By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s played fests including Fantasia, Toronto and Fantastic Fest, and it’ll be available internationally this summer.
Shudder has announced its acquisition of FIND YOUR FRIENDS, the first feature by writer/director Izabel Pakzad. The movie will debut on the service June 12 in North America, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand. Bella Thorne (the BABYSITTER movies, SAINT CLARE), Chloe Cherry, Helena Howard, Sophia Ali and Zion Moreno star; the synopsis: “FIND YOUR FRIENDS follows Amber [Howard] and her four best friends as they flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface. What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival, as past wounds and present dangers collide in a night that turns their trip into a revenge-fueled nightmare.”
“Shudder champions work that refuses to play by the rules and challenges everything we think young women should be in genre films,” Pakzad says. “My hope was to make a film that audiences find to be raw, unapologetic and bold, and I am so grateful to be partners with them. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect home for FIND YOUR FRIENDS.”
“We’re thrilled to share FIND YOUR FRIENDS, a visceral film that begins as an escape into the stark beauty of the desert and quickly descends into a gripping struggle where paranoia, resentment, and survival collide,” says Emily Gotto, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Productions at Shudder. “Audiences should prepare for an intense, emotionally charged experience that rethinks the trope of the final girl.”
