A trailer and poster have landed for Detour, the latest film from British director Christopher Smith, the man behind Severance, Triangle and Black Death.
The taut chase thriller – which Smith also wrote – premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, and is due to hit selected US cinemas on January 20th, 2017, hitting OnDemand, Amazon Video and iTunes the same day.
Harper, a seemingly naive law student, obsesses over the idea that his shifty stepfather was involved in the devastating car crash that left his mother hospitalised and comatose. He drowns his suspicions in whiskey until he finds himself suddenly engrossed in conversation with volatile grifter Johnny and his stripper companion, Cherry. As daylight breaks and the haziness of promises made becomes clearer, how will Harper handle the repercussions (not to mention the violent duo—on his doorstep)? Employing a split-narrative structure to tell this tale of deception and murder, Christopher Smith takes his audience on a thrill ride full of hairpin turns, where it’s never quite clear what or who can be trusted.
Using a split screen technique to tell parallel takes on the same tale, Detour looks a little like Sliding Doors, only with added violence, betrayal and murder. It stars Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Harper, with Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond the Pines), Bel Powley (Equals) and True Blood’s Stephen Moyer.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)