TIFF Movie Trailer: Repeaters

Hitfix has premiered the trailer for a Canadian independent sci-fi drama titled Repeaters, which will screen at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival in September. The movie is being called "a really dark version of Groundhog Day" as it uses the same concept but to different results. Here is the official plot synopsis:

REPEATERS is an aggressive, fast-paced thriller with an important moral question: what would you do if you knew that everyday you started over with a clean slate? Sonia, Kyle and Weeks are three cynical outsiders fed up with the peer groups and the perceived injustices inflicted upon their early adult lives. Forced into mandatory rehab, the trio is given a day pass to attempt to complete step nine on the path to recovery – make direct amends with those they have wronged in the past. The following morning, they begin to notice a strange, eerie repetitiveness to their day. The day's events play out exactly like their memory of the previous day: people are carrying on the same conversations, and on the television, the morning news repeats the previous day's broadcast. When the trio reconvene to discuss what happened to them the night before they realize that a shared experience is what is causing the day to repeat. They awake the next morning to find that their fear of reliving a same day over again is confirmed. Upon acceptance of their predicament, the three begin to behave with more confidence and bravado because surely their misdeeds will be erased if the day continues to repeat itself. Accordingly, they set out pulling pranks and committing petty revenges, but things soon escalate, culminating in the torture and kidnapping of a rival.

The film stars Dustin Milligan (Extract, Final Destination 3), Amanda Crew (Charlie St. Cloud, Sex Drive), and Richard de Klerk and is the tenth feature directed by Carl Bessai (Normal), Watch the trailer now embedded after the jump. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

In the official TIFF guide, Martin Bilodeau called the film "a sophisticated blend of auteur and genre filmmaking."

"Carl Bessai's tenth feature takes us on a thrilling and provocative journey through the personal hell of trauma and addiction." ... "Like Harold Ramis's Groundhog Day, Repeaters concerns itself with some central tenets of existentialism, skillfully mixing them with a wry and thought-provoking commentary on the psychological effects of addiction. Director Carl Bessai has crafted a tense and intelligent action thriller about the price of freedom and the burden of taking responsibility for our actions."

Here is a listing of screening times for Repeaters at the Toronto International Film Festival:

  • PREMIERE – Monday, September 13 at 9:45pm – Varsity, Theater 8
  • Public Screening 2 – Tuesday, September 14 at 3:30pm – AMC, Theater 5
  • Public Screening 3 – Saturday, September 18 at 9:30am – AMC, Theater 3