This 'Hold The Dark' Trailer Is Unbearably Tense

I don’t even know where to begin with this. On the heels of Blue Ruin and Green Room (I need to see his debut, Murder Party), Jeremy Saulnier quickly became one of my favorite filmmakers. And he’s back next month with his latest, Hold the Dark. If you’ve seen any of his previous films, you know you’re in for a rough time—and I mean that in the best possible way. And if you haven’t, this first trailer should clue you in. It also clearly demonstrates why this was one of my most anticipated movies of 2018.

A grim, sparse, desolate setting; a strange, distrusting, isolated population; wolves eating children; and a vengeful, war vet father, dressing up in a wolf mask, going on a rampage. Everything we see in Hold the Dark is tailor made for Saulnier and his penchant for creating unbearable levels of tension and pressure. The obvious comparison point is The Grey, but there’s obviously much more going on here than just man the versus nature struggle depicted in that film.

Saulnier also recently talked about making Hold the Dar, about how he and the crew found themselves in frigid, snow-covered locations to get the shots they wanted, and it looks like it paid off. He also mentioned this movie has his highest body count, so there’s that to look forward to.

Here’s the brief synopsis:

A gripping psychological thriller unfolds in the treacherous Alaskan wilderness when a retired wolf expert is summoned to investigate a child’s disappearance.

Based on the novel by William Giraldi, and adapted by frequent Saulnier collaborator Macon Blair, Hold the Dark stars Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgård, and Riley Keough. The film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival when that gets rolling next month, but then it hits Netflix shortly thereafter on September 28.