Director Mary Harron has been working mainly in television since her 2000 cult classic, American Psycho, but is back this year with a new adaptation. The Moth Diaries, seemingly a foray into vampire lore, was adapted from a novel by Rachel Klein. The story follows two sixteen-year-old best friends at an all-girls boarding school whose relationship is shaken up by the arrival of a new and mysterious student. Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) must determine whether the newcomer, Ernessa (Lily Cole) is just trying to separate her from her Lucie (Sarah Gadon) or if her reasons are much more sinister. The Moth Diaries, also starring Scott Speedman (Underworld), will be available on iTunes, VOD and other digital hubs starting March 20th, with a theatrical release on April 20th. Hit the jump to see a new trailer and poster.

The Playlist debuted a new poster for the film, which played at Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals last year. Check out the synopsis from the novel below (via Amazon), followed by the trailer and poster.

Lucy and Ernessa have become inseparable. Ernessa’s taken her over. She’s consuming her.

What I saw wasn’t real. And I know it wasn’t a dream.

Ernessa is a vampire.

At an exclusive girls’ boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her growing obsession is her roommate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy’s friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is an enigmatic, moody presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes.

Around her swirl dark rumors, suspicions, and secrets as well as a series of ominous disasters. As fear spreads through the school and Lucy isn’t Lucy anymore, fantasy and reality mingle until what is true and what is dreamed bleed together into a waking nightmare that evokes with gothic menace the anxieties, lusts, and fears of adolescence. And at the center of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it: Is Ernessa really a vampire? Or has the narrator trapped herself in the fevered world of her own imagining?

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