They can’t all die first – but one of them can.

Tim Story’s new horror flick The Blackening takes the oft-used, and oft-lampooned, trope of of a Black character always being the first victim in a slasher movie, and attempts to subvert it by making the entire cast of potential victims Black. His attempt hits the mark much more often than it doesn’t.

A group of college friends reunites for the first time in years for a Juneteenth weekend getaway, in an upscale version of the familiar cabin in the woods. While some in the group have remained friends, others are still dealing with unresolved beefs going back to their college days.

Lisa (Antoinette Robertson) and Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls) are exes secretly hooking up again and Lisa’s gay best friend Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins, who co-wrote the screenplay), is less than happy for her. He can’t forgive Nnamdi for breaking her heart (and leaving him to pick up the pieces) when Nnamdi and Lisa were dating.

The rest of the group include Allison (Grace Byers), Lisa’s biracial BFF, Shanika (X Mayo) a loud party girl; King (Melvin Gregg), who has attempted to atone for his gang-banging past by going straight, and Clifton (Jermaine Fowler), a nerdy, socially awkward Carlton/Urkel-type that the rest of the group barely remembers.

Missing from the reunion are Morgan (Yvonne Orji) and Shawn (Jay Pharoah), who are supposed to have arrived the day before, but unbeknownst to the group, met the killer during the movie’s cold open.

The friends attempt to get the party started regardless, and after a little drink and a lot of party drugs, stumble upon a door marked “Game Room” that hadn’t been noticed until that moment. Inside, placed where it cannot be missed, is a game called “The Blackening,” a trivia game with a disturbing Sambo caricature at its center. When they decline to play, a TV turns on and a test-pattern featuring the same character appears on-screen, and a voice tells them to pick a card and start the game, threatening that if they don’t, they are condemning Morgan to certain death.

Seeing their friend, bound in a dungeon and clearly suffering, the group starts to play the game. And even though they get most questions right, there’s no room for error. That’s when the unknown entity behind the scenes, not content to just play games with the group, ups the ante. Soon they are fighting for their lives, and with each other, as they attempt to survive until morning.

The Blackening takes a rather slender premise, draws it out to feature film-length, and has a lot of fun with it, in part due to the lively writing. Co-written by Tracy Oliver, the script keeps the action moving and doesn’t get too caught up in horror movie tropes, even as it acknowledges them. The writing feels fresh, and without being in any way preachy, has as much to say about the Black experience as a more serious genre film like Get Out. Here, though, the script is liberally peppered with funny lines and running gags, like the characters’ ability to telepathically convey their thoughts to each other on the down low, when necessary.

The characters rise above the typical horror movie stereotypes of virgin, slut, geek and stud, with a game cast that breathes life into their personas, flaws and all. If there’s one problem with The Blackening, its that it isn’t terribly hard to figure out who the bad guy is, but apart from that, the movie makes good on its promise to stand out from the crowd of by-the-numbers slashers to be something original and fun.