With Dexter concluding, Michael C. Hall’s first follow-up role is one of another killer, albeit one that does so by accident, at least initially it seems. Director Jim Mickle, coming off Stake Land and We Are What We Are, premiered Cold In July at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and now the first trailer has arrived.
Following a mullet-equipped Hall as a man who kills a home intruder, only to see his life violently unravel, we were mixed at Park City. We said in our full review, “While the unforeseen places it goes kept me engaged, unearned character motivations, and an awkward genre balance prevent this from being a knock-out exploitation noir entry. Leaving a handful of unanswered questions, Cold in July is ultimately a frustrating experience.”
Ahead of a release next month, check out the trailer and poster below for the film also starring Don Johnson, Sam Shepard, Vinessa Shaw, Nick Damici, and Wyatt Russell.
On a hot Texas summer night in 1989, family man Richard Dane (Dexter’s Michael C. Hall) awakens to the sound of a burglar breaking into his home. In a panic, he shoots the intruder dead—but this nightmare is only just beginning. Although he’s hailed as a small-town hero, Dane soon finds himself fearing for his family’s safety when the burglar’s ex-con father, Ben (Sam Shepard), rolls into town; hell-bent on revenge. However, not all is as it seems. Misled by the cops and desperate for answers, Richard embarks on an increasingly berserk, bloodstained quest to discover what really happened that night. The plot twists pile up faster than the body count in this blistering mystery of vengeance and vice, directed by Jim Mickle (Stake Land, We Are What We Are) with scene-stealing performances from Sam Shepard and Don Johnson as a pair of Texan badasses.
Cold In July opens on May 23rd.