Black as Night was not trying to be scary. It was just a cute teen Halloween movie. The type of movie you usually watch on Disney. You know, something like the Halloweentown movie. Halloweentown wasn’t trying to be scary: it was just a movie about a girl whose mother was from a town full of Halloween-esque creatures.
The same thing goes for Black as Night, as it was just a movie about a bunch of teens who have to stop a vampire apocalypse from happening. So without further ado, here are the reasons we think it leaned more towards cute and not scary.
1. It was a vampire movie
If we are one hundred percent true to ourselves, we know vampire movies are not scary. Not a single one is scary, and that is because we know they don’t exist. Plus, it is a sub-genre that has been overused. We all know they drink blood, live forever, and can turn humans into one of them. There’s nothing scary or haunting about them.
2. It was a tween movie
When making scary movies for tweens, you have to be careful not to scar them for life. You can’t overdo it on the gore because tweens are impressionable, and some might start acting out what they’ve seen on TV. So instead of the gore, Black as Night focused on friendship, first love and camaraderie.
3. Its focus on self-esteem
Throughout the film, we see the main character, Shawna, suffer from some level of low self-esteem. Her brother nick-named her “Wesley Snipes” for being too dark. Her school’s dance team is painfully skewed towards only picking dancers who have the “creole-look”.
Even her crush, Chris, was always surrounded by them (i.e. creole girls). However, when Tunde came into the picture and talked about the most beautiful girl in his village, centuries ago, Shawna got a self-esteem boost.
4. It’s a mix of sociology and the supernatural
Fans of The Vampire Diaries will remember well how the series was able to add the American Civil War into its storyline. The same thing happened with Black as Night as it was able to add Slavery, segregation and BLM into its storyline without being too preachy.
You have a villain, Babineaux, whose anger is somewhat justified because he was a slave and is still angry about the trauma he faced. He has lived for hundreds of years and realised that very little has changed. To make things right in his own way, he chose to build an army of vampires by exploiting the rage of the less privileged.
5. It tried to be funny
You won’t laugh out loud all through, but it would get some chuckle out of you. The funniest scene for us was when Shawna stabbed the homeless man with a stake, and he screamed, expecting to die. However, he didn’t die immediately, so he was like:
“hmm,”
surprised and about to feast on Shawna but then he exploded. Puff!
Final Words on Black as Night
Please do not take the movie too seriously because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It was just a cute, chill movie. Don’t overthink it.
6.5/10
Do you agree with me?