You might know Katie Aselton from her role in the indie dramedy The Puffy Chair, or perhaps from her directorial debut, the infidelity comedy The Freebie. But more than likely you know her as Jenny, the foul-mouthed female whose just one of the boys on the FX fantasy-football sitcom The League. But for Aselton's second effort as a director she's left all shades of comedy behind, diving into full-on thriller mode for Black Rock.
Here she stars alongside Kate Bosworth and Lake Bell as three childhood friends who try to reconnect during a getaway to a remote island of the coast of Maine. There, instead of the camping and confiding they'd plan on, they find a batch of hillbilly hunters who go from friendly to deadly over the course of one really bad night. How does Aselton handle the daunting genre leap? Decide for yourself after taking a look at the film's first trailer, available below thanks to Yahoo:
Okay. Let's be honest, this trailer is pretty awful. It seems to reach for the touchstones of all vacation horror tropes. 1) Establish giddy tourists oblivious to the reality of the world around them. 2) Foreshadow their eventual trials by having them blithely talk about partying, good times, or the best weekend ever. 3) Show the emergence of an unexpected threat. 4) Use lots of dramatic music and cuts to black to make pulses race while not giving away pivotal scares, or build tension despite a general lack of scares. Optional 5) Reveal the heroes having enough and deciding to fight back. Checks across the board for Black Rock.
The thing is, while this trailer is flooded by overly dramatic music and visual stutters that make it seem impossibly cheesy, I'm still interested in the idea. It seems like a cross between Deliverance and the underrated Donkey Punch. Plus, penned by Mark Duplass, Black Rock marks his second attempt at horror following the flawed but largely compelling Baghead. And frankly, between Duplass and Aselton, both veterans of the mumblecore scene (who also happen to be husband and wife), I can't help but think this feature will be a lot more subtle and unconventional than this trailer implies. At least, I hope so.
According to the trailer, Black Rock is coming soon.
