Trailer: Summer release planned for pandemic thriller Before the Fire

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I was blown away by the performance of Jackson Davis in the 2018 horror film THE BASEMENT. I had low expectations for that movie going into it, but Davis managed to make it something worth watching. So I was glad to see him turn up in the trailer for director Charlie Buhler's debut feature BEFORE THE FIRE. 

This trailer, embedded above, has arrived online because Dark Sky Films recently acquired the North American distribution rights to BEFORE THE FIRE and is planning to give the film a theatrical and digital release by mid-summer.

Written by Jenna Lyng Adams, who also plays the lead role, BEFORE THE FIRE follows 

Ava Boone, a Hollywood actress whose rising career is cut short when a pandemic influenza sends her back to the small town she fled years before, only to find something more dangerous than any virus waiting for her. Instead of shelter, her South Dakota hometown brings her face to face with unforeseen peril.

The pandemic thriller had its world premiere at the Cinequest Film Festival in March, immediately before things were shut down by the real life pandemic. It has been described as "a frightening and timely look at how individual lives are turned upside down by a global crisis and strikes an eerie resemblance to how we are living life today."

Adams and Davis are joined in the cast by Ryan Vigilant and Charles Hubbell.

Buhler had this to say: 

We fought to make this movie because we felt that there was a very specific expectation about the types of stories women were able to tell. Jenna and I both love action and sci-fi, so we wanted to make a female protagonist that we women could really rally behind."

Adams added, 

Audiences are thirsty for unconventional, layered and imperfect women on-screen. Dark Sky Films has been known to support female driven films and we are happy to have found the right partnership for this movie."

Dark Sky Films' Nicola Goelzhaeuser said, 

BEFORE THE FIRE arrives as the world is caught in an existential crisis, but it is really a timeless achievement that reveals how far people will go to survive. We look forward to bringing this female driven film to audiences everywhere."

BEFORE THE FIRE was produced by Kristen Murtha, and it looks really good to me. I will be checking it out as soon as Dark Sky Films makes it available.