Under the Shadow made its highly buzzed debut last Friday as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival Midnight strand, meeting rave reviews across the board.
Whilst Netflix acquired digital streaming rights to the Farsi-language supernatural shocker before the film had even screened at Sundance, Vertical Entertainment weren’t far behind them, teaming up with XYZ Films to roll the film out with a global day-and-date release on digital and VOD platforms, alongside a targeted theatrical release in select territories. Vertical and XYZ will be coordinating the release with Netflix, the streaming giant who will be serving the film up worldwide shortly after its theatrical and transactional debut.
From director Babak Anvari, who was BAFTA-nominated for his 2011 short film Two & Two, Under the Shadow looks like a suitably spooky flick and it’s great to see Netflix and Vertical appreciating, not only horror, but films not in the English language. The story’s decision to blend real life horror and a supernatural threat is appropriate and, sadly, relevant to the world today. Horror has always been an excellent genre for filmmakers to comment on society and world issues subtly, so we are excited to see Anvari’s horrifying depiction of a war-set haunting.
Whilst neither a release date nor a trailer have been revealed, an exclusive clip with an amazing bit of cinematography has seen the light of day and we’ll leave you to savour that…
Synopsis:
As a mother and daughter struggle to cope with the terrors of the post-revolution, war torn Tehran of the 80s, a mysterious evil begins to haunt their home.
