Netflix has revealed the first Hold the Dark trailer for acclaimed filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier’s upcoming thriller. Saulnier first broke out with the 2013 thriller Blue Ruin, then hit another level with the 2015 neo-nazi thriller Green Room, so anticipation has been mighty high for his next project. Hold the Dark takes place in northern Alaska and stars Jeffrey Wright as a retired naturalist and wolf expert who teams up with a young mother (Riley Keough) to search the wilderness for the pack of wolves that killed her young son. Meanwhile, the woman’s husband (Alexander Skarsgard) returns home from Iraq to the news that his son is dead, igniting a series of violent events.

That's the basic setup of the film, and if you're sold you may not want to watch this trailer. It appears there's far more going on than this brief logline reveals, and while this trailer doesn't look to be giving anything away per se, it might be fun to watch this film unfold as cold as possible.

But if you do watch the trailer, you'll see this thing looks pretty terrific. Saulnier is certainly scaling upwards with his Green Room follow-up, painting on a larger canvas and playing with a bunch of different ideas. Between films like Hereditary and The Ritual it's a great time for this particular corner of the horror genre, and I can't wait to see what Saulnier adds.

Check out the Hold the Dark trailer below, and look for our review next month as the film is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film also stars James Badge Dale and Julian Black AntelopeHold the Dark will be released globally on Netflix on September 28th.

Here’s the official synopsis for Hold the Dark:

Retired naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (JEFFREY WRIGHT) journeys to the edge of civilization in northern Alaska at the pleading of Medora Slone (RILEY KEOUGH), a young mother whose son was killed by a pack of wolves. As Core attempts to help Medora track down the wolves who took her son, a strange and dangerous relationship develops between the two lonely souls.

 

But when Medora’s husband Vernon (ALEXANDER SKARSGARD) returns home from the Iraq War, the news of his child’s death ignites a violent chain of events. As local cop, Donald Marium (JAMES BADGE DALE), races to stop Vernon’s vengeful rampage, Core is forced on a perilous odyssey into the heart of darkness.

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Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix