A few years after her incredible 1978, featuring Days of Heaven and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Brooke Adams starred in Michael Roemer’s Vengeance Is Mine (which premiered under the title of Haunted as part of the PBS anthology series American Playhouse). The 1984 feature, which has long gone unseen since its debut, is now returning in a new 35mm print at Film Forum beginning on May 27 and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer. First, see the official synopsis.

Returning to her East Coast childhood home to heal old familial wounds, Jo (Adams), finds her adoptive mother withdrawn and distant, and a half-sister who has successfully escaped the cold clutches of their family. Impulsively, Jo enters into the troubled life of the neighbors, befriending a couple whose marriage is collapsing under the weight of alcoholism and mental illness.  

A melodrama without the traditional indicators, Vengeance Is Mine (originally titled Haunted), is a considerably more pointed continuation of Roemer’s previous insights on fraught relationships. Though completely different in tone than Nothing But a Man and The Plot Against Harry, Vengeance forms a trinity of utterly original works confronting the inevitable complications within the American family.

See the exclusive trailer below.

Vengeance Is Mine opens at Film Forum on May 27 with Roemer in person. Learn more here.

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