You might have not heard of Chris Butler and his upcoming debut feature SCOPIA, but if the first trailer is anything to go by, they’re both well worth getting acquainted with. Especially if you dig trippy psychological thrillers full of evocative imagery. As the director himself puts it: “There is a lot of what I call ‘Disposable Horror’ out there now. You pay your money, you crap your pants and you move on. Fair enough, I guess. And yes, the genre is profitable. But I wanted to do more than just create disposable entertainment. I wanted to make a film that effects an audience, makes them think and stays with you long after you’ve left the cinema.” Good on you, sir. Let’s hope the final product achieves this lofty goal. In the meantime, you can check out the trailer, as well as the poster and official synopsis below.
Basia (Joanna Ignaczewska) is an ordinary Polish girl who lives and works in London. After a hypnotic regression session with her therapist, Edward Stanton (Louis Labovitch), she taps into a part of the mind that should never be meddled with. With the natural balance of her existence becoming increasingly unstable, Basia’s world becomes very strange and eventually spirals into a perpetual nightmare oscillating erratically around time and space. A traumatic experience from her past combined with her fragmented and distorted present, push her mind and soul to it’s limits and beyond.
Written and Directed by Chris Butler, SCOPIA stars Joanna Ignaczewska and Louis Labovitch with a supporting cast including Jessica Jay, Akira Koieyama, Mathew Roberts, Genevieve Sibayan and Callum Holbrook.