Dewayne Perkins: 'Blackening' was made for people who talk to the screen

NEW YORK, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Actor and writer Dewayne Perkins says his horror-comedy, The Blackening, was made for those who are fully invested in the moviegoing experience.

"What was very important was to create a film that was all about fun," Perkins told UPI in a Zoom interview conducted before the Screen Actors Guild strike last month.

"Me and my family approach horror from a very specific point of view, which is like, 'We are in this!' We talk to the screen," he said.

"[The intention was] to create a film for those people -- the people who talk to the screen and put them in a movie and [see] how that would affect how the plot works out."

Directed by Tim Story and co-written by Tracy Oliver, the movie is set for DVD and Blu-ray release Tuesday after premiering at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and playing in theaters earlier this summer.

Co-starring Melvin Gregg, Jay Pharoah, Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, X Mayo, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls and Yvonne Orji, it follows nine Black former college roommates to a remote cabin for a weekend reunion in honor of the Juneteenth holiday.

"We wanted to showcase so many different facets of Blackness. So, we could show you Black people are not a monolith, without having to say it," Perkins said.

"As Black people, a lot of our survival comes from community," he added. "This showcases how these friends, when they work together, have the best chance at survival. Those were the main things that were very important to push because I've got an agenda, baby."

Fowler plays Clifton, a conservative, socially awkward guy everyone is surprised to see on their special weekend.

"Clifton was such an outcast. I felt like a lot of his lines would have to be spontaneous, as if he was just a fly on the wall," Fowler said.

"I wanted him to feel like a person who was just an ugly duckling of the crew."

Perkins plays Dewayne, arguably the most dramatic person on the trip.

"My character is kind of combative -- not combative -- but I think, within the friend group, they are like: 'We know we don't want to upset Dewayne because he's not going to not talk about it,'" Perkins said. "But there is a very clear love [between him and his friends]."

One of Perkins' favorite scenes is when Dewayne and X Mayo's character, Shanika, meet up again after not seeing each other for a while.

"I was friends with X before we started filming, and you see the real friendship [reflect] how we interact in real life. When I say, 'I love you,' that's real," Perkins said.

Mayo joked that they are no longer friends in real life after shooting the movie together.

"The movie broke us," she said.

"Now we are family," Perkins laughed.

Mayo called Shanika the comic relief of the friend group.

"She's big fun. People hear her before they see her. I feel like she has a big heart and she wants everybody to be OK," the actress said.

"You see her big heart because she brings Clifton to the function. I feel for him and want him to be included, but I'm still not sure about him, especially when he gets there and he still has an Android [phone] and we're praying for him."