Chilling British drama CRUEL SUMMER unveils new trailer; director speaks.
Echoing the gritty horrors of films like 1986’s harrowing THE RIVER’S EDGE, but with a decidedly contemporary Welsh twist is director Phillip Escott and Craig Newman’s new, fact-based dark British drama CRUEL SUMMER, a picture that riffs on the sad truth about human evil: that it is often born of simple boredom and fear.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Autism sufferer, Danny, escapes the inner-city and out to the country as part of his ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ award scheme. Little does he know, that bitter yob Nicholas (Danny Miller) is hunting him, stemming from a lie created by the enamored and envious Julia (Natalie Martins ). With the help of new boy Calvin (Reece Douglas), the three youths close in on Danny. As Nicholas behavior grows erratic and increasingly more violent, tensions rise within the trio, forcing Julia and Calvin to decide if they are capable of going through with Nicholas deadly plan.
SHOCK asked co-director Escott to tell us more about why he pursued the project:
“With Cruel Summer, Craig and I looked to examine an act of -seemingly -random violence. We were gripped by an horrific crime that took place here in the UK, a crime in which the perpetrators had no motive for their actions and it was this lack of reasoning that haunted us, ‘how did that day end up the way it did?’ we thought, and thats the question that drove us to create CRUEL SUMMER. We wanted to explore how, over a 24 hour period, the impact of ones actions can have harrowing consequences, as the inevitable tragically creeps closer and closer…”
With a haunting score by Josef Prygodzicz that gently references Clint Mansell’s work in THE FOUNTAIN, CRUEL SUMMER looks to be a sophisticated, emotional horror film, one that doesn’t need masked slashers or shambling ghouls to paralyze its audience.
Have a look at the trailer below and stay tuned to SHOCK for more details as we get them.
