The Blackening with Nonye-Brown West

This week, Caitlin, Jamie, and special guest Nonye Brown-West play a game (Saw vibes?!) at a cabin in the woods while discussing The Blackening.

Check out the original sketch from 3Peat here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPwQdDu-D8

Follow Nonye on Instagram and TikTok at @noneefizzle and check out her website at nonyecomedy.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
On the Bechdelcast.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
The questions asked if movies have.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, zeph and
best start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey, Jamie, Hey Caitlyn, let's play a game. It's me Jigsaw,
but it's also me the villain from the Blackening.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Spoiler alert, spoiler alert. I also went, oh, the Jigsaw
parallels undeniable. I mean, I know, it's like, yeah, every
horror movie parallel, so that's the whole point. But also
Jigsaw specifically, you get a beautiful Jigsaw.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Oh you know, but I don't.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I don't remember the words from college motif, pastiche homage,
anything like you get one of those at the end.
Oh I yes, sorry, I just was effusive about you.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
So is that a yes, you will play a game
with me?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Of course I'll play a game. Of course I'll play game.
And I hope that it is basically bar trivia. I
love that that's the game. It's bart trivia.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And you know me, I love a pub quiz. I
love bar trivia. I go all the time. Yes, I
played it by myself in Paris when I was there
recently brag number one very what's.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
The movie very frances Ha when she goes to Paris
and just like hangs out, just like hmm, which lay.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Most of the time, hangs out by yourself. Yeah, I
did manage to go outside and go to bar trivia. Well,
it was because it was happening right after the comedy
show that I just did at the same location, so
I was like, well, there's trivia here. There was only
like five or six teams, but I was in like
second place at one time because there was a round
of ten questions that were all Star Wars questions and

(01:48):
I got them all right, and it really propelled me
to the front of the group.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
You single handedly healed relations between France and the US
and that it Yes, anyway, Welcome to the Bechdel Cast.
I feel like that was a very focused intro. We're
doing great, we nailed it. Yeah, Welcome to the Bechdel Cast.
My name is Jamie Loftis.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
My name is Caitlin Deronte, and this is our podcast
where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens, using
the Bechdel test simply as a jumping off point. But Jamie,
what is it though?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Okay, I can tell you.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
So, the Bechdel Test is a media metric created by
queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel, often called the Bechdel Wallace Test
because she co created it with her friend Liz Wallace.
Lots of versions of this test. We sort of use
it as a jumping off point for discussion because it
was originally created as a joke for her comic dikes
to watch out for. But the version of the test

(02:45):
that we use requires at there be two characters with
names of a marginalized gender who talked to each other
about something other than a man for two lines of dialogue.
Low bar to clear. A lot of movies still don't
more movies than used to true. And there's also a
lot of tests that have been inspired by this test,

(03:07):
which I feel like is maybe more relevant to the
conversation we're going to have today. We have a highly
requested movie today. We've been getting requests for this movie
since before it came out, and we were waiting for
the right time, the right place, the right guest. That's right,
the stars have aligned. Today we are covering the Blackening m.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
HM and our guest is a writer and comedian. You've
seen her on NPR and Sway in the Morning. It's
no Yea Brown West.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Hello, Hello, welcome, thanks for having me on. Guys.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Oh my gosh, thanks for being here.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
A true Boston twenty tens comedy scene reunion.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
We did it.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
Here.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
We are so good to see you.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Yeah, it's very good to see you both. It's been
a very long time. Jamie Caitlin and I just.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Saw Yeah, we were hanging out in New York. I've
heard of it. No, tell me more, Noya, tell us
about your relationship with this movie.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
I was very excited first come out because I saw
the original sketch that Dwayne Perkins posted on his I
think ig and YouTube everywhere. It was so funny, and
we were friends at the time. I found like a
I don't remember where I found. I think I was
like messaging them and I saw this photo that they

(04:23):
had sent me of us hanging out.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
So I guess we were friends, you know, and.

Speaker 5 (04:29):
So sure, the way cowedy works, yeah, you don't always remember.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, I'm like, I did one show with Dwayne Perkins.
That means we're friends, right. He doesn't have any idea
who I am, but I we know each other.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
We've all yeah, we've all chose with him, and we're
all his close personal friends. I think it's safe to say.
I just checked. He follows me back on Twitter, so
we're actually really close. Oh we actually woke up next
to each other.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
Wow, we had like face book DM.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
So that's another level. That's another level old friendship.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, but yeah, I couldn't wait to see it.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
So I saw it the opening weekend, and I saw
it again and then I have Stars and I watched
it like four times on Stars.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Love it so much. Nice, It's one of my favorites.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
It's one of the three comedians that I know movies
that came out last year or the year before that rocks.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Okay, huge flex.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
Well listen, we all know people in movies and we're like, oh,
that's a possibility.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
I didn't even realize it could be hiring us.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
My manager has me in acting school now, and I'm like, okay, okay,
this might happen. I'm kind of old, so we'll see
maybe a Viola Davis in the works.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I love this. The thing I do every couple of
weeks is just like Google and it like fills right in.
So you know that every inspiring actor does it where
it's like actors who bloomed late. You're just and it's
like the same ten people every time, and you're like, yes, yes, yes,
it's an.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
At me and add me as well someday. Nice. So
you love the movie, You've seen it many times.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Seen him many times. I'm a big fan. Love the humor.
Something that I noticed right away in it is.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
That they had every type of black person represented, like
in the humor, in honestly the casting. So like, I'm
first generation, I'm Nigerian. They had a character for me.
They had a character that's supposed to be of like
the core subset or something or you know, just could
that's kind of what I've become in my old Dade.

(06:47):
So I was like, oh, I identify with a lot
of this. But yeah, they were jokes everybody.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
It was great.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
Hell yea, even the nerdy guy. Yeah, he's a little
bit of me too, praw nerds here. I feel like
I say.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
That what we contain multitudes? Jamie, how about you, what's
your relationship with the movie.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I mean, this is the second time I've seen it. Yeah,
I really enjoyed it. It was like a movie I
was really excited for last year. Also because just yeah,
Dwayne Perkins is an amazing stand up who I've seen
and performed with over the years, and it's just like
so exciting, like you were just saying no yet, Like
it's so exciting to be like, oh my god, wait
what you can and then to see him in particular,

(07:27):
because I mean, he's just like the person that I
show up to the movie for like just seeing him
shine and seeing him be a movie star. You're just like,
this is so fucking cool. It was really exciting. I
was excited to see it. I think it's a really
funny movie. I think it's like it feels like tonally,
it feels like a throwback, but it also has like

(07:48):
new ideas that I haven't seen in horror movies before.
It just felt like a really cool split of It
has the feel of a nineties like horror comedy to me,
and it also as all like but it is obviously
very very clearly made in the modern day. I just
really enjoyed it, and also as a big fan of
the original sketch, like, it was really really cool. I

(08:10):
think just again in a world where we are conditioned
to feel and so often it is true that artists,
and especially marginalized our artists are not able to like
make their own movies through these traditional channels. But like
here is an example of a sketch team that like
hustled on stage I think UCB forever and then got

(08:32):
like a chance to make a sketch for a couple
thousand dollars worth Comedy Central, and then made a huge
movie that people love, And I just think it's amazing,
it's really funny. I'm excited to talk about it, Kitlyn,
what's your history?

Speaker 3 (08:45):
I saw it in theaters. I was similarly excited for
it to come out. I was getting a lot of
like Instagram.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Ads yeah, and trailers for.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
It, and I was like, oh, I love Dwayne Perkins.
He's a hilarious stand up comic. As we've already said.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
It's just the Dwayne Perkins fan club, Yeah truly.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, So it seemed something that was like just very
up my alley because I love a horror comedy. Not
that I'm not a fan of like pretty straight horror,
but I seek it out probably the least of all
the major genres. But if you add some comedy in there,
then I'm way more likely to be on board. So

(09:25):
I was very excited to see it. I saw it
with some friends, we all enjoyed it, and then yeah,
I've watched it a couple times since then.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
It is a very rewatchable movie for sure.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Definitely, let's take a quick break and then we'll come
back to recap it. We're back, and here is the recap.

(09:57):
So we open on a couple Morgan and Sean played
by Yvonne Orgie and Jay Farrow, at a cabin in
the woods.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
This like continues the grand tradition that I feel like
was begun maybe by Scream.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
My horror movie.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Knowledge is not comprehensive, but like already you open the
movie with the two kind of most famous people in
the movie and then they die, Like it's just a
time honored tradition. You see two famous people and you're
just like, we're gonna lose them, We're gonna lose them.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Yeah, you're like, oh, they had only the budget to
pay them for one day.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
If they had at most a day and a half
with these two famous people.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
Yeah, they make that joke in the movie too, like yeah,
they're just like, yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
You don't want to be someone a little too famous
at a horror movie, you're Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
So they are at this house and they're waiting for
their other friends to arrive for a college reunion slash
Juneteenth celebration. But right now it's night and it's spooky,
and there's a masked person lurking outside watching them through
the window, and they discover this game room in the house,

(11:12):
and in the middle of the room is this board
game called The Blackening, and it's this very weird, creepy
thing where there's a face that looks like blackface minstrel
kind of.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Thing, like old racist toys.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
Yeah, or like any cartoon that was made before the fifties,
you know.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
So that's kind of like the centerpiece of the game board.
And out of curiosity, they start playing. And the first
question is name a black character who survives in a
horror movie. Answer correctly, or you die, and they kind
of brush it off. They're not taking it seriously and

(11:54):
they don't answer before the time limit, and then a
masked man, the one who was lurking outside, shows up
and kills them.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
I could answer that question, please, So like I was,
I wanted to, like yell at the screen during the
first time I saw it, I could yell at the
screen because it was one of those theaters spear in
the movie sphere, which I feel like is a horror movie.
I love horror movies, and I would categorize that as
a horror movie.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Okay, I don't think I've seen that.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
Yeah, Samuel Jackson's character survives, but they all, all of
them technically survive. I think two of them might, like, Okay,
I don't know. I think two people do actually die,
but Samuel L. Jackson survives. I don't remember his character's
name though. Okay, so what I have been murdered?

Speaker 4 (12:35):
Probably, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
I don't know. I mean, yeah, it depends you might
have gotten away on a technicality.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
Yeah right.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
I hope you never are in a situation where you
find out. So J Parrow's character is killed and then
Yvonne Orgy's character is like abducted. Cut to the other
friends who that couple was waiting for. I think it's
the next day. They're in the car on their way

(13:03):
to the cabin. We meet Dwayne played by Dwayne Perkins.
Alison played by Grace Buyers and Lisa played by Antoinette Robertson.
It's established that Alison and Lisa can kind of communicate telepathically,
not in a like literal sci fi way, more in
like a jokey way. We're like like a best friend,

(13:26):
right close friends, just know what the other one is thinking.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
We're just all black people too, because I've done it
with people at stop and shop, done it with people
on the train. One woman actually communicated to me that
my lace in my wig was lifting.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Oh and then she handed me a clip.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
So just all with the eyes, so beautiful.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
I feel like black people, people of color, we can
do it with each other.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, white people cannot know in fact, we in fact
do the opposite. Yeah, okay. So then we also meet
Shanika played by x Mayo. She is in a separate car.
She stops at a convenience store for some snacks, where
a creepy white guy is working behind the counter. She

(14:13):
also bumps into Clifton played by Jermaine Fowler, who she
didn't realize was coming to the reunion. Then we meet
King played by Melvin Gregg, who is already at the
cabin where a white park ranger whose name is Ranger White,
cher White Yea and later Ranger White White.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
He's played by Dietrich Bader. He's giving King a hard
time because he thinks King is trying to break into
the cabin. But then the others show up and they're like, no,
we're renting this place for the weekend, so Ranger White leaves.
We also meet Namdi played by Cinqua Walls. He is handsome, Yeah,

(14:57):
he's handsome for sure. Dwayne does like him because Namdi
and Lisa used to date, but he cheated on her
a bunch and like Dwayne was always there to kind
of pick up the pieces. But Namdi and Lisa are
back together, which is something that will like create tension
among them throughout the movie. They settle into the house

(15:18):
or the cabin. There's some creepy vibes. Alison notices the
door to the game room and she's like, once that,
but it's locked. Then they start drinking and doing molly
and playing spades. They reflect as a group how some
of them have changed or how they haven't changed since college.

(15:38):
They're all kind of not sure why Clifton is there.
He wants to learn how to play spades, but they
don't want to be bothered teaching him.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
Do you too know how to play spades?

Speaker 3 (15:51):
No? I do not.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
I play it.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
Periodically, but we like actually had a tournament this Christmas.
It was like me and my sister and my little
brother and my husband and my sister and my husband
were together because they're like best friends and my little
brother were together.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
We won every single time. It was crazy.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
Hell yeah, nicely done.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
They were terrible. We got to know my husband is white,
so that might be why they lost, you know.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Sure, Yeah, I've always been curious about it. Is it
similar to the game Hearts?

Speaker 5 (16:17):
It's just like Hearts, okay, but only you have to
In Hearts you don't have to like predict how many
books you're gonna win, how many hands are gonna win,
But in Spades you have to predict, and then you
lose points or gain points if you hit it exactly right,
got it?

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Yeah? Cool.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
I never advanced from like go Fish and Slapjack.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Unfortunately, I know how to play some game. I know
how to play Hearts, I know how to play Canasta.
Anyone else out there in the world, No, what's that
slide into my DMS? If you're a Big Canasta Head.
It's a two deck traditionally card game, although there are
versions of it where you can play with more den

(17:00):
It's similar to bridge in the sense that like a
lot of like old white ladies play it.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
So black people love bridge too, though, Okay, okay, nice.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
That's what I just assume all old people are doing
in social situations. Yeah, just playing, yeah, playing bridge.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
In any case. So Clifton's like, I want to play spades,
but they're mostly just dismissing him because he's like not
really their friend and they're not sure why he's there.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
I think it's nice of them that they like didn't
kick him out. I know that plot was, but like
they could have been meaner.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
True.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
Yeah, they made him a drink, they got him a chair,
he took his bag.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
That's nice.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
I feel like he has like sort of the Revenge
of the Nerds syndrome right where it's like, oh, like
everyone is like, oh, well, he's kind of a misfit,
you know, he's just lonely, and you're like, no, no,
you've trusted baby Elon Musk.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
Don't let him.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, spoiler alert.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
Okay, So then suddenly the lights go out and Lisa
notices something or someone lurking outside. They're very creeped out.
They search the house for a fuse box, and they
realize that all the doors in the house are now locked,
except for that game room from earlier. They enter it
and discover that same game, the Blackening Game, which has

(18:26):
game pieces specific to each of them, so they think
it's their friend Morgan messing with them, so they start
to play. Then the very racist face on the game
says pick a card and save Morgan, and they're like,
what do you mean, save Morgan? And then a TV
turns on in the room showing Morgan tied up and

(18:47):
trapped somewhere, and the game is like, if you answer
ten questions correctly, Morgan lives and you're all free to go,
but if you get one wrong, she dies, so they
have no choice but to pay. They start playing, and
it's questions about black history and black pop culture. They
get several correct until they get to a trick question

(19:11):
about the show Friends Hilarious. They get it wrong and
it seems like Morgan is about to be killed, but
she manages to get away and they realize that she's
in the basement, so they try to open the door,
but then the masked killer comes through the door and

(19:32):
is shooting arrows at them with a crossbow. A few
of them get injured, but then they stab the killer
in the foot and shoot at him with the gun
that King brought, so the killer kind of scurries off.
The group ends back up in the game room and
the killer forces them to keep playing the game. For

(19:52):
the next round, they have to sacrifice the person who
they deem to be the quote unquote blackest and send
them out to face the killer because normally in horror movies,
the black character always dies first, so they all select
Clifton since again he's not really their friend. So Clifton

(20:13):
goes outside and the killer shoots him with an arrow
and drags him away. Then the friends are like, all right,
we're done with this. We're not playing your game anymore,
and the Killer's like, okay, well, guess what. It's the
sudden death round pretty literally where you can either stay
in the house and like hide or go outside and

(20:34):
try to escape, but either way I'm coming for you.
So Dwayne, Lisa, and Nomdi decide to stay inside while Shinika, Allison,
and King go outside to make a run for it.
The inside group goes into the basement to try to
find Morgan. They don't, but they find some other creepy shit.

(20:56):
So they go back upstairs.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
And everyone is like acknowledging every hard ror movie trope
at every single step. It's yes, that don't split up trope,
and then don't go down stairs trope.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
I do just love a horror movie where all the
characters have seen horror movies, right, and then do it anyways,
it's beautiful.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Oh my god, Yeah, that's always great.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
I just saw a Korean film, like a Korean horror
movie that was basically that the whole thing was just
them going to an asylum, which everyone was like, maybe
you shouldn't do this splitting up.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
Everyone said, maybe you.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
Shouldn't do this m hm, sacrificing the weakest and she
immediately dies.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Terrible.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, I mean I feel like the Blackening sort of
demonstrates sometimes it's just a pragmatic choice. It didn't not
make sense.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
Right, Yeah, when Allison is like explaining the whole thing,
it's like, yeah, maybe it does make sense for you
to split up. Actually, yeah. Anyway, so they find some
creepy shit, so they go back upstairs and run into
Rain White from earlier. He seems to be an ally
who wants to help them, so they proceed but with caution. Meanwhile,

(22:11):
the outside group is trying to get to a main road,
but the killer finds them and is shooting arrows at them.
They fight back and Alison eventually kills him. They pull
off his mask and it's the creepy man from the
convenience store, a guy named Camden Connor. But they realize

(22:35):
that he's wearing different boots than whoever they had stabbed
in the foot, so there must be more than one killer.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
They screen from the multiple killers.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah. Meanwhile, Ranger White is trying to get the other
group to safety, but he like, here's a noise. He
goes to check it out. There's a moment where they
think he might be the killer because they find one
of the masks in his vehicle, But then Ranger White
gets killed and it turns out he was an ally

(23:08):
all along. They run back into the house. Dwayne gets
separated from the other two for a bit, but then
you know, they reunite inside. The other killers after them,
but they managed to kill him too after Dwayne pukes
on his face. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
The real I feel like I would throw up a
baska and chased right.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
I really love that you just like flew through that,
like after he throws up anything like that's actually a
really impactful moment in the film.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to overshadow it.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
And something else you skipped from the other death is
like they reference the dance scene from Scary movie.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Oh, I forgot about that.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
This is cinema.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
It's all a references.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
So now everyone is back inside. They've killed the two killers.
They pull off the second person's mask and he looks
just like the other guy and his name is Clive Connor.
It turns out they are twins, but it seems like
they were both hired by someone else to kill this
group of friends. Then Dwayne, Shanika, Lisa, and Nomdi go

(24:21):
back down to the basement to try to find their
other friends, Morgan and Sean. Instead, they find Clifton, who
appears to be dead.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, another like saw coded moment.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
He appeared, oh right, and then he stands up.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
There is nothing more fun to be in a horror
movie when all of a sudden someone goes You're just like, whoa,
it's the best. It's like, yeah, it's just how like
I wake up every day and it's funny to watch it.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Yes, So there's a newspaper clipping on Clifton about an
incid from ten years ago where he killed someone in
a drunk driving accident, and they're like, what's this about,
and then twist, Clifton wakes up. Basically the saw music
is playing. No no no, no no no no no no. Yeah,

(25:18):
he is the mastermind. He's the bad guy behind all
of this. He traps them inside the basement and we
learn that he's basically enacting revenge against them because on
this night ten years ago, they were all at a
Juneteenth party playing spades and Clifton made a mistake during
the game and then everyone gave him shit for it

(25:40):
and he got really embarrassed, and he got drunk for
the first time ever, drove home and killed someone in
this drunk driving accident, and his life has been in
shambles ever since, with jail time and everything. So he's
getting revenge and the friends are trying to form a
plan to disarm Clifton using their like close friends' telepathy abilities,

(26:06):
but it doesn't work because he also can hear them
and Meanwhile, upstairs, Alison and King find a remote control
on one of the dead guys, and they're trying to
figure out how to unlock the basement, but they accidentally
turn off all the lights. So the friends in the
basement use this as an opportunity to fight back against Clifton.

(26:27):
There's a scuffle and they eventually defeat and kill Clifton
and like throw him into this very deep well. So
the six friends having all survived, they're now outside trying
to figure out what to do. They know that calling
the cops is a horrible idea.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
And by this time the credits are inexplicably running right.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
I don't know why. This is like a post credits moment.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Feels like a studio decision.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
I don't know it could be. So rather than calling
the cops, they call the fire department, but then they
still get sprayed down, and that's like the little button
that ends the movie.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
It's hilarious, so funny when I remember seeing that the
first time, I like, spit out my drink is so funny. Also,
something you left out.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
Clifton starts laughing from the bottom of the.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Well, so he might not be dead.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
That there's gonna be a second exactly, there's gonna be
a second film, which I know they're working on now.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yes, I saw that very excited. Let's take another quick
break and then we'll come back to discuss and oh,
we're back, and we're back. Where should we start? No yet?

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Does anywhere jump up for you? Where would you like
to start?

Speaker 1 (27:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (27:54):
There's some moments I just love. I really liked when
they sing the Sister Act song to each other. Sister Act,
So if you want to be somebody and you want
to go somewhere, you gotta wake up and pay attention.
So me and my sisters will randomly just like sing
that to each other, and whatever's happening calls for it,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (28:14):
So I like seeing that in a movie.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
And then I did like the part where the really hot.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
Woman played by Antonette Lisa was saying why do black
women have to save.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Everybody all at the goddamn time when she's like.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
Killing the guy, and I was like, yeah, that's my.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
That was my little like, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
Like Black House, black women power movement moment for the movie.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
I feel like that's kind of part of a larger thing,
which is that like, women are allowed to do things
in this movie in a way that they're often not
allowed to do things in most movies, where like, you know,
obviously it's Shanika, Alison, and Lisa, they're you know, answering

(29:04):
the questions of the game. They're fighting back against the killer.
And I didn't clock any moment where a woman had
to be saved by a man, but we do see
Alison save King when the killer is descending on him.
In the woods, we have women killing the two masked minions. Okay, bellow,

(29:28):
Alison kills one and Lisa kills the other one. I
also appreciated that a queer character, Dwayne kills the final
big bads. So it's like you have characters who are
not normally even allowed to participate, well.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Not even allowed to live and yeah, to live to participate.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah right. It's no surprise that a black woman co
wrote this script.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
I wanted to shout her out because Tracy Oliver is
I think, like a modern icon in comedy writing just
in general, because she started. I mean, she was the
writer who co kicked off Isa Ray's career with the
Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl back in twenty eleven. Yeah,
I'll never forget for some reason, like she and Issa

(30:16):
Ray came to speak at my school when I was
like a sophomore in or like a freshman or software
in college about that web series, and she's gone on
to have such a cool career, and like she was
a co writer on Girls Trip. She wrote a Barbershop sequel,
which the director of this movie, Tim Story, was also
the director of the original Barbershop, amongst many, many many

(30:41):
other movies. I'm sorry, I have scholarly journal Wikipedia up
two thousand's fantastic four, interesting deep cut. I think like
a Man one and two, the Shaft.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Reboot, ride Along and Ride Along too.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
If there's one thing Tim's Story is gonna do, it's
stick with his franchises. But yeah, like a lot of
sort of modern icons are involved in this movie. I
totally agree with you, Kitlin, and I love how much
agency the women in this story have. I do wish
that we had more like because obviously it's a huge

(31:17):
ensemble cast, you have to be very careful about like
what relationships you're giving focus to. I do wish that
there was more relationships between women that were given focus
because I do feel like it was mostly the relationships
between women and men, whether it was romantic or not.
There didn't feel like a strong core friendship between women,
and I felt like, I don't know, I wanted that,

(31:39):
and you could tell everyone as friends, but there wasn't
like an ongoing sort of story between women, and I
wish that that was there.

Speaker 5 (31:47):
I did write down all the instances where the women
were talking to each other about something other than a man, yeah,
or not involving a man, and it was like always
about drugs or spades.

Speaker 4 (31:58):
And then there's like The.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Sister, which powerful interaction nonetheless, but.

Speaker 5 (32:05):
Exactly it's like, I'm glad there's a movie where women
are talking about these things. But yeah, you're right, they
didn't really you didn't really feel that much depth of
their relationship unless it was the talking to each other telepathically,
because the women did that with each other a lot. Yeah,
but they weren't really talking about anything deep. But that's
also refreshing because as black person, nothing takes me out

(32:29):
of a movie more when all of a sudden there's
a deep conversation when it's a silly movie and you
know about whatever we go through in day to day
life as black people it's like, Okay, well this was
a comedy and so yeah, until you were like, oh
my life, I've had to fight and they literally are
fighting for their lives.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Here and you can barely complain, which I loved. I
love that.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
I think what would have helped for me is because
we get there's only one real subplot in the movie,
which is the relationship situation between Lisa and Amdi, and
then Dwayne's sort of resentment of that, so the three
of them are kind of embroiled in this subplot. So
I think what would have been nice is if the

(33:13):
other three characters had their own subplot, and that would
have allowed Alison and Shanika to have a subplot, and
then we would have seen Shanika and Alison interacting more
and have a better understanding of their friendship or something
along those lines, where like an entire subplot revolved around

(33:34):
at least two of the women and we could get
a better sense of their friendship. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (33:39):
I do feel like they attempted that with the adderall yeah,
that Shanika gives Allison, and then also with King being
so injured, like.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
Just shot immediately and then shot in the same place, right,
they had to rescue him.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
I feel like that was the attempt at that, but
maybe they cut some things. I don't know, Yeah, because
it didn't seem like a full sub story at all.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Right, Yeah, that was the thing that I had written
down where it was just like I want the studio
notes and production history of this movie, Like what was
there that got cut? Because it is like a tight movie.
It's an hour and a half my favorite kind of movie.
Not complaining. I love when a movie is not three
hours so long. It's my favorite.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Unless it's Titanic and that's the only exception.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
To that, and that it has to be three hours long.
But like, I'm not complaining about the link that I
am curious, like, because you have an eight person cast,
which relationships were explored in earlier drafts? What was left?
And why did the relationships that are focused on end
up being focused on? Because I'm honestly, I mean, I
like non d It just felt like, yeah, it ultimately

(34:46):
kind of ended up like the subplot ended up revolving
around this kind of like this straight couple from college,
and you have more interesting dynamics right there. I don't
know I'm being picky, but that said, I think that
the dynamic between Lisa and Douayne is really interesting and
not one that you see often explored of just kind

(35:08):
of how he it seems like in college was her
closest friend who she would go to when her relationship
wasn't going well, but not when her relationship was going good.
And that's a rare thing to see explored, And I
thought it was really well done. I just wish you
just got to see more between like especially with like Shanika.

(35:31):
I felt like there was a ton of opportunities for
her to like be characterized a little more because x
MAO is so funny and like can do anything. I
was like, give her more to do, you know, but
it's only an hour and a half, So what are
you gonna do?

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (35:46):
Right? Something I do like about her character is that
she swims in the lake because you know, this movie
has an agenda to like dispel a lot of tropes
or examine popular tropes, whether they be racist tropes or
just sort of general tired movie tropes, and one of them,

(36:09):
she says something like, Oh, I'm gonna swim to the
other side. I can see like houses on the other
side of the lake. They probably assume we can't even swim.
But then King is like, well I can't, and she's like,
way to be a stereotype, but you know, then she
swims in the lake. Also, she is a fat character

(36:29):
and she's the only one who does a physical activity
like this, which is also rare to see in a
movie where a fat character is written to do some
kind of physical activity like this. So I appreciated that
different stereotypes were unraveled there.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
I love that too.

Speaker 5 (36:46):
Yeah, I love that because in elementary school, like my
biggest friend was the one who like swam the fastest,
ran the fastest, and it was nice to see that
represented in a movie because you're right, you never see that,
you know.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Then also like I grew up.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
In a family where we all swam, you know, so
that was also nice. Yeah, and it made sense. The
character that they had say I can't swim made sense
like socioeconomically too, because he was like supposed to be
this character that seems as though he was from an
inner city where a lot of people don't know how
to swim, not just the black people, like if you

(37:21):
don't have access to pools. So I love that they
it seemed like they even thought about that.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, it would take like the length of three episodes
to go through the amount of detail this script goes through.
And just like, especially in the trivia sequences, I feel
you're getting a lot of like really overt references to
black pop culture. But like, also there's just a million
tiny moments in this movie where it's just like effortlessly

(37:48):
kind of taking down what you're expected to see in
a horror movie by just like letting the characters be
the characters. And that's the best mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Obviously, huge theme of this movie is the story kind
of examining this idea of black as a spectrum, where
you know, some black people are quote unquote more black
than others based on interests or lifestyle or things like that.

(38:20):
And ultimately the movie comes down on the side of
there's no such thing as a black spectrum and it's
harmful to think that, although you do see the characters
like having to work through that and learn that because
they're talking about, oh, well, this person's more black than
this person because xyz. And there's a whole scene predicated

(38:43):
on that, and that's the scene that the original sketch
by the comedy Troupe three p right, It's like this
whole movie is based on that.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I was kind of waiting for that in the whole
because I was like, are they going to do the
sketch is the movie?

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Are they going to do the sketch?

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Because it was like a real famous sketch, and they
did the sketch I felt so it was like they
basically said the title of I mean they do also
say the title of the movie and the VideA You're just.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Like they did the sketch. Yes, So like, ultimately the
characters have to learn that, you know, it's their differences
that make them special and there's no one way to
be black and it's not as cheesy as I'm making
it sound in the movie.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
I feel like they did already know that, and it's
very it's very funny that the character that didn't know
that Clifton was the one who even designed the game,
because they even say like what do you mean who's
the blackest? Like they're even like, what do you mean?
That doesn't make sense? And the things that they say
in that scene are so funny because they're usually the
things that are said to people to be like, oh,

(39:51):
you're not black enough, Like the thing they say to
Nomdi where it's like, oh, your original recipe black because
you're from Africa. That's usually that they that's said to
be to take away some blackness from a person, So
they like definitely thought about that.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, And also like Alison's Alison as a biracial character too,
and she is sort of repeatedly like dunked on forrit
kind of clown on for it, and that she defends
herself and like, and I also just love the sort
of contrivance that it's like basically a college reunion where
they all know each other, and it just like builds

(40:27):
the perfect world to be like, oh, I'm just going
to project who I was ten years ago on to
this person, and then you have to be like, well,
wait a second, why am I giving Namdi shit? Why
am I giving Alison shit the same way I did
ten years ago? And you sort of see the characters
organically grow through having to do that, and it's still
funny because they've known each other for ten years, so

(40:48):
they don't have to be like polite about it.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Another thing I really liked with Alison's character, There is
a stereotype in the black community, especially at the academic
level where the mixed race kids are gonna be in
every like African American studies class, they're really gonna try
really really hard to learn every little ounce of like
black history. And they keep bringing that up with her character.

(41:15):
You know, she's the one that knew all the words
of the black national anthem.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
She's wearing a.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
Yeah, I thought that was really funny. Yeah, they really
did think of all the tropes they did, it was great.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
But even in like addressing all of these tropes, every
character had humanity. Like there was no character that it
felt like even if it was like a very sort
of like broad like Jermaine Fowler's character, who I feel
like is maybe the least you know, like given any
respect because he famously voted for Trump, which is the

(41:52):
quickest way to lose respect for a character. But yeah,
that I would imagine, as Dwayne Perkins and Tracy Oliver
are ready script it has to be such a like
tricky like needle to thread of like how do we
show these stereotypes, debunk them and have these characters have
individual humanity? But they did it it just like it's

(42:15):
a really thoughtful script in that way.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
Yeah, Yeah, they did an excellent job, because at no
point did I feel like I was watching a very
like stereotypical movie. I just I felt like, oh, this
was written by black people, and I can tell and
I feel very represented. Everyone that I watched the movie
with felt represented and it was good. I was gonna
ask you, guys, when did you realize that Clipton was

(42:41):
the murder? Because I realized it immediately in the in
the convenience store.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Yeah, he's being very suss.

Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
No. I feel like there are so many like red
herrings presented at the beginning of this movie where you're like, well,
even if it does have to do with the scariest
guy we've seen so far, it's probably not actually him
who's nearby and it's Clifton And yeah. I mean that
weirdly goes into conversations we've been having on the show
forever with like the Revenge of the Nerds kind of trope,

(43:11):
where it's like, oh, in the eighties and into the nineties,
there was this whole idea of you know that the
nerd character is owed to something by others around them,
and that we have wronged them, and that there is
a wrong to be made right. And now it's like
there's almost like an automatic like, Oh, he's not a
bad guy, he's just lonely, he's just a misfit. And

(43:34):
now I feel like that's come all the way around
because the world is run by cruel nerds. Yeah, so
when I see a Nerds stock character, I'm automatically like, well,
I don't know. In twenty twenty three, when the movie
get like, you know, we can't be so sure that
we're supposed to be on this guy's side exactly either way.

(43:56):
Thrilled the feature main Fowler don't care in what capacity?

Speaker 4 (44:00):
Right, That's true. He's always good to see.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah. That was the thing for me where I was
like very immediately suspicious of him, and I was like, oh,
he's probably the killer, partly because Jermaine Fowler is like
not playing to type at all.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Normally he's like, you know, a very smooth, sexy person.
Not that Nerds can't be sexy obviously, but like.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
We're about to get a five hundred emails excuse me,
obviously we're nerds.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
Yeah hello, and we do fine. No, but he's playing
not to type with this character. So I was like,
hmm that I bet that's like indicative of something about
his character. But then when he goes outside and gets
shot with the crossbow, I was like, I guess it's
not him. And then there's you know, the red herring
of Ranger White showing up and you're like, oh, is

(44:51):
he an ally? Isn't he? Can they or can they
not trust him? And he gives that like monologue about oh,
if I was invited to the cookout, be honored, but
I wouldn't go because I know that that would, like
my presence, there would be a disturbance of an all
black space and I wouldn't want to do that and
all this stuff, and they're like, oh, that's actually a
pretty good answer. But then they find the mask in

(45:12):
his car and you don't know if you can trust
him or not, and then ultimately he dies and he
was seems like he was trying to help them. So
I've found that kind of rollercoaster of like can we
can we not trust this character to be amusing?

Speaker 4 (45:28):
I guess, yeah, that was good.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
It's a good fake out. Yeah, because it's also like,
I mean, this movie is doing so much at once,
where like it's straddling genres, it's trying to dispel all
of these timeoutit tropes, and it's just like trying to
create a coherent horror movie where there's like the right
amount of fake out villains and the right amount of

(45:50):
twists and it does everything. Yeah, I thought that twist made.
It's so cynical. But like, as a now horror movie fan,
when Dark Ranger White returned, I just looked at where
we were in the run time and it was like, well,
it's not him. Yep, Like, based on the run time,
it's not him. But I wonder how it will end
up not being him?

Speaker 5 (46:12):
Right, that's true because it's like we just watched too
many movies now, or like you guys especially probably watch
any movies.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
We're pilled.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
We know the formulas. It's true, it's bad. I also
just want to shout out Duwayne the character, Dwayne the
person and writer and actor in this movie. It was
very important to Dwayne Perkins that there be a representation
of a queer character who's not just like the gay
best friend who has like very little actual characterization, who's

(46:44):
just there to be, you know, a stereotype and make
little jokes and stuff like that. And so obviously he
put a lot of care into writing and performing this
character that has dimension. Again, he's a participant in this
subplot with Lisa nom Dy, and it really focuses I
think on I.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Think Lisa and Duyanne are kind of like, if you
had to choose central characters, I feel like it's them
for sure.

Speaker 4 (47:10):
For sure.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah, so you know, I appreciate that he has this
subplot that characterizes him a bit more. And yeah, it
was again just important to Dwayne Perkins. He was talking
about especially the intersection of being black and queer, and
he wanted to really focus on that and make sure
that that character is someone who other people could see

(47:35):
and look up to.

Speaker 5 (47:36):
So exactly, So, how do you guys feel about I'm
gonna do a deep black question. Two of the dark
the dark skinned characters did die first, but then they
have Namdi, who arguably is like maybe darker than both
of them, who does survive, and then everyone else is
like somewhat light skinned.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Oh you mean, with Morgan and Sean dying first. Yeah,
that is something that I feel like this movie would
have actually tried to avoid, and it's kind of surprising
that it went din Yeah right, yeah, because they do
talk about colorism in the movie and there's this running
joke of like Aunt Viv from Fresh Prince, and she's

(48:17):
eventually replaced by a lighter skinned actor. And there's another
moment where the group I think it's the ones who
stay in the house, and like after it's like the
sudden death thing, and one of the characters says, oh,
typical for like the killer to go for the darker
people first. So they're acknowledging colorism, and so it is still.

Speaker 5 (48:38):
I will say that Lisa was also dark skinned, so like,
two dark skinned people survive, but you died first.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
Uh oh makes you think?

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, that also registered for me, And I sort of
went back to like, well, they are the two most
famous cast members, and I was wondering, like, is it
a legiti thing, because it feels clear that for the
most part, I think that this movie was written for
certain actors in mind ideally, but the first two people,

(49:10):
I mean, I guess if I'm playing Devil's advocate, I
would guess that the first two characters who die were
just written as the first two characters who die. Obviously
they're black characters. But I'm sort of wondering if it's
like whatever, the most famous black woman and those famous
black men that want to be in this movie, We'll
go with them. And then, like in retrospect, it sort

(49:30):
of ended up like you're saying, which makes total sense
of they are darker. I don't know, what do you think?
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
I literally asked that question to like see if you
guys would freak out. But I'm just kidding. It was.
It works.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
I'm so sorry for falling apart.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
I was sort of like yvon Orgy and j Ferrah.
I mean, they're both so famous, so of course they
don't have more than two days to commit to that exactly.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:59):
Yeah, and I I do feel like the lead story,
other than them fighting off a murderer, being between nom D, Lisa,
and Duyne was because like those three actors, I feel
like this was like kind of their vehicle.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
It was definitely Duyne's vehicle. And then Antoinette.

Speaker 5 (50:18):
I keep calling her Antoinette because it's just like her
real name, and nam D I'm not gonna saying his
real name. They're also pretty famous. Yeah, so I wonder
if that's why the other characters kind of got cut away,
not saying that they're not a saerience because X Mayo
is very famous, Like, so is Grace Byers Chris Byers.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah, I mean as an Empire fan.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
I love Empire.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Oh my god, yeah, as an Empire fan, like that
was one of my first.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
Like, oh, I know, I was excited to see her.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Her husband was in Origin too, which I love. So
that was pretty Oh wow. He's been doing stuff. He's
been directing a lot too. But I just feel like
they definitely were put every movie. You can tell who
they're pushing right, who they're trying to say, you know,
hello to Hollywood's book them in more things. And I
feel like that other storyline, like the romantic storyline, was that.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
That was my thought about it.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Yeah that makes sense.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
Yeah, so hopefully it worked. Hopefully Dane will be more things.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Oh god. I mean, like, regardless of any criticism anyone
has of this movie, if Dwayne Perkins ends up being
a movie star, then we want it's gravy. It's fine.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Yeah, we're good. Yeah, our close personal best friend, Dwayne.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Perkins, he's like actually on the phone right now with us.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yeah, he's just shot Facebook messaging.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
I will say that one of the members of the
comedy Troupe three Pete who made the original sketch, which
I believe has disbanded a few years ago. But one
of the original members was my friend Namdi. I don't
think the character Namdi was really based on him. I
think they're just like, who are the people that were
in this grooves? A lot of the characters have the

(52:01):
same names as the members of this group, but not
played by the same actors, with the exception of Dwayne Perkins.
But yeah, I think Namdi is like supposed to be
my friend Namdi, so there's little flex.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
So were they involved, like the other people in the
sketch group? Were they involved in the film? I actually
don't look that up.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
If they are, I couldn't really tell they or not.
I wasn't sure I did really in any sort of
like writing capacity.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
I certainly hope they were compensated because this movie was
very much made off of the very successful comedy Central Sketch.
But yeah, I wasn't able to find information about it.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Yeah. Another thing I wanted to point out, just a
small criticism of the movie, but this is a movie
that's guilty of having one of the villains have a
facial difference. Yeah, one of the twins has one eye.

(53:00):
And we've talked about this huge trope in especially horror movies.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
But disability representing evil.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Yeah, villain will have a facial difference and it's meant
to telegraph to the audience like this is how we
know they're a villain, or this is part of why
they're a villain. And this is a very harmful trope
obviously that the movie does still participate in. I feel like, similarly,

(53:28):
one of the villains has asthma and uses an inhaler,
the way that a lot of movie villains are often
written to have a breathing condition. So this movie does
still lean into some tropes, not in a way that
I feel like it was malicious. It was more just like, oh,
I'm writing a horror movie. What do horror movies do?

(53:49):
And like they just maybe didn't consider the harmful implications
of some of the tropes.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
Even the makeup they put on Officer White. The makeup
they put on him was to make him look weird.
Like the way that his face was done in production
was to be like, oh, something's wrong with him, something's
a little off, even though he you know, he has
a red herring.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
Like even in that and Clifton.

Speaker 5 (54:15):
Also, he seemed like he might have been like on
the spectrum a little bit, which was also not great.
They were really doing basically a caricature of that with
the Clifton character, and I don't know if that's the
way it was written or if that's just the way
you know, the performance went.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
I agree. I had a similar note no, yeah, yeah
that it just felt like there and again I want
the studio notes history of this, because you don't need
to other white characters very much to make them suspicious.
It just felt like almost like sort of a default,
like less thoughtful choice by whoever. I have no idea

(54:57):
like is this a writer choice, this is a director choice?
Is studio choice? I have no idea, but in a
movie that yeah, it is like so you know, based
on taking down all of what you're meant to assume
in a horror movie, it felt like yeah, especially with disability,
it was not as.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Juicy, right, but the movie does yes, fun and funny.
I also want to shout out the predominantly black production team.
We've already talked about the director and the writers. There's
also the team of producers is mostly black. The cinematographer

(55:41):
Todd a dos Race, the music Dexter, story and production
designer Cecil Gentry, all black filmmakers.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
It's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Wow cool, And I might be leaving some people out,
but those are, like, you know, some of the main
creative decision makers. So just wanted to shout those.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Shout out to Lionsgate.

Speaker 5 (56:01):
Allie's choosing diverse programming, so that's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
They did joy Ride.

Speaker 5 (56:06):
Also they do a bunch of my favorite television shows. Yeah,
the Power Universe is Lionsgate, so yeah, nice.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
And also just you know, box office wise, this movie
was made for five million dollars. Wow, which is wild,
especially because this is in last year dollars. This is
in current dollars, and it more than tripled its budget,
which is you know, I don't know. I feel like
so often, especially with movies that are made by black directors,

(56:37):
by marginalized directors in general, or by women, I mean
just any marginalized director, it's always brought to like, well,
you know, like if you can't get butts in seats,
you can't tell us blah blah. But like, this movie
tripled its budget. If there are not more movies like
The Blackening or more movies from this creative team coming out.

(56:58):
It is a structural There is no argument for this
boofy being unsuccessful. It tripled its budget and it's funny
and everyone liked it. So yeah, I don't know, I'm
like getting ahead of it, but I'm like, shut up
in it.

Speaker 5 (57:15):
Well, I do know that they're working on a second one.
Well it's yet to be seen if it actually comes out,
because those state of things you never know, but hopefully.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Right, Yeah, yeah, people are trying to just like delete
Hollywood in general, but we'll see, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
We shall Does anyone have anything else they'd like to discuss.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
The only other thing I had to say was like,
I feel as if anytime there is a like niche
movie that comes out so like a genre movie, basically
like a horror movie, it's always like, oh, this is
the first horror movie directed by a woman, and it's
like treated like that, or this is the first black
horror movie, and you know, this is not something that

(57:58):
is big endorsed by the blackening. It clearly draws from
the legacy of black horror movies. But if you enjoyed
this movie, there is a whole genre of black horror movies.
In case you need to hear that, because I feel
like the way that Hollywood marketing works is very often
any movie by a marginalized director is made to seem

(58:20):
like the first movie that's ever existed, and that thankfully
is very rarely actually true. And so if you enjoyed
The Blackening, there are so many movies like The Blackening
going back decades, and you should check them out.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
I would also recommend the documentary called Horror Noir, A
History of Black Horror, which examines tropes and you know,
horror movies in general centering black characters or that involve
black characters. But it's a really good documentary that breaks
a lot of that down. So HI highly recommend.

Speaker 5 (58:57):
On the same subject, You guys are very right. There
are a lot of horror films by black people that
I loved in like the seventies, eighties, like every decade.

Speaker 4 (59:06):
But would you.

Speaker 5 (59:08):
Consider Leprechaun in the Hood a black horror movie?

Speaker 3 (59:14):
I cannot safely say because I've never seen it.

Speaker 4 (59:17):
Oh what would you know?

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (59:23):
No, okay, but I feel like it was marketed that way,
Like it definitely was marketed to black people.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
I was like, Oh, there are.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
Lots of black people in miss I'm like, because he's
in the hood, he's still played by he's played by
a famous white man.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
A Leprechaun Allprechon.

Speaker 4 (59:42):
Yeah, lepre in the Hood.

Speaker 5 (59:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Yeah, We've covered five hundred movies, but that is not
one of them.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
I mean, I feel like it definitely. I understand why
you haven't. I'll say that right now. I think Warwick Davis.

Speaker 5 (59:59):
Honestly when it even tell people to watch it at
this point, but it has become sort of a classic.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
So I mean, if you want to come back on
the show and talk about a movie with us, you
are more than welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Yeah, a camp movie is a camp movie. Is a
camp movie.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (01:00:16):
Yeah, I haven't rewatched it recently, but I do have
vivid memories of it, just like it just would not
be okay in the stage or maybe it would maybe
do great because of the way things are going.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
But it shouldn't be God.

Speaker 5 (01:00:30):
So like maybe, Yeah, if you guys want to watch it,
I don't think you're gonna like it, but only.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
One way to find out.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Wait, yeah, I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
It's like a Howard the Duck type vibe. I don't
know if you saw that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
I mean, I've seen a clip. I haven't seen any
of the Leprechaun movies, no, but I've seen clips from
at least one of them, and it seems goofy as hell. Yeah,
does anyone have anything else before we Bechdel test it?

Speaker 4 (01:00:59):
No, let's back to test it. I feel like it's
going to be good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
It does pass. Yeah, Lisa, Shanika, and Alison all talk
to each other in different combinations, both verbally and telepathically,
and so that makes it kind of an interesting and
novel pass.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
A telepathic pass, but it definitely passes.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Yes, So yeah, kind of that's all there's about it.

Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
And they talk about something other than a man, although
in the first thirty minutes it's touch and go because
there's a lot of just talking about Namdie or do
I Yes, very true, but they do move on from that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
After that. They're talking about weapons, they're talking about adderall,
They're quoting sisterrect too, you know, stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:43):
Love it, love to see it.

Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
I was gonna say just on a because I'm all
about intersectionality. So for intersectional feminism passes that test too.
They talk about race, class, culture, sexuality, spirituality.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
It kind of like encompasses that whole thing as well.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
Absolutely for sure. The movie scores very high marks on
the Kent Test, which of course is a media metric
created by friend of the cast, Clarkasha Kent. If you're
not familiar, it's a pretty comprehensive list of criteria that
examines representation of women of color and especially black women
in media. So I haven't done a full breakdown for

(01:02:24):
this movie in relation to the Kent Test, but i'd
imagine it gets pretty high marks. And that kind of
brings us to our nipple scale, where we rate the
movie on a scale of zero to five nipples. Examining
the movie through an intersectional feminist lens, I'm gonna go
like four and a half on this one. I think

(01:02:45):
it's doing so much. I love comedy as a vehicle
to examine things like, you know, racist tropes in movies
and to examine really anything. But I think it's such
an effective tool for that, and I think this movie
does such a good job of that. The different just
kind of thematic things that the movie explores, the tropes

(01:03:09):
that it seeks to dispel, things like that. I appreciate
that the women are characterized in such a way that
they are allowed to do things in the story and
push the story forward with their choices and actions. I
appreciate that they are distinct characters. There's body diversity among them,

(01:03:29):
there's all kinds of stuff that we don't see, and
this movie writes women in such a way that they are,
you know, all the characters of this movie. But I
pay particular attention to the way women are written in
horror movies and how cautious and aware of their surroundings
they are, because women in horror movies are almost never

(01:03:51):
written that way. They're just oblivious, they're just like careless,
not doing anything. But like these characters, and again particularly
the these women and even more specifically, these black women,
are like appropriately cautious and aware of their surroundings. So
it's not hard to do, but yet most horror movies

(01:04:12):
don't do it. This one does. I appreciated that. I
also think it's really cool that the movie centers Juneteenth.
There's just so little acknowledgment of June teenth in Hollywood
movies and in media in general, so it's cool this
holiday is the backdrop for this movie. So much to
love about this movie. I would say that where I

(01:04:34):
would take off any kind of nipple points would be
the few harmful tropes that it does lean into regarding
ascribing a facial difference or disability or neurodivergence to the villains,
specifically violent villains. And it's just surprising that this movie
does this since it seeks to avoid and subvert so

(01:04:57):
many other harmful tropes, which is why I will still
give the movie four point five nipples. I really love
this movie. I think it's so funny, and I'll throw
my nipples to the original group three Peete and the

(01:05:17):
cast of the movie, so that's who gets my nipples.
That can divide them up how they choose.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
I'm gonna go on like a four nipple about I
think this movie is wonderful. I think the fact that
this movie exists fucking rocks. I think that the legacy
of black horror like needed sort of like a shot
to the leg and that the Blackening very very very
much did that, and that it will lead to a

(01:05:46):
number of wonderful movies. I do wish that because we
have a cast of a lot of women, that there
was more narrative space made for relationships between women, and
I feel like the things that this movie falls back
on are both what you said, Kaitlyn and I in
the sort of ablest tropes that appear within the movie,

(01:06:08):
but also just sort of the heteronormative tropes that appear
within this movie in spite of the fact that our
sole queer character as far as we know, end up
being sort of the hero of the movie. Like I
feel like in a cast that is about split down
in terms of gender, if we're talking in the binary sense,

(01:06:30):
I wish that there were more dynamics between women that
we're seeing because there's a lot of setup that I
feel like we could have had more of and there
could have been explored more. But there are very few
movies like this coming out at any time, much less
last year. And it's a funny movie. It's a great movie.
I really appreciate, and like want to shout out what
we're just talking about of how the diversity behind the

(01:06:54):
camera equals the diversity in front of the camera, because
I feel like in so many movies that we talk
about that have a lot of black actors in front
of the camera, that energy is rarely matched behind the
camera because of how Hollywood is structured and the fact
that the blackening actually is like doing that on all
sides is wonderful.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
I think it's a really funny movie. I think it's
really rewatchable. I hope we get a sequel. Oh my god,
I don't trust Hollywood with fucking anything right now.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
Same honestly, they can't.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Seem to release anything without deleting it three months later.
But this is a really awesome movie. I mean, it's
fun and it was successful, and I want to seem
more like it. So I'm gonna go four nipples. I'm
going to give one to Tracy Oliver, two to Dwayne
Perkins because you know he's doing double duty at least

(01:07:46):
in this movie. And then I will give my final
nipple two x Mayo because I'm a fan.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
Hell yeah, how about you know you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:56):
I think I'm gonna go higher than both of you,
but it's not gonna be perfect. I think I'm gonna
do a four and three quarters nipple, which I do
have three quarters of a nipple on my right side.
I won't get too into it, but I agree with
you with the ableism. And then also I do wish

(01:08:16):
they built the female relationships a little bit more, or
just you know, showed more scenes with that, I do
appreciate that it was a short movie, Like you were saying, Jamie.

Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
I love a short movie.

Speaker 5 (01:08:27):
That's why I've been able to see it so many times,
be honest, because it's like just watching a television show
at this point or YouTube video. I watch all these
retrospectives on YouTube. They're the same hour and a half.
So yeah, I do like that. I know that there's
a second one being worked on. Please let it happen.
I mean, if the budget was only five million for

(01:08:48):
the first one, they could do it again with the
same budget. Hopefully they would get more money though this time.
And that leads me to give the three quarter nipple
to lions Gate for making it happen with that small budget.
Thank you to them. And then, you know, just evenly
disperse my nipples to the cast, the writers, the crew. Yeah,

(01:09:09):
everyone that just made it happen, because that's great. I
love giving my nipples away too, feels good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
You know, it's slipperating.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
Give them away.

Speaker 5 (01:09:19):
Heal him of the XMA, then give them right back,
all right?

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
That was CMI.

Speaker 5 (01:09:25):
Oh, can I also say, okay, this is you two
are are white. But I do love that it was
still just rated R. When they got to say nigga
so much, that's very refreshing for me, like that they
still let it have just the rated R rating because
there was once upon a time that would mean like
N C seventeen and C seventeen or something.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
You know, based on what I saw, I still feel
like this movie could have warranted a PG thirteen.

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
Same.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
Yeah, the violence wasn't that graphic.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
I mean, I guess if you're going on a gore on.
The thing that stuck with me the most was the
vomit and that's very PG thirteen. I just can't deal
with it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:06):
I think the rated R was because of the use
of nigga, like the use of the N word, because
I don't know if you guys can say that on
this podcast, I'm gonna say N word from that you can, okay, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
Sound like eight times.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
I mean like we talk about that a lot though,
of like why in the rating system, why do certain
movies get our ratings? And so often it's just because
of like something that is not commonly accepted among like
the white middle class is like what will directly influence
the rating? And I feel like I'm glad this movie
got in our rating, and I also think it could

(01:10:40):
have been a PG thirteen rating and done even better
as a result, because this should have been a movie
that was I mean, I think it probably was anyways,
because thankfully it is easy to sneak into our rated movies,
but this should have been a movie that was like
readily accessible to any high schooler, Like why wouldn't it
be true?

Speaker 5 (01:10:57):
The first time I saw it there were definitely some
high schoolers there, so definitely people were able to see it,
So that's good. But you're right, it should have been
PG thirteen, So I take back my kudos for them,
because even with the use of nigga like they should,
it should have been PG thirteen.

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Yeah, they say fuck a lot, and I think are
only allowed like one or two fucks okay.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Which is also ridiculous and grow up like what fourteen
year old is like, Oh, one fuck okay, that's all
I'll use moving forward.

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
I used to say fuck all the time when I
was six. I don't know where I heard it, but
I got in trouble.

Speaker 4 (01:11:36):
At school all the time for saying it.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
If six year olds in Catholic school can say fuck
all they want, then it should be in movie.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
It's a movie.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Fuck, every kid says, fuck why it's fun and it
doesn't hurt anybody true anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:11:53):
No, yeah, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 4 (01:11:56):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 5 (01:11:57):
It was really fun. I'm sorry if I so quiet
all the time. I just like, really like how much
work you guys put into your research. It's like very nice,
and you guys have that very like MPR Okay, sorry,
Public Radio Comming voice.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
I'll type the compliment.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
Thank you m a compliment. I love it. What I'm
hearing is.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
That I'm brilliant, yes, and so cool and also beautiful.
So yes, thank you, yes, thank you for coming on
the show. Tell us where people can follow you online?
Check out any of your stuff plug away.

Speaker 5 (01:12:37):
All right, Yeah, you can find me my schedule at
no yacomedy dot com. No o n y ecomedy a
dot com. I think I have some stand up on there.
I don't even remember anymore. I'm gonna be traveling a lot,
so I'll be in New England a bunch of times
this summer. I'll be in DC and that'll be in
like September ish. Yeah, and you can follow me at

(01:13:00):
nony Fizzle at Gmail or sorry, no, not Gmail.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
Sorry I'm on autopilot. I do only know nony fizzle.

Speaker 5 (01:13:10):
Gmail is not my email address, so nony Fizzle at Instagram.

Speaker 4 (01:13:15):
So that's n O n e E f I z
z l E.

Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
And then I'm not really on Twitter anymore, but it's
at that, no ya. I will retweet stuff that I
think is funny. I might post a show so you
can follow me there, and that's just that n O
N y E. And also my ig in my Instagram.

Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
Sorry, that's the same thing. I'm so tired, you guys.
I had no copy today.

Speaker 5 (01:13:37):
My Instagram and my TikTok are the same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:13:42):
Okay, now I'm done. Perfect.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
That was beautiful. I loved it every moment of it.
You can follow us on mostly Instagram these days, but
also Twitter if you so feel inclined. At Bechdel Cast,
you can subscribe to our Patreon aka Matreon. It's five
dollars a month. You get two bonus episodes every month

(01:14:04):
that center a super fun, super cool theme that's brilliant
and awesome and beautiful as well.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
And never weird and never does it's never weird.

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
And yeah, so normal. Actually that's all at patreon dot
com slash Bechtel Cast. And we've also got a link
tree where you can find some of our goodies link
tree slash Bechdel Cast. And Jamie tell them about our
little merch store.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
Oh maybe I will. So we also have a merch
store over at teapublic dot com slash the Bechtel Cast,
where you can get all of the random Bechtel Cast
inside jokes you've been listening to for years, onto a shirt,
a bag, a pillow, whatever you so please.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
And it's all designed by Jamie.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
And with that, what does everyone say? We all, I'll
call the fire department and see what happens.

Speaker 4 (01:15:04):
Let's do it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
Bye bye, bye bye. The Bechdel Cast is a production
of iHeartMedia, hosted by Caitlin Derante and Jamie Loftis, produced
by Sophie Lichterman, edited by Mola Board. Our theme song
was composed by Mike Kaplan with vocals by Katherine Voskressensky.
Our logo and merch is designed by Jamie Loftis and

(01:15:28):
a special thanks to Aristotle Acevedo. For more information about
the podcast, please visit linktree slash Bechdel Cast