The Blackening 4K UHD (2023)

[McCrutchy]

On a whim, I priced-matched this at Best Buy yesterday and watched it. For a film I didn't even know existed before it was (hurriedly?) sent to theaters, I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it. It definitely reminded me of the Wayans' first two Scary Movie films, but without as much crude and sexual humor. Despite the fairly low $5 million budget, the film looks and sounds slick and professional and the acting is great across the board, with each character being pretty well-developed for a 90-odd minute horror-comedy. Just remember that it this a comedy first and if you are hoping for scares or gore, then you will be disappointed.

It is really a shame that the film was mishandled as it should be a cult classic, if not a major hit.

I did note that there is no Dolby Atmos logo on the film and it isn't listed on Dolby's site, so perhaps the Atmos mix was created for home viewing.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

For a film I didn't even know existed before it was (hurriedly?) sent to theaters, I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it.

It premiered at TIFF a year before its theatrical release, so the opposite of a hurry.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

It premiered at TIFF a year before its theatrical release, so the opposite of a hurry.

Yes, I saw that, but it still seemed to be rushed into theaters with little or no fanfare and then quickly disappear amongst the summer blockbusters. Supposedly, it had a 10-week run in theaters, but I only remember hearing it mentioned that first week. Now it is also on premium cable (Starz) here, too.

I'm not sure it was positioned well, but I don't know. The film isn't very scary, so a Halloween crowd might have been unfavorable. Most of the cast is fairly unknown , too, so maybe the film did the best it could getting $18-odd million. And thanks to the small budget, it appears to have made a profit, so that's good.

Hopefully, Universal will release it on Blu-ray or license it out to Dazzler or Mediumrare, though the surprising Lionsgate 4K UHD will doubtless be a tempting import.

[lgans316]

Maximum Content Light Level : 983 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 242 cd/m2

General
File size                                : 54.8 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 36 min
Overall bit rate                         : 80.9 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 23.976 FPS
Movie name                               : The Blackening
Encoded date                             : 2023-09-19 15:30:51 UTC
Writing application                      : MakeMKV v1.17.4 win(x64-release)
Writing library                          : libmakemkv v1.17.4 (1.3.10/1.5.2) win(x64-release)

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                               : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate                                 : 76.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.383
Stream size                              : 51.6 GiB (94%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries        : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0001 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 983 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level        : 242 cd/m2
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : MLP FBA 16-ch
Format/Info                              : Meridian Lossless Packing FBA with 16-channel presentation
Commercial name                          : Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                                 : A_TRUEHD
Duration                                 : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 3 545 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 5 607 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 2.40 GiB (4%)
Title                                    : Surround 7.1
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray
Number of dynamic objects                : 15
Bed channel count                        : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration                : LFE

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 640 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 444 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : Surround 5.1
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #3
ID                                       : 4
ID in the original source medium         : 4353 (0x1101)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 133 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #4
ID                                       : 5
ID in the original source medium         : 4355 (0x1103)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 224 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 155 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text
ID                                       : 6
ID in the original source medium         : 4768 (0x12A0)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate                                 : 61.1 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 0.674 FPS
Count of elements                        : 3900
Stream size                              : 42.2 MiB (0%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:08:25.838                             : en:Chapter 02
00:15:36.936                             : en:Chapter 03
00:20:35.859                             : en:Chapter 04
00:25:54.135                             : en:Chapter 05
00:30:56.104                             : en:Chapter 06
00:38:04.657                             : en:Chapter 07
00:45:43.615                             : en:Chapter 08
00:51:38.095                             : en:Chapter 09
00:57:56.097                             : en:Chapter 10
00:59:12.131                             : en:Chapter 11
01:04:18.729                             : en:Chapter 12
01:10:07.077                             : en:Chapter 13
01:19:25.927                             : en:Chapter 14
01:24:17.844                             : en:Chapter 15
01:31:29.609                             : en:Chapter 16

[kevinquest]

Do anyone know if the Blu-Ray is region free ?

[MazeRunner]

Praying this is a $10 Black Friday title.

[JupiterMission]

I haven't watched this yet, but picked it up at the library the other day, so will hopefully get to it soon. I was curious though: Is the black person dying first an actual horror movie trope? I feel like it was a joke in Scary Movie that just became a thing people said about horror even if it wasn't necessarily true to the genre. I can think of a handful where it's the case (

[Show spoiler]Gremlins, The Shining

), but personally I always considered it more of an '80s action movie trope if it's a thing at all. (Not necessarily the first death in an action movie, but basically if there's a black character in an 80s action movie, they're probably a side character and they'll be killed horrifically in a scene that highlights how bad the villain really is. Also applies to women.)

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by JupiterMission

I haven't watched this yet, but picked it up at the library the other day, so will hopefully get to it soon. I was curious though: Is the black person dying first an actual horror movie trope? I feel like it was a joke in Scary Movie that just became a thing people said about horror even if it wasn't necessarily true to the genre. I can think of a handful where it's the case (

[Show spoiler]Gremlins, The Shining

), but personally I always considered it more of an '80s action movie trope if it's a thing at all. (Not necessarily the first death in an action movie, but basically if there's a black character in an 80s action movie, they're probably a side character and they'll be killed horrifically in a scene that highlights how bad the villain really is. Also applies to women.)

It's an exaggeration of a trope. Black characters usually don't make it to the end. And that's basically it.

[trekky76]

Watched this earlier this week. Was okay but if it was meant to be a comedy it just wasn't fun enough and the horror aspect of it was well, not scary. Surprising there were deaths in it at all. Modern movies just cannot do comedies well and whatever remains is thin and derivative at best.