Relapse: Joseph Quinn to star in horror film directed by Bret Easton Ellis

Bret Easton Ellis has written the novels that have inspired such films as Less Than Zero, American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction, and The Informers, and has written the screenplays for The Canyons, The Curse of Downers Grove, and Smiley Face Killers. Now he’s set to make his feature directorial debut with the horror film Relapse – and Joseph Quinn, who played a fan favorite character in season 4 of the Netflix series Stranger Things and will be seen in the upcoming A Quiet Place: Day One, has signed on to star in the film!

Quinn’s Relapse character is Matt Cullen, who checks into rehab after witnessing a horrific death during a drugged-up party. Three months later, he is set to get his life back together, staying at his parent’s mansion in the hills of Los Angeles. But things have changed around Matt and everything seems off balance. Fueled by his unstable personality and the invading power of social media, Matt’s paranoia grows, messing up with his rehabilitation program. As he starts using again, a mysterious presence starts growing around Matt, and a monster that has been haunting him since he was a teenager reveals itself. His therapist tries to help, convinced that the monster is actually in Matt’s head.

Ellis told Variety, “I grew up watching the iconic horror movies of the 1970s. I’ve written Lunar Park, a horror novel, as an homage to Stephen King. It seems appropriate that my first feature would be a horror film. There is a simplicity to Relapse that seems like the perfect form for my directing debut: something direct and impactful.” He added that he has “never seen a monster movie in the kind of upscale L.A. setting I wrote about and I am familiar with.“

He describes Relapse as a personal movie and “a monster movie with my signature characters—young, handsome, rich—at the center. … It will have my strokes: sex, drugs and paranoia. It will also be a fun, lush, and commercial feature film for a lot of people to enjoy.“

SND is producing the film with Adrian Guerra’s Nostromo and Simon Wallon’s Kiss & Kill. SND is also handling worldwide sales and French distribution. They’ll be presenting an exclusive sizzle reel to potential buyers at the European Film Market. DDT Studios is designing the creature.

How does Relapse sound to you? Are you a fan of Bret Easton Ellis’s work, and are you glad to hear that he’s going to be directing a horror movie (with Joseph Quinn in the lead)? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.