The Blackening: Black characters die first in horror movies trope - which films does it happen in?

The Blackening, a new horror comedy film set at a cabin in the woods, follows seven Black friends celebrating Juneteenth who end up fighting for their lives when they are targeted by a strange man with a vendetta against them.

Forced to play a game called The Blackening, and picked off when they lose, the friends rely on their wits and knowledge of horror movie tropes to try and survive a deadly weekend.

The film lampshades the trope that Black characters are the first to die in movies, especially horror films. With an all Black main cast, the film’s tagline reads ‘they can’t all die first’.

Black characters have a troubled history in horror films, often appearing briefly to demonstrate the power of the Big Bad, they are then swiftly and often brutally killed, setting the stakes for the surviving characters.

The Blackening takes this trope and flips it on its head, as all seven friends are self-aware of how horror movies usually play out and are determined to avoid a gruesome fate.

What is the ‘Black character dies first’ movie trope?

The trope is fairly self explanatory - it comes into play whenever a Black character, usually the only or one of very few Black characters, is the first to die in a film or show. 

The trope likely originated because Black actors were not given prominent film roles in film scripts. In more recent films where this trope occurs, the Black person is likely to be a secondary protagonist and their death will serve as a point of high emotion in the film. 

It is a similar trope to that of the ‘disposable woman’ in which a female character serves only to be killed off, usually as the inciting incident for the male protagonist.

Which movies feature the trope?

There are many examples of Black characters being picked off first in movies - some standout examples from the horror genre include Aliens, Gremlins, Scream 2 (where the deaths occur shortly after one victim discusses the under-representation of Black characters in horror movies), and The Shining.

In other cases the trope has been intentionally flipped on its head, like in Night of the Living Dead, where the Black character Ben, played by Duane Jones, survives a night of zombie mayhem, outliving the white main characters, only to be killed by a posse the next morning when he is mistaken for a zombie.

Other well known films to feature the trope include Enter the Dragon, where Williams is beaten to death by a martial arts master, Avengers: Infinity War, in which Idris Elba’s Heimdall is executed by Thanos, who later goes on to destroy half of all life in the universe, and Jurassic Park, which sees Jophery Brown killed by a velociraptor in the film’s opening scene. 

Ironically, The Blackening is also guilty of repeating the trope, though as the main cast are Black characters, it would be hard to avoid this outcome, especially in a violent horror comedy.

When is The Blackening in cinemas?

The UK release date of The Blackening is Friday 25 August and the film will be released exclusively in cinemas. It is not currently slated to be released on any streaming platforms in the UK.