A24 has released some of the best indie horror movies in recent memory, including The Witch, Green Room, and It Comes at Night. But one that it missed out on was It Follows, which has all the A24 horror trademarks (slow dread; an emphasis on tension over jump scares; impressive cinematography), but was actually distributed by RADiUS-TWC. The company wasn’t going to let another David Robert Mitchell film (especially after the last one made $23 million on a $3 million budget and appeared on numerous best-of lists) go by, so they snagged his next feature, which (surprise!) is more noir than horror.
Under the Silver Lake follows shaggy amateur detective Sam (played by Andrew Garfield) as he looks for his neighbor (Riley Keough) who has gone missing after a night they spent together. “As he combs through East Los Angeles searching for any kind of clues he can find,” the official synopsis reads, “he stumbles upon a larger, more sinister conspiracy than he ever imagined, involving billionaires, celebrities, urban myths, and even pop culture as we know it.” It looks like a one-man Nice Guys, but with an emphasis on crime and paranoia over comedy. And a lot more Violent Femmes songs.
Under the Silver Lake — which also stars Topher Grace, Zosia Mamet, Jimmi Simpson, Riki Lindhome, and Patrick Fischler — opens on June 22.
