Sophia Michaels
The “final girl” is one of horror’s most hackneyed tropes. Traditionally, the “final girl” is the one character who survives whatever malevolent force is terrorizing the cast — and, stereotypically, she’s usually the group’s most virginal and well-behaved member.
That trope has definitely been deconstructed in many horror movies over the years, though perhaps not as overtly as in “The Blackening,” a comedy-horror feature that pokes fun at more than a few horror movie clichés. In the movie, which hit theaters on June 16, a group of Black friends travel to a remote cabin to celebrate Juneteenth, but soon discover that a serial killer is in their midst. Things go even more haywire when the killer demands that they rank their own levels of Blackness in order to figure out who to kill first.
The characters in “The Blackening” then have to use their knowledge of horror movie skills to survive, but it turns out that at least a few of the movie’s cast members also have pretty in-depth knowledge of the genre in real life. In an interview with POPSUGAR, cast members Jay Pharoah, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, X Mayo, and Dewayne Perkins had their own opinions on their favorite horror movies, chosen survival tactics, and who among the cast of “The Blackening” would be the real-life “final girl.”
Fowler immediately said that costar Grace Byers would be the one to make it out alive out of all of them. “I feel like Grace would talk the killer down with some maternal energy,” he explained. X Mayo agreed, saying Byers “can get in your brain and manipulate you.”
Meanwhile, Perkins said he thought he’d be the one to survive, “because he already had to fight a lot of battles being queer and Black in America . . . so he’s like, prepared.” Meanwhile, X Mayo said that Sinqua Walls would be the survivor among them all. “He gonna be like, ‘Come on, let’s just listen to the Daily Stoic on podcast and just get our minds together and contextualize and feel,'” she said.
On the topic of favorite horror movies, they also had plenty to say. Fowler chose “Sleepy Hollow,” while Perkins said “Scream,” “Candyman,” and “The Bride of Chucky.” X Mayo chose “Vampire in Brooklyn,” while Pharaoh said Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalker,” which he described as “horrifying.” Meanwhile, Gregg said “Leprechaun in the Hood.” “I saw representation in that film,” he said. “It broke down doors for ‘The Blackening.’ It was an all-Black cast.”
His comments echo something Pharaoh previously told POPSUGAR about “The Blackening” itself. “It’s going to be a cult classic,” he said. “People are going to be talking about this for years and the opportunity that more Black folks are going to be able to get from this movie. Tracy [Oliver] and Dewayne getting their voices out there, more and more Black people seeing us together and saying, ‘We can do that too.'”
Watch the full interview above.
