Bret Easton Ellis, famous for penning subversive novels such as American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction, is set to make his directorial debut with the horror film Relapse, starring A Quiet Place: Day One and Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn.
Relapse is an Upscale L.A. Monster Movie
Ellis, who has previously written for several movies, including The Canyon, describes Relapse as a monster movie in upscale L.A. He states “It will have my strokes: sex, drugs and paranoia. It will also be a fun, lush, and commercial feature film for a lot of people to enjoy,”
Relapse sees Quinn play Matt Cullen, a man who checks into rehab after witnessing a horrific death at a drug-fuelled party. Three months on from that, he attempts to piece his life back together whilst staying at his parent’s L.A. mansion in the hills. But things have changed around Matt and everything seems off balance.
“Fueled by his unstable personality and the invading power of social media, Matt’s paranoia grows, messing up with his rehabilitation program. As he starts using again, a mysterious presence starts growing around Matt, and a monster that has been haunting him since he was a teenager reveals itself. His therapist tries to help, convinced that the monster is actually in Matt’s head.
“I grew up watching the iconic horror movies of the 1970s,” said Ellis. “I’ve written Lunar Park, a horror novel, as an homage to Stephen King. It seems appropriate that my first feature would be a horror film. There is a simplicity to ‘Relapse’ that seems like the perfect form for my directing debut: something direct and impactful.”
Ellis goes on to say he has “never seen a monster movie in the kind of upscale L.A. setting I wrote about and I am familiar with.”
Producer Nicolas Roiland has likened Relapse to classics such as The Thing, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Host, and Alien.
Relapse’s creature will be designed by the Oscar-nominated VFX banner DDT Studios (Society of the Snow), which has “three decades of experience giving life to fantastic creatures, elevating director visions and provoking audience worst nightmares.”
Variety had the exclusive on the announcement.
