Trailer Round-Up: 'AMI', 'Wrestle', 'Chasing Bullitt', 'Discarnate', 'Boo!', 'Every Time I Die', 'Combat Obscura'
If a trailer for a Marvel movie, or a film about wars in the stars, pops up, we tend to devote a whole post to it. But sometimes, trailers for small films need love to. That's where a trailer round-up comes in handy. Below, catch trailers for AMI, Wrestle, Chasing Bullitt, Discarnate, Boo!, Every Time I Die and Combat Obscura.
AMI
What if Siri came to life, and turned you into a crazy person? That's the set-up to AMI, which looks like a horror movie version of Spike Jonze's Her. In AMI, "Cassie has become a recluse ever since her mother died in a car accident. In an effort to fill the void, she downloads AMI, the latest intelligent personal assistant. As their relationship quickly deepens into a twisted co-dependency, Cassie falls deeper and deeper under AMI's spell; not realizing that everyone she knows is in serious danger." There's a scene in this trailer where Cassie asks her boyfriend to spend time with her, and he replies he can't because it's leg day. AMI's recommendation upon hearing such news: kill that guy. Can you blame her? AMI will open sometime this year.
Wrestle
Touted as a wrestling version of Hoop Dreams, the upcoming film Wrestle is a "coming-of-age documentary about four members of a high-school wrestling team at Huntsville's J.O. Johnson High School, a longstanding entry on Alabama's list of failing schools. Coached by teacher Chris Scribner, teammates Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan each face challenges far beyond a shot at the State Championship: splintered family lives, drug use, teenage pregnancy, mental health struggles, and run-ins with the law threaten to derail their success on the mat and lock any doors that could otherwise open. Tough-love coach Scribner isn't off the hook, either; he must come to terms with his own past conflicts while unwittingly wading into the complexities of race, class and privilege in the South." This doc looks promising, and will hopefully get the attention it deserves for its important issues. Wrestle opens February 22 in New York.
Chasing Bullitt
Discarnate
Hey, this looks spooky! In Discarnate, "a neuroscientist becomes obsessed with a drug that allows humans to interact with spirits, but during the clinical trial he inadvertently unleashes a deadly supernatural force on his research team." This looks like a combination of Flatliners with The Serpent and the Rainbow, and that's a neat combo. There's also a kid with a creepy animal mask, which looks plucked from the upcoming Pet Sematary remake. In short, there's nothing really original here, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Discarnate comes to theaters and VOD March 5.
Boo!
Boo! Sorry, I didn't mean to terrify you – I was just writing out the title of this next movie. In Boo!, "a torn suburban family refuses to heed the warning of an innocent prank left upon them which causes an unknown supernatural force to wreak havoc." This trailer looks to be hitting the usual fright film buttons, almost as if going down a check list. There's also a title card that reads "IT'S THE BOO", which made me laugh, so that's something. Boo! arrives on February 28.
Every Time I Die
A lot of horror films in this round-up! Next up we have Every Time I Die, which "follows the classic tale of ghost possession, flipping the script by telling the story from the perspective of the possessing spirit trying to stop his killer from striking again. Drew Fonteiro headlines the cast as a disturbed young man with a mysterious past whose tragic death is just the beginning of his troubles. Instead of the hereafter, he finds himself trying to protect his friends from inside their bodies." I have to admit, telling a possession story from the point-of-view of the possessing force is a neat idea. Every Time I Die will premiere at Cinequest at the California Theatre San Joseon March 8.
Combat Obscura
Combat Obscura is being sold as the documentary the Marine Corps does not want you to see. The doc follows Miles Lagoze, who enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18, right out of high school. "He was deployed to Afghanistan where he served as Combat Camera — his unit's official videographer, tasked with shooting and editing footage for the Corps' recruiting purposes and historical initiatives. But upon discharging, Lagoze took all the footage he and his fellow cameramen shot, and he assembled quite simply the very documentary the Corps does not want you to see." The film is said to be a "look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone as told by the soldiers themselves. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an ambiguous war from an unvarnished perspective." It's amazing that a doc like this even exists, and I'm curious to see how it turns out. Combat Obscura arrives in theaters and VOD March 15.