'The Blackening' blends humor and satire to turn horror film stereotypes upside down

HOLLYWOOD -- The tag line for the new horror comedy "The Blackening" is "We can't all die first."

It refers to Black characters in scary movies seemingly always being the first ones killed off.

But when the main characters are all Black, it becomes an opportunity to use humor to examine, in part, what it means to be Black in America.

Jay Pharaoh is among the cast of "The Blackening."

"There are things in this movie that people have not seen before. It's groundbreaking, brother, and I'm blessed to be a part of it," he said.

In the film, a group of friends gather for a weekend at (of course) a cabin deep in the woods. The characters are forced to play a mysterious game if they want to stay alive.

"Yeah, it was an experiment. I never seen anything like this," said co-writer Tracy Oliver. "It could have totally not worked and that's what I'm fully aware of when you make a movie like this. It could be a disaster and people could hit it and then you can ruin your life, but that's not what happened here. I'm really excited."

For co-writer and co-star DeWayne Perkins, there is a message in this movie: to the show biz industry.

"They need to catch up and to see what different points of views, different voices, how that does create new, refreshing art?" said Perkins.

"I think that's the beauty of comedy, saying things that people typically think but don't have the freedom to say, out of fear of judgment. We're able to do that in this movie," said Melvin Gregg.

"It's going to make you laugh, it's going to make you think," said Antoinette Robertson. "You're going to yell at the screen and that, we actually support."

"We never put on the brakes," said director Tim Story. "We think we've found something that we think others will really enjoy but one thing that we know is that we've made something that we love."

"The Blackening" is rated "R" and hits theaters Wednesday, June 14.