First of all, this movie is based on the true events,
that never happened. The film begins in a large, isolated house,
with a woman named Morgan listening to some funky tunes and sipping wine by the fire.
She's all set for a romantic weekend with her boyfriend, Shawn, when suddenly, the front door
creaks open on its own. Morgan calls out to Shawn, but there is no response. She then jokes about
having a gun, and just as she does, a hand taps her on the shoulder, and she accidentally elbows
Shawn. Morgan then mentions that they're alone in the cabin until their friends arrive, warning
Shawn not to sneak up on her again. Curiosity piques when Shawn mentions a room he found,
and they head upstairs together, unaware of a masked figure watching from outside.
Once they get upstairs, they approach a door labelled 'Game Room,' but to their surprise,
it's closed, even though Shawn swears he left it open. They then enter the room, filled with
a variety of board games, but Shawn is fixated on one particular game called "The Blackening."
They open the box and discover a board game with a black face in the centre,
so Shawn says that as soon as he gets a signal, he will be cancelling whoever owns this Airbnb.
As Morgan is curious about playing this game, the black face, which they nickname Sambo,
suddenly asks them to pick a card. Since this game is running on racism,
it won't be out of battery for a long time. They then pick a card, and it reads ‘Name
one black character that survived a horror movie, you must answer correctly or you die’
After reading this, they realize that black characters often meet unfortunate fates in
horror films. While examining the game pieces, they notice one that resembles Morgan's earrings.
Shortly after, the timer dings, and Sambo announces that they answered incorrectly.
The lights abruptly go out, and the door slams shut, and their hearts race as they
hear eerie breathing. Morgan grabs her phone for some light, and as she does,
an arrow pierces Shawn's neck, splattering blood everywhere. In his final moments,
Shawn tells Morgan to run, right when the masked man who was watching them earlier
knocks her to the floor. As Morgan is trying to crawl away, she is pulled back into the darkness.
The movie then shifts to the next scene; we see a car driving on the road and hear a voicemail from
Morgan giving directions to three of her friends, Allison, Lisa, and Dewayne to the cabin house.
Allison mentions that there will be 8 of them at this reunion party,
and the girls are hiding the fact that Nnamdi is coming, who Dewayne has beef with.
The next person we meet is Shanika. She goes into a store to pick up a few supplies for the party,
and the shopkeeper, who has one missing eye, follows her around the store.
She then bumps into a guy who recognizes her, Clifton, and who is also going to the reunion.
He tells her his phone died on the way, and he's in the store looking for an Android charger,
which they don't have, and Shanika makes fun of him for having an Android. Back to Allison, Lisa
and Dewayne; they arrive at the cabin house that's giving them "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" vibes.
As soon as they arrive, they hear two men speaking, a park ranger who is questioning a
man named King, saying that he is trespassing. Lisa then shows ranger White the names of the
people who are staying there along with her license, and he leaves. Here Dewayne
asks who the other car belongs to, and out comes Nnamdi. Dwayne is not happy to see him, and leaves
Nnamdi hanging as he walks back to his car. Lisa comes to apologise, and we find out that Nnamdi
cheated on her when they were in college, but Lisa wants everyone to move on and have a good time.
Just before they enter the house, we see a mysterious
figure inside that leaves as they come in. When Allison goes upstairs to find a room
to drop her bags, her attention draws towards the game room. She tries to open it, but it
is locked. Soon after, Nnamdi joins her, and she pleads with him not to break Lisa's heart again.
It’s Juneteenth after all, their big reunion party. At this moment,
Lisa hears strange noises behind a door, but doesn't pay much attention to them.
Meanwhile, Nnamdi and King are conversing, when Nnamdi asks King if he is still a slave to a white
man, referring to King's wife, so he clarifies that she is not ‘White’ white, she's Armenian.
Later that evening, the gang are having fun playing cards, while Dewayne is
sitting by the fire in deep thought, not talking to anyone. A little while later,
Lisa gets a text, smiles, and heads upstairs. Upstairs, Nnamdi gives her
a little fright as he sneaks behind her, and the two start making out.
Back downstairs, Dewayne is putting clothes into a washing machine when he finds an earring.
He notices the back door of the cabin opening by itself, so he closes it. Dewayne then goes
to the window to check, and Shanika pops out to scare him, and he tells her to go inside.
Shanika, along with Clifton, enter the house. Everyone is happy to see her,
but no one remembers Clifton, and he says he is surprised that he even got invited.
Once again, he asks for an android charger, but the group just makes fun of him.
Next, we see Lisa come downstairs to meet Shanika, with Nnamdi following
close behind. Everyone here finds out by accident that Lisa and Nnamdi are dating,
including Dewayne, but he insists that he is unbothered about their relationship.
As they are about to start playing a card game called Spades, the lights suddenly go out.
Lisa notices a figure outside, but nobody else sees it. They are starting to get a little freaked out,
so all of them go upstairs together. They are trying to open doors, but to their surprise,
they are locked, except for one, The Game Room. As they enter the room, the lights turn back on.
They are admiring all of the games on the shelfs when Dewayne mentions he found Morgan's earring,
which is her great grandmother's earring, and she never takes them off. They also spot the game in
the middle of the room, The Blackening,
and they immediately express how it's giving off some bad vibes.
They check the game pieces and notice that all of them correspond to each of their traits.
Believing this is Morgan's doing, they decide to play and put the pieces on the board.
The black face, Sambo, as we know him,
urges them to pick a card and save Morgan, just as the door to the room closes and locks by itself.
The gang is starting to panic, and while Lisa tries to tell them to calm down, a TV turns on,
and they see Morgan tied to a chair. It gets even weirder when Sambo starts calling out everyone's
names, and explains the rules of the game.
The rules are: Answer correctly before the second hand
completes one revolution, you move a space, if you answer ten questions correctly, she lives and you
are all free to go. Get one wrong, she dies. If you refuse to play, you die, just like Shawn did.
Once they start playing, they realize the questions are all based around the Black community.
King gets the first question right and they move a space. Dewayne and Clifton answer the
next questions correctly, and they move again. Question 4 they are asked to sing the second
verse of the Black national anthem. They only know the first verse, but luckily Allison knows it and
she sings it correctly. Together, they continue to answer questions correctly, until they get to the
one that asks them to name five black actors who were on the popular TV show "Friends."
They struggle to name them, yet they did, however, Sambo tells them they are wrong,
and the correct answer is ‘I don't know, I don't watch that show, I watch Living Single.’
The TV now shows Morgan, her hair tied to a chair as she is trying to break free,
and manages to do so by pulling her wig from her scalp and escapes.
Terrified, the gang now finds that the door is not locked anymore
and leaves the room they are trapped in.
Running downstairs, they check the front door, which is locked. They try to
break the window, but it is unbreakable, and they notice their car tires are punctuated with arrows.
All of a sudden, the TV turns on again, and we see Morgan running up the stairs and hear her
screaming for help. She is in the basement, however the door to the basement is locked,
and we see a figure following Morgan up the stairs. In a desperate attempt to free her,
King takes a gun out of his bag and shoots the lock off.
But when the door opens, there is no sound of Morgan, and it is completely dark.
Suddenly, an arrow fires from the darkness and into King's shoulder.
A big, masked man emerges from the shadows, and Shanika runs to shut the door.
He has his foot wedged, stopping her from closing it, so Lisa runs to grab a knife
from the kitchen and stabs him. At the same time, King pulls the arrow from his shoulder.
Just when they thought they were safe, the masked man appears in a room beside them,
and starts to fire his crossbow, hitting King in the same place, his shoulder.
Panicking, they run upstairs, and King again pulls the arrow from his shoulder.
Allison helps him pull the arrow out, and in the process, she injures herself.
They then run into the only room that is open, the game room, and the door locks behind them.
As they are trying to tend to their wounds, Sambo asks them to continue the game.
They pick up a card, reading, "The black character is always the first to die. Spare your lives by
sacrificing the person you deem the 'blackest.'" Now, they must decide within two minutes, or they
all die, and they debate who among them is the "blackest," pointing out their respective traits.
Nnamdi defends himself by mentioning his African roots, and the fact that his dad hails from South Africa.
King, on the other hand, argues that he is a reformed ex-thug and married to an
Armenian woman. Allison, with her white father, is safe, while Dewayne emphasizes his homosexuality
and the need for therapy, while making the point that black people don’t do therapy.
In the end, the attention turns to Clifton,
who becomes the prime candidate due to being the least liked person in the group.
To defend himself, Clifton drops a bombshell—he voted for Trump twice.
The tension rises, and with time running out, they reluctantly choose to sacrifice Clifton.
Armed with a weapon, Clifton departs.
Moments later, the TV turns on, and we see Clifton outside of the house
being shot with a crossbow, and dragged away.
Sambo tells them they don't get to move a space
because they broke the rules because Clifton did not vote.
Frustrated, Nnamdi throws the game to the floor, right when the masked man tells
them that if they refuse to play, they are entering sudden death.
The rules are simple: survive.
Now, they have three minutes of safety before all the other doors open and
the game begins.
Now they are downstairs looking for weapons, picking whatever they can find as there
is not much to choose from. Shanika gives Allison Adderall to help with her injuries,
it's not painkillers, but it will help. The group then discusses whether they should stay inside or outside.
Allison looks like she's about to throw up, right before she suggests they should split
up, and they tell her this is just her white side talking. However, her point is valid as this gives
them more of a chance to survive. With 20 seconds left, they gather at a door that leads outside.
While they hug and say they love each other, the door unlocks.
King, Allison and Shanika check if it's clear, and run outside,
and we see a masked man lurking in the shadows.
In the meantime, Lisa, Nnamdi and Dewayne decide to go check out the basement,
and see if they can still rescue Morgan. Back outside, while trying to figure out where to go,
Lisa decides to take a rest as she is feeling too high from the Adderall she took. King and Shanika
talk some sense into her, and they continue on. In the basement, Lisa, Nnamdi, and Dewayne find
bloodstains, a well, the chair Morgan was tied to, and a bunch of computers. They find out that
there are cameras in every corner of the house and that they were being watched this whole time.
Outside, King and Shanika come to a river, and Allison is not with them anymore.
Shanika says she will swim across as they will not suspect black people being able to swim,
and to her surprise, King confesses that he can't swim, so he decides to climb a tree instead.
Intending to go outside, Lisa, Nnamdi, and Dewayne anxiously open the cabin door, only to find Ranger
White standing there with a gun. Not sure if they can trust him, Ranger White reassures them that
he's one of the good white guys. They tell the ranger that two of their friends are dead, and the
rest of them split up, to the ranger's surprise that black people could behave like white people.
The ranger then tries to call for backup but there is no signal on the radio,
and asks the three of them to follow him. He brings them to his car and, as expected,
tells them to wait for him while he goes to check things out by himself.
Back at the river, Shanika is swimming across when arrows start to fly towards her,
nearly hitting her. It is the masked man, who is standing underneath King,
who is up in the tree. Just before the masked man is about to shoot a fatal blow at Shanika,
King jumps from the tree and interrupts him. They start to fight, and it looks like King
is winning, but he suddenly gets a cramp, and gets stabbed in the leg with an arrow.
Meanwhile, Shanika starts to swim back to shore, and we see Allison, high as fuck,
putting dirt on her face, rambo style. She confronts the masked man and, with arrowheads
between her fingers, starts beating his ass, stabbing him multiple times before he falls.
Taking off the mask, they find out it's the one-eyed white man from the store
who was following Shanika around. In his pockets, they find an inhaler with
the name Camden Connor. They also notice the shoes don't have the stab wound from earlier,
and conclude that there is more than one of these crazy psychos.
In the park ranger’s car, Lisa finds a mask that looks like the killer's mask,
leading them to believe that the killer is him, and lock the car door. Suddenly,
the ranger shows up and asks them to let him in, saying that he found that mask earlier in
the woods. They don't believe him, and the ranger gets his neck pierced with an arrow.
In a panic, they decide to run back to the house, with Dewayne left behind.
Afterwards, Lisa and Nnamdi are hiding in a vent, thinking about Dewayne being left alone.
Just then, a masked man walks into the house, the one with the stab wound in his foot.
He is about to spot them in the vent when he hears music, and goes to check it out.
Both of them then hear another noise, and it's Dewayne who pops up and scares them.
Now all three of them are crammed into the vent.
In order to find out where they are hiding, the masked man turns off the signal blocker.
As a result, the three of them start to receive notifications on their phones, causing the killer
to hear the sounds and go towards them. The panic Dewayne is feeling nauseous,
while the masked man starts to poke holes in the vent. He pops his head up,
only to find Dewayne projectile vomiting onto his face, causing the man to fall down the stairs.
The three of them struggle to fight off the killer, until finally, Dewayne manages to shoot
the masked man in the head.
Thinking he is dead, they start to argue, not noticing him getting up.
As the killer approaches them, he gets shot in the chest by Shanika,
and Lisa smacks the man on the head, ferociously pounding on him with her weapon.
Everyone else is shocked, and King says that this is why he married a white woman.
They then search his pockets, and find an ID for Clive Connor; a twin brother to the other masked man,
Camden Connor.
Shanika shows everyone else an envelope with all of their names on it,
and money inside, revealing that somebody paid these twins to murder them all.
Wanting to get to the bottom of this, Nnamdi, Lisa, Dewayne, and Shanika go
back to the basement, and discover the dead bodies of Clifton and Ranger White.
Here they find a letter in Clifton’s pocket that reveals he previously killed a woman, and the TV turns
on to show him dropping bodies into the well.
Seemingly dead, Clifton suddenly stands up, and
tells them he has the house rigged with explosives and to drop their weapons, to which they comply.
Clifton reveals himself as the mastermind, and he confirms that he killed a girl 10 years ago.
He then explains that 10 years ago tonight, at the Juneteenth party, the group always doubted his
level of "blackness," with this doubt leading to an incident where he drank for the first time in
his life, went for a drive, and ran over a woman. He got four years in prison for driving under the
influence, all because he wasn't black enough for them, so he organized the entire night as revenge.
Upstairs, as King and Allison are watching all of this unfold on the TV,
they find a remote control for the locked doors on Clive's dead body.
While fiddling around with the remote, Allison accidentally switches off all the lights.
This gives Dewayne the opportunity to disarm Clifton and for Shanika to shoot him.
Finally, Dewayne kicks the injured Clifton down the well to his apparent death.
The four of them look down the hole where Clifton dumped Shawn's and Morgan's corpses,
and talk about how Clifton isn't doing so "well."
As morning breaks, the six survivors sit outside, contemplating their next move.
Dewayne suggests calling the fire department instead of the police because the firemen won’t shoot them.
But when the firemen get there, they are sprayed with a hose.