A new Whiplash trailer has gone online, and it gave me flashbacks of how much the film unnerved me when I saw it at Sundance.  The film stars Miles Teller as a student jazz drummer who aspires to greatness under a ruthless instructor, played with palpable intensity by J.K. Simmons.  Although some may want to file this under "drama", make no mistake: this is one of the scariest horror films of the year.  The word "horror" usually implies something supernatural and thriller conveys some form of excitement.  Whiplash is nerve-wracking dread, but it's still a must-see, especially for Teller and Simmons' performances.

Hit the jump to check out the international Whiplash trailer.  The film opens October 10th.

Via Ad Vitam.

Here's the synopsis for Whiplash:

A pedagogical thriller and an emotional S&M two-hander, Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is brilliantly acted by Miles Teller as an eager jazz drummer at a prestigious New York music academy and J.K. Simmons as the teacher whose method of terrorizing his students is beyond questionable, even when it gets results. Dubbed “Full Metal Jacket at Juilliard” at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, Chazelle’s jazz musical was developed from his short film of the same name, which premiered at Sundance the previous year. The live jazz core that is fused with Justin Hurwitz’s ambient score, the blood-on-the-drum-kit battle between student and teacher, and the dazzling filmmaking will keep your pulse rate elevated from beginning to end. A kinesthetic depiction of performance anxiety—you don’t need to be a musician to feel it—Whiplash also presents us with a moral issue open to debate.