‘Évolution’ Trailer: Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Mysterious Thriller Looks Like The Next ‘Under The Skin’
We’ve spent a lot of the past few weeks looking forward to the cinematic bounty that awaits us in 2016, fromThe Nice GuystoBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But for those seeking slightly more exotic fare, we’ve got the first trailer forÉvolution.
Directed byLucile Hadzihalilovic(Innocence),Évolutionunfolds on a mysterious island populated only by women and boys. There are some weird details — like those endless medical experiments — but it all seems normal enough to the kids until one boy, Nicholas (Max Brebant) starts to dig deeper. Watch theEvolutiontrailer after the jump.
This is technically the FrenchEvolutiontrailer, but since there is really no dialogue in it, the language barrier shouldn’t be a problem.
And you thoughtStar Warswas shrouded in mystery. What exactly is going on here? TheEvolutiontrailer is reminiscent of recent arthouse thrillers like Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’sGoodnight Mommy, or especially Jonathan Glazer’s excellentUnder the Skin. Like the latter, theEvolutionpromo relies on a combination of weird imagery, discordant music, and the occasional shocking bit of violence to keep us off-kilter. We may not understand what’s happening, but we know that whatever it is, it makes us uneasy.
Évolutionpremiered at TIFF and has been making the festival rounds since then. /Film friend and former editor Russ Fischer caught it at Fantastic Fest, and hehad this to say about it:
Evolutionreminds me of other films I’ve seen, whether in the grey shadows that recall Jonathan Glazer or the shades of body horror that call up early David Cronenberg, but I’ve never seen a film quite like this one. This is a superb new cinematic folklore, the sort of stuff that can inspire dreams just as readily as nightmare.
Well, sign us up. And now for the bad news:Évolutiondoesn’t yet have a U.S. release date.
