Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures have released the first official trailer for The First Purge. This is the fourth film in the popular horror franchise, which began in 2013 with filmmaker James DeMonaco’s twist on a home invasion thriller: in the world of The Purge, one night a year in America all crime is legal, including murder. This premise was twisted further in the next two films, but now The Purge 4 serves as a prequel, showing us how this all began.

Gerald McMurray, the director behind last year’s Burning Sands and associate producer on Fruitvale Station, steps into the director’s chair this time around, marking the first time DeMonaco has vacated that seat. He still wrote the script for this prequel, which boasts a fresh ensemble cast that includes Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez and Marisa Tomei.

It's clear pretty early that this prequel has a mostly African-American cast, which already sets it apart from the other three Purge movies. It'll be interesting to see if the film delves into racial politics at all, since some of the imagery evokes the Black Lives Matter movement, but it also appears that DeMonaco has developed a pretty politically-minded origin story for the Purge regardless, with the U.S. government sending in soldiers disguised as citizens to carry out crime during this inaugural event.

Check out the First Purge trailer below along with some debut images. The First Purge opens in theaters on July 4th.

Here’s the official synopsis for The First Purge:

Behind every tradition lies a revolution.  Next Independence Day, witness the rise of our country’s 12 hours of annual lawlessness.  Welcome to the movement that began as a simple experiment: The First Purge.

 

To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community.  But when the violence of oppressors meets the rage of the marginalized, the contagion will explode from the trial-city borders and spread across the nation.

 

Coming off the most successful film in the series, The Purge: Election Year, creator James DeMonaco (writer/director of The Purge, The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year) returns alongside the producers of this worldwide phenomenon: Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum (Insidious series, Get Out, Split), Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ouija series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and DeMonaco’s longtime production partner, Sébastien K. Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13, Four Lovers).