First 'Tales from the Hood 2' Trailer Debuts

The highly-anticipated follow-up to 1995's Tales from the Hood is debuting later this month at the Fantasia International Film Festival, which is sure to premiere to a rapt audience. While many of us might not be able to catch a theatrical screening, the film will be landing on Blu-ray on October 2nd. Check out a trailer for the film above.

The sequel to the groundbreaking original film Tales from the Hood reunites Executive Producer Spike Lee and writers/directors/producers Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott for an all-new gripping, horrifying, and oftentimes devilishly comical anthology. This next installment will keep viewers on the edge of their seats, as they course through several stories that explore socially relevant topics from the past and present.

In the 1995 original, a creepy mortician, Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams III) tries to scare a drug-dealing teen named Stack and his two friends that he has trapped in his funeral home. The four urban-themed horror stories Simms tells center around themes and concepts such as police brutality, domestic abuse, racism and gang violence. Of course, being a horror film, things don't work out so well for the three drug dealers. Turns out they're not trapped in the funeral home, they're dead and in Hell and the stories Simms – who is actually Satan himself – wove lead up to the reveal.

While the original film might not have become an immediate cultural sensation, the effectiveness of the anthology has resonated with horror fans, leading to it becoming regarded as one of the more entertaining anthologies of the last few decades, which also carries with it interesting cultural themes.

One of the most successful films of last year was Get Out, a movie in which writer/director Jordan Peele used the horror genre to deliver a message about racism and our cultural climate, all while delivering an enthralling and entertaining narrative. Tales from the Hood might not have earned the critical acclaim enjoyed by Get Out, though it's easy to see how the former helped set the stage for the latter's success.

The box office success of Get Out helped prove that audiences are prepared for horror films that feature important cultural themes, allowing this sequel to lean even more heavily into important social issues.

Tales from the Hood 2 premieres on Friday, July 13th and hits Blu-ray on October 2nd.

Are you looking forward to checking out this sequel? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T YouTube, Bloody Disgusting]