There weren't many low-budget American independent films in 2014 that demanded the attention that Jeremy Saulnier's thrilling, beautifully shot Blue Ruin did (although Soft in the Head, It Felt Like Love, and Josephine Decker's Thou Wast Mild and Lovely are tough competition). So, it's understandable that since Blue Ruin hit theaters and VOD last year, talk of Saulnier's upcoming follow-up, Green Room, has been percolating on high, doubly so considering it has garnered a cast that includes perennial awesome guy Patrick Stewart, alongside Alia Shawkat, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Marc Webber, and Blue Ruin star Macon Blair.

After winning the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes for Blue Ruin in 2013, Saulnier has returned to Cannes this year with Green Room, which is playing in the Director's Fortnight, looking for distribution or, at the very least, some buzzy word of mouth. In anticipation, a clip from the film has been released, showcasing a tense moment where Yelchin, Poots, and their friends, part of a punk band, are being held at gunpoint by an enforcer for a gang of white supremacists. It's a riveting scene and only makes me all the more intensely impatient to see what Saulnier, who also wrote the script for Green Room, delivers with a bigger cast and budget.

Here's the official synopsis:

In the harrowing crime thriller GREEN ROOM, a young punk rock band find themselves trapped in a secluded venue after stumbling upon a horrific act of violence, fighting for their lives against a gang of white power skinheads intent on eliminating all witnesses.

Watch the first clip via Twitch below: