CineVegas 2009 Preview: ‘Daylight’

CineVegas 2009 is right around the corner (next week to be precise), and We Are Movie Geeks are going to be there in full force. Throughout the festival, which runs from June 10th through the 15th, we are going to be bringing you all the coverage you need including reviews, interviews, party breakdowns, and red carpet premiere coverage.

‘Daylight’ is set to be one heck of an intense thriller. This engaging and potentially controversial story takes us on a road trip we won’t forget into the darker corners of humanity.

Here’s the film’s synopsis:

Irene and Daniel are an upwardly mobile couple that is a few weeks away from the birth of their first child—and a bad business deal closer to financial collapse. When a family wedding (and a personal loan from Irene’s wealthy father) draw them out of Manhattan to venture upstate, they lose their way on unfamiliar wooded roads. What was supposed to be a regular drive is forever altered when they pick up a hitchhiker. Soon, they find themselves at a farmhouse, enmeshed in a murder and at the mercy of three desperate men. What ensues is a taut psychological thriller fueled by the darkest fears that lie in all of us.

In spite of its simple plot, the intelligence that permeates David Barker’s rigorous and personal re-imagining of the genre film is striking and terrifying. With its tense interiors, insistent blend of suspense and drama, rich character detail, and minimalist aesthetic, DAYLIGHT feels unlike other works that make up the American film landscape. Alternately infuriating and harrowing, DAYLIGHT is a potent piece of shock cinema that thrives on making the audience uncomfortable. The slow boil of this genre piece nonetheless deftly evades falling into genre traps. Such filmmaking decisions imbue with the action a depth of character that enhances the terror to alarming effect. Featuring bold and riveting performances by the entire cast, Barker’s film keeps you completely involved emotionally from moment to excruciating moment.

This promo video suggests we’re in for a real treat, with an interesting story and some great performances.

‘Daylight’ screens on Thursday, June 11 at 8:30 pm and on Friday, June 12 at 1:15 pm.