Clouds of Sils Maria star Chloë Grace Moretz premiered her latest project, Brain on Fire, at Toronto International Film Festival last year and ahead of a Netflix release, the first trailer has landed. Directed by Gerard Barrett (Glassland), the film explores the true story of Susannah Cahalan, a journalist in New York City who was inflicted with serious health issues, including seizures and hallucinations (scientifically diagnosed as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis).
As one can see in the trailer, her condition worsens over the course of weeks and she quickly goes from violence to catatonia. It’s not until having numerous misdiagnoses and a hospitalization, when a doctor finally gives her a diagnosis with the hope she can rebuild her life. Also starring Jenny Slate, Thomas Mann, Tyler Perry, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Richard Armitage, check out the trailer below for the Charlize Theron-produced drama.
One morning, 24-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up in a hospital bed. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. And she had no idea how she got there.
Based on Cahalan’s bestselling memoir Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, director Gerard Barrett’s adaptation captures the horrifying experience of one woman’s unexplained descent into madness and the medical miracle it took to pull her back from the brink. Fresh out of journalism school and ready to embark on adult life, Susannah (Chloë Grace Moretz) already seemed to have it all: her dream job at the New York Post, supportive co-workers (Tyler Perry and Jenny Slate), a devoted boyfriend (Thomas Mann), and a loving family (Richard Armitage and Carrie-Anne Moss).
Then, almost overnight, this ingénue went from one of the Post’s most reliable reporters to an unstable, paranoid shell of her former self. Plagued by auditory hallucinations and memory loss, doctors dismissed her condition with a diagnosis of partying too hard and stress. But as her condition worsened, the stakes grew higher, and the race to find an answer became a matter of life and death.
Brain on Fire will be released by Netflix this year.