy immensely. Yeah. We've done it. We've covered a few horror comedies recently and just talked a lot about the relationship between horror and comedy and how both have, you know, in a comedy, it's like setup and punchline and in horror, it's like building suspense and payoff type of thing. Have you found in writing that those two genres just like complement each other well? And does one help you with the other in terms of like pacing, I guess?

How have you found that? Yes, I think they're like twins who are like, fraternal. Yes. I think that's the right one. Where they kind of exist in a similar yet opposite way. Where I was just talking about this yesterday with a friend. You use kind of the horror aspect, and because of that fear, you can instantly know that you can cut that fear

with a joke. And then comedically, you know that you can cut the comedy about having horror. So like, if you can have a joke, you're putting your audience in a position of openness because they're laughing. And then if you add a jumpscare, they're like, oh, you got me.

It's a lot of like emotional manipulation. Yes you're creating tension and then with the laugh you're releasing that tension so it is such a fun back and forth because i do think that those emotions like a laugh and a scream are very similar in their expression, just the intent behind it is a little different. And so that's why I love horror comedy because it does kind of exist on a similar spectrum, but you're just like being able to mess with the emotion of your audience in a more fun roller coaster like way.

Yeah, they compliment each other so well. And I find that some of the jump scares in horror comedies will be more effective because of what you're talking about, because my guard is down. Whereas in a full scary movie, I'm so aware of the fact that like, there's going to be a jump scare that I'll be basically on guard the whole time.

So it's, yeah, fun to like lower the guard and then get a little jump scare in there. It's very effective. Yes. It kind of is the difference between like straight cardio and like, like CrossFit and been like, Oh, like your heart rate is not consistent. Like you're not, it's, it's up down. You're doing all of this. So the body just goes through a more active kind of journey. Yep. And that's what I love is like that, that funness and being like, who I am off kilter, I don't know where we are going.

Yes. And then just in making, in making the movie and shooting it, was there anything that was surprisingly challenging that you didn't expect? Yes. This is very funny because I felt naive a little bit and my castmates will laugh at me. But that was like the first film that I was in.

And I was always just be like, OK, I wrote this movie, but I didn't realize how much running and screaming will we be doing? I was like, I'm so tired. Like physically, I was like, oh, this is tiring. Yes. And then kind of putting your body through like the fight or flight.

And you're like, okay, so because you wanted to feel real, you are telling your body like this is real, because I have to like portray this genuine emotion. And then by the end of the day, you're like, my body feels like it has gone through this. Yes, I am Exhausted like oh my god Like I forget that I wrote in a script. Yes, we are running from this killer right and to run from a killer you have to run You have to like actually do so that was I was it just like an eye-opening

Experience where I was just like, oh my God, I am, this has worn me out. Right, I think about that a lot when watching horror movies. I'm like, they had to do probably multiple takes of this and like screams especially, like how do you not lose your voice? Like if I scream once, it like hurts my throat. So I feel like, yeah, you don't think about that aspect

as much, but just how much of, yeah, toll that it would take on your body. There's a lot of like preservation you have to do in real time. Like you have to really kind of change your lifestyle to support the performance. And that was just new to me because I just never had to do that.

Most of the things that I was doing were either comedy or like TV that was like shorter. So I just never had to emotionally put myself through that. It was ultimately very fun. It was just a learning experience, a real time. And I really was like, shout out to horror movie actors because wow. And luckily it was an ensemble. So I'm like, there are movies where people are just like,

the lead and they're like, oh, you are just going through it for 90 minutes to two hours, just getting your ass beat in my life by people. Like it's really funny to see in hindsight and be like, yeah, that's a crazy experience. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds hard, fun, that's a crazy experience. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds, it sounds hard. Fun, but hard. I don't know if you were involved in this part at all, but like the mask of the killer in the Blackening is so unsettling

to me. I, how did you describe it? I guess in the, in the script, we're, we are kind of obsessed with masks on the podcast because they're always scary. But this one was very scary. Yeah. So in the script, like when we first pitched it, we kind of described it as like a reference to a gollywog, which is a like old like Jim Crow, like racist toy. It's like this like monster, like this little doll

that's like a blackface doll. And so we were like, oh, that's kind of the inspiration because Clifton's character is kind of using race as kind of the tool for his kind of terror. And then the costume designer created many different versions. And there were some versions that we were like, okay, that's too racist. And then we settled on the version that it was,

which feels like a modern kind of like leather inspired blackface. So it was just in the script, we called the killer like blackface, like that was his name. Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Like a ghost face. Exactly. That was the reference.

And that's part, like I would say my favorite part. Because I have watched so many horror movies, I love to reference the things that I feel like inspired me to love horror. And that was definitely one of them. There's a lot of references to things like Scream. Yeah, so many good references. The Scream, the Jada Pinkett is a really great reference. Thank you.

Yeah, and then I guess just what was like a favorite memory on set, like a day that was really fun. There is a scene where we see the killer for the first time, where we see Blackface for the first time, and he comes out of the basement with the arrows. Yeah, yeah. And he shoots King like multiple times. Like I remember shooting that scene,

and that was like the first time that as a group, we had to react to like the killer being right there. And I just remember it was so like high energy and intense. And that part feels like the most kind of like cartoonish to me. And it was just really fun. There was a lot of like improvising, there was a lot of like screaming and running. That was just a day I just remember being really, really fun.

Yeah. Because up until that point, it was mainly us just like talking to each other and kind of being isolated and like playing the game. But like it was still just like us. There wasn't like an actual like real stimuli within the room with us. So that was the first time that we had to be like, oh, OK. And then it was the first time that we actually had a scene with the actor that was playing Blackface, who was this huge man who was actually very scary. And then it would be funny because

we would say cut and he would just be talking to us and be so nice. It's so sweet. Oh, that's so funny. So that was like my, probably my favorite day. Yeah. I mean, it comes across that you guys all were having a good time. It's such a fun movie to watch. And I hope everybody listening has seen it. And if you haven't go watch it because yeah, our podcast is like me recapping a movie for my two co hosts who are too scared to watch scary movies and like me a white lady recapping it to two other white ladies is probably not the most fun way to experience this movie. So I would highly recommend watching it. And then I just wanted to ask, I've seen

the blackening too on IMDB. Is that happening? Can you tell us? Can you tell us anything? I can tell you that we're working on it. And I literally have been working like writing. Amazing. And I would say that I'm obsessed with it personally. So I really hope that the process moves along, but it's been a really cool process to figure out like what a sequel could be and will be. Because the first one, there was a clear blueprint, because there was a sketch, there was a clear understanding of what it is. And wanting to create a sequel that feels connected, but also feels new.

As I told you, I want to experience movies, like my own film, similar to how I want to experience horror generally, which is I don't want it to be predictable, I don't want it to be predictable. I don't want it to be cookie cutter. So trying to figure out like what that is was a really fun journey. And so, yeah, I'm just excited to continue the process. Well, I can't wait to see it. I loved this movie so much.

And thank you so much for talking to me about it today. And then just last, could you tell our listeners where they can find you or if you have anything you want to plug? Yeah. Other than The Blackening, which of course they have to watch. You do. Uh, thank you. Like I love this.

Like The Blackening is true. Like my little baby, uh, it feels like such a specific journey that feels like uniquely mine. Uh, I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday about not knowing kind of what can come from things and just creating because you want to. And to see that that started from like such a small idea and now could potentially be a franchise. Like, oh, you just really never know what can happen. You just have to kind of do things and hope for the best. But yes, you all can find me on the internet. I think everywhere it's at Dwayne Perkins, D-E-W-A-Y-N-E.

And yeah, what, oh yeah, and watch the studio on Apple. It just came out, it's a great, fantastic show. Seth Rogen has been blueprint of mine for a while. Love that man. So watch the studio and watch the blackening, it's streaming. And then I'll also watch one of them days. It's just got put on Netflix. I'm also in that film.

And then look out for me doing standup because I'm back on the stage, baby. Nice. Amazing. Dwayne, thank you so much for joining me today. Absolutely. That's all I got. It's been a pleasure. Well there you have it, folks.

That was your treat. I hope you liked your yummy, yummy treat. I hope you liked your treat as much as we did. Everybody see the blackening. It's not too scary. There are a couple of little jumpy scares, but I think you can handle it. It's more laughs than scares and it's just really good.

And you got to see Dwayne in this and he'll see one of them days too. Yeah, see him all see girls trip, see him all. See him all. And that's all we have for you this week. We will be back. We love you very much. We love you. have for you this week. We will be back. We love you very much. We love you.

We love you so much. We love you. You are enough, you have enough. And even if you don't have enough, you still are enough. That's the more important one. Which means that it's all enough. Right, because you are enough. Enough is enough.'s all enough. Right. Cause you exactly enough is enough.

Harumph. From all of us here at too scary. Did it watch? Goodbye. We did it. We made it. Thank you all for listening to another episode of too scary. Didn't watch. If you enjoy the show, please remember to subscribe and rate us on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Five stars only or we will haunt you.

And if you simply can't get enough of us, we have good news for you. We have lots of bonus content available on our Patreon at patreon.com slash TSDW podcast. You'll get access to video trailer reactions, two bonus episodes a month, the power to vote for upcoming episodes, and more. And last but not least, you can follow us on social media at TSTW podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode. We love you. That was a HeadGum Podcast. That was a HeadGum Podcast. Hey, I'm Jake Johnson, and I host the HeadGum Podcast We're Here to Help with my partner

Gareth Reynolds. We're Here to Help is a call and advice show, think car talk from back in the day. We're determined to help fix life's dumbest problems. We also have guest helpers join us from the entire cast of New Girl to Michael Cera, Andy Sandberg, Jimmy Kimmel, just to name a few. So do me a favor and come check out an episode and then bounce around our catalog. We're over 150 episodes so far, so there's plenty of stories for you to discover. Subscribe to We're Here to Help on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday, and bonus episodes drop on Wednesdays.