This Used To Be My Slayground

The fine folks at A24 just dropped this surprise teaser poster on us today (via) with word that a trailer is coming tomorrow -- Slayground is from director Jeremy Saulnier, who has only made one movie that was "just okay" (that would be Hold the Dark with Alexander Skarsgard) while everything else he's made is "fucking fantastic." That would be Green Room, Blue Ruin, Rebel Ridge (with Aaron Pierre!), and even his first film Murder Party which I recall liking a lot back in the day. ("The day" being "2007.") We don't have a lot of info on Slayground (previously titled October) right now so perhaps it'd be smart for me to wait until the trailer drops tomorrow to post this, but I... am not doing that. So what do we know? We know it stars Cory Michael Smith which honestly is enough for me...

... he's a terrific actor (and a gay!) who's usually relegated to supporting roles where he steals the entire movie, (remember how good he was in May December?) save small films like 1985 he is absolutely incredible in (my review here). But Smith ain't all -- the movie also co-stars Stephen Root and James Badge Dale (mmm James Badge Dale) and Young Mazino (mmm Young Mazino) and Sophie Wilde and Imogen Poots (Green Room reunion!) and Chase Sui Wonders -- that's a tremendously-appealing-to-me cast already. Also Wikipedia labels the film as "a Halloween-set action thriller film" so that, along with the teaser poster, gives us more of a clue where this is headed. I'm getting Onslaught vibes but hopefully it's better than Onslaught. So... stay tuned! Watch this space! Tomorrow, a trailer! Here is a favorite James Badge Dale gif to get us there (more here):