Director Tim Story pictured 'The Blackening' in his mind as soon as he read the script, and says he's still proud of his 'Fantastic Four' movies

• Tim Story's new movie "The Blackening" is in theaters now.
• He spoke to Insider about transforming a comedy sketch into a feature-length horror movie.

With "The Blackening," Tim Story dips his toe into the horror genre for the first time in his career.

The 53-year-old director has done it all, from action comedies like "Shaft" and "Ride Along," to the romantic comedy "Think Like A Man," to a foray into Marvel superhero fare with the 2000s "Fantastic Four" movies starring Jessica Alba and Chris Evans.

Story's movies tend to lean into comedy, and "The Blackening," a horror comedy that satirizes horror tropes and African-American stereotypes, is no different.

"The Blackening" is based on a 2018 comedy sketch of the same name in which a group of Black people try to determine who is the "Blackest," and therefore should die first at the hands of a rampaging killer. The gag, of course, is that Black characters tend to die first in horror movies.

Following the success of the sketch, writer Dewayne Perkins teamed up with Tracy Oliver to turn the short into a feature-length movie.

Since premiering at Toronto International Film Festival last September, "The Blackening" has been met with rave reviews, and now finally finds its way into theaters this weekend.

Insider spoke to Story about the new movie being compared to "Scream," and why he thinks his Marvel sequel, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," was not as successful as the original.

Fans have said on social media that they preferred the movie's tagline, "We Can't All Die First," to "The Blackening." They have even gone as far as to refer to the movie as "We Can't All Die First." If you could go back, would you change it?

Absolutely not. No. I'll take whatever they want to call the movie. We do know the movie is "The Blackening," but that tagline has been such a favorite of ours. When you have something else like that, that can create a conversation, I'll take it all day long,

This movie started out as a sketch before being adapted into a full-length film. What did you see in the script that drew you to the project?

Well, luckily we had this young lady by the name of Tracy Oliver track Dewayne Perkins down to make his short into a feature script. I was brought on early as a producer and figured it would be something great because they're both talented writers, and Dewayne has an amazing voice. And I must admit my decision to direct didn't happen until I got the script.

Once I got the script, it was one of the funniest things I'd read in quite a long time, and I raised my hand and decided that maybe I would give it a shot. When you read something like that, that talks to you, and you kind of see the movie immediately, I don't second guess going behind the camera and trying to make it happen.

This movie premieres in theaters this weekend, right before Juneteenth, and the story actually is set on Juneteenth. Was that just a funny coincidence?

It seemed a perfect fit with the film having these friends celebrate around that holiday. It seemed fitting that if we could make it work inside of that date, with Juneteenth, then why not? Luckily the studio felt the same way and we're going for it. We think it's a great day for us and fingers crossed, hopefully, the audience has come out.

There's been a lot of comparison between this movie and other satirical horror movies, especially "Scream." However, the body count is lower than in typical slasher films. Was that intentional?

We didn't look to any one film to base it off of. There are not a lot of films that we could look to in this genre in terms of a horror comedy, but "Scream" was definitely one of those we looked at. Also, we get the comparisons to, say, "Scary Movie." We also go back into the slasher movies that we know of — "Friday the 13th," "Halloween," and "The Exorcist" — and all of these types of movies, we take a little bit from and we found our own road. We just found our own little lane, our own tone. When the audiences start to see it, we're a little bit more grounded but we still have just as much fun and, hopefully, we will become kind of the thing that other movies are comparing themselves to.

You have had an impressive career directing movies that I grew up with, such as "Barbershop," "Taxi," and "Ride Along." Your movies tend to attract big African-American audiences, partly due to having a largely Black cast. Has it been easier to pitch movies with Black leads or largely Black casts over the years?

That's a great question. It ebbs and flows. It's like when we do pitch these, the great thing about it is having a career and having a history that kind of shows that these movies can make money, they can bring in a broader audience than maybe we're specifically making it for. I found throughout my career that when I make something that's really specific to the audience, it also becomes quite universal and quite accessible to all cultures. And that's what I go in and basically pitch. And the great thing about it is, I've been able to have some examples of it working on a broader scale and fingers crossed that they'll continue to let me make 'em.

There was a story recently that Robert Downey Jr. was in the running to play Doctor Doom in the 2005 "Fantastic Four" movie, which you directed. What stuck out to you about Julian McMahon that made you pick him as your Doctor Doom?

Julian's just an amazing actor. If you know the character of Victor von Doom, he's quite arrogant, he is quite brilliant, and we felt that Julian gave us exactly what we were looking for. I was just honored to be able to have him in the movie. And as you can see, I think he did the part some great justice.

While the first movie was highly successful, the second movie, "Rise of the Silver Surfer," was not as big of a hit. In hindsight, where do you think the sequel went wrong?

I don't know if I'd call it going wrong. I think I made a movie that I'm extremely proud of. And so, what you find is that, in those things, as I've been a part of other sequels and part of franchises, you have to just keep making them and make them the way you want to see them. And when and if an audience comes out, they do. If they don't... What I've done many times in my career is, I always make stuff that I like and you cross your fingers that you find your audience.

Final question about "Fantastic Four." There was talk of a third sequel, which was scrapped. What happened there?

No, nothing wrong. Basically, a regime change changed the course of what they were gonna do. So it was pretty much just that. There's some things you don't have control over.

Finally, I know you have the third "Ride Along" in the works. Is there any update?

We've been working on a script for some time, and then we've had to basically try to figure out a way to coordinate Cube and Kevin's schedules, and it's been quite difficult. So at some point, I'm really hoping we can kind of get those schedules all connected and give you guys another one.

"The Blackening" is in theaters now.