This trailer deserves an extra “Beware” sign, due to the massive amount of nudity and arguably perverse subject matter. The film is a thriller involving fetish photography, subject matter that I’m sure would put some people off regardless of the skin being shown. To everyone else, enjoy.
Director/writer/producer/actor/superman Joe Swanberg has reteamed once again with fellow multi-talented filmmaker Adam Wingard for the titillating thriller 24 Exposures,Swanberg’s immediate follow-up to the recently released comedy Drinking Buddies. After watching the above trailer, which comes to us from Bloody Disgusting, I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen this much nudity in a trailer before, nor do I think I’ve been as disturbed by nudity in a film since Jodie Foster’s rape scene in The Accused. That said, I love being disturbed, so I’m hoping this film shares the quality level of Swanberg’s above-average films.
Written and directed by Swanberg, 24 Exposures follows Billy (Wingard), whose photography job is less about red carpets and more about red scars across his models’ necks as they pose dead or in various states of bound torture. He appears to begin a relationship with Rebecca (Helen Rogers), who shows interest in his work. Unfortunately, the police also begin to take interest in Billy’s work after his models start showing up actually dead. Detective Bamfeaux, played by frequent Swanberg/Wingard collaborator Simon Barrett, is the melancholy-driven cop who takes the case, and something tells me cops aren’t the most understanding people when it comes to fetish imagery. (At least in their day job.)
The preview is split up by interstitial buzz words in the pulpy style of the film’s theatrical poster (seen below), and I think they actually do the film quite a bit of justice. Had the words been scrawled in blood by fingernail or been written out in large cords of rope, the flick would have had a very faux-horror rapey vibe, but the appearance of big block letters somehow brightens the tone up just enough to remind me that I’m not watching a fourth sequel to 8MM. In fact, if I’m going to throw out comparative films, this looks one of the late-era Emmanuelle softcore French films smashed together with Mark Romanek’s One Hour Photo. And even if it isn’t, someone should make that film.
If these names all sound familiar to you, it’s because Swanberg, Barrett and Wingard (along with director Ti West) have all combined their skills to completely revamp the indie horror and sexual drama scene with films such as V/H/S, Autoerotic, V/H/S/2, Silver Bullets, and Wingard’s highly anticipated You’re Next, which comes out August 23.
While it doesn’t yet have an official release date, 24 Exposures makes its debut this weekend at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.
