The sequel to Deon Taylor’s sleeper hit horror spoof, Meet the Blacks, has been given a title, a trailer, and an official theatrical release date of June 11. The comedy sequel will be released on VOD and Blu-ray by Lionsgate and Hidden Empire later on this summer.
While the first film parodied The Purge franchise, The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 features funnyman Katt Williams as a vampire and seems to follow more of an original storyline instead of being a standard spoof that slightly changes scenes of already existing movies. Mike Epps is set to reprise his role from the first film, along with Lil Duval, Bresha Webb and Zulay Henao. Taylor is returning as director and a co-writer.
In The House Next Door, Carl Black (Epps) moves his family back to the neighborhood he grew up in after surviving the terrifying events of the first film. After not receiving the welcome he’d hoped for, Carl realizes he has to battle against something much more terrifying than unfriendly neighbors when he realizes a man in the neighborhood named Dr. Mamuwalde (Williams) is most likely a vampire. Rounding out the cast of this sequel is Snoop Dogg, Danny Trejo, Tyrin Turner and Rick Ross.
The first Meet the Blacks found moderate success as an indie film theatrically, earning a total of 9.1 million dollars against a budget of only 900,000 dollars. However, the film found even more success on VOD in the years to follow. On January 22, Meet the Blacks was named number 5 in FlixPatrol’s list of the top 10 most-streamed movies on Hulu in the world. Taylor recently discussed why he decided to do a sequel, and it’s because it’s not so often that mainstream comedies are released with a mainly black cast. As Taylor explained:
"We first made the film because it is rare that we get comedies that speak to the urban culture. After the success of the first film culturally and theatrically, it was only right to service the fans that were demanding a sequel. This is why we make art and why it’s important for more black filmmakers to emerge."
With this upcoming sequel awaiting release, Meet the Blacks has now joined a long line of horror spoofs that spawned sequels, like Scary Movie and A Haunted House. These films are funny in a way that other films are not allowed to be because they have free reign to be silly while still feeling clever in their own way. One thing that isn’t acknowledged enough about horror spoofs is that they offer more black representation than a lot of other comedies that are released today.
The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 comes to theaters in just one month, on June 11, but the first film is currently available to stream on Starz if the wait for the sequel is just too unbearable. Check out the trailer and new poster below:
Here's the official synopsis:
Carl Black (Mike Epps) is about to face off with the neighbor from hell (Katt Williams) in The House Next Door. Carl has only ever wanted the best for his family, but after surviving the events that led to his (not-so-)bestselling book, he’s moving everyone to his childhood home, where’s he’ll contend not only with his wife Lorene (Zulay Henao) and kids Allie (Bresha Webb) and Carl Jr. (Alex Henderson) but everyone who drives him crazy: Cronut (Lil Duval), Freezee (Andrew Bachelor), Rico (Tyrin Turner), and an entire neighborhood of characters who seem to attract strange activity after dark. And nothing could be more freaky than his new neighbor Dr. Mamuwalde (Williams), who may or may not be a vampire. From co-writer/director Deon Taylor (Fatale, The Intruder), as the Meet the Blacks universe expands, it will be up to Carl to figure out what his neighbor is up to in the middle of the night before it’s too late for him and his family.