The First Trailer for ‘Nails’ Has Dug Its Way Within
From Fantastic Films and Kaleidoscope Film Distribution comes Dennis Bartok’s directorial debut, Nails, and we can reveal that the film will be making its world premiere in Ireland as part of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival (ADIFF), which runs 16-26 February, 2017, and thanks to Dread Central, we have the official trailer below.
From the Press Release:
Fantastic Films and Kaleidoscope Film Distribution announced today that the new Irish horror film NAILS will have its World Premiere as part of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival (ADIFF), which runs 16-26 February, 2017.
This intense and claustrophobic thriller centers on a happily married track coach and mother, Dana Milgrom, who’s survived a near-death car accident only to find herself paralyzed and trapped inside her own body. Forced to communicate via an artificial voice program and hooked to a breathing machine, she becomes convinced that a terrifying presence called “Nails” exists inside her hospital room. No one believes her – not even her own husband and doctors, who think she’s experiencing a mental breakdown.
In the vein of recent films like THE BABADOOK and UNDER THE SHADOW, NAILS is part of a new wave of horror that puts female characters and their emotional lives at the center of the story. The film was financed with support from Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board.
“NAILS is a truly terrifying and suffocating horror film, and we’re thrilled to premiere Dennis’ debut feature here at ADIFF,” says Festival Director Gráinne Humphreys. “Shauna Macdonald gives a fearless, beautiful performance that reminds me of Mathieu Amalric in THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY.”
Adds writer/director Dennis Bartok, “Most horror films are about running away – NAILS is the opposite: it’s about being locked inside your own flesh with the terror. I don’t think there’s any other actress who could give the performance Shauna did: her concentration and emotional rawness took the film to a whole different level.”
NAILS is the feature debut from Bartok, who produced and wrote the Lionsgate horror TRAPPED ASHES in 2006, with segments directed by Joe Dante, Ken Russell, and Monte Hellman. Bartok recently published the non-fiction book A Thousand Cuts: the Bizarre Underground World of Collectors & Dealers Who Saved the Movies, hailed as one of the Best Film Books of 2016 by the Huffington Post. He’s well known for his work with the American Cinematheque in L.A. and art-house distributor Cinelicious Pics, which he co-founded in 2014.
UK-based distributor and sales company Kaleidoscope Film Distribution will be releasing NAILS theatrically and on VOD/SVOD in the U.K. and Ireland later in 2017, dates TBA, and will be representing the film for world sales at the upcoming European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival.
The film stars Scottish actress Shauna Macdonald as Dana Milgrom, which required long hours of make-up to create her graphic injuries and tremendous preparation and focus to portray a character who is paralyzed and forced to communicate via laptop for most of the film. Macdonald is much-loved by genre fans for her role in Nail Marshall’s seminal horror film THE DESCENT (2005) and its sequel THE DESCENT: PART 2 (2009). British stand-up comedian and actor Ross Noble co-stars as Trevor Helms, a nurse’s aide at Hopewell Hospital who slowly comes to believe that Dana’s paranoid visions may be real. Noble first appeared to horror fans in the UK-hit STITCHES (2012), also produced by Fantastic Films, where he portrayed the lead character.
The film was co-written by Tom Abrams and also stars Steve Wall (of Irish band The Stunning), newcomer Leah McNamara in her breakout performance as Dana’s daughter, Gemma, and Richard Foster-King as Nails, with cinematography by James Mather (FRANK) and music by longtime Gary Numan collaborator Ade Fenton.
The producers of the film, Brendan McCarthy and John McDonnell of Fantastic Films, are well known to genre lovers for their recent horror films including LET US PREY, THE HALLOW, THE LAST DAYS ON MARS, STITCHES, THE WAKE WOOD and THE CHERRY TREE. The executive producer of NAILS, Joseph Kaufman, was exec producer of John Carpenter’s 1976 classic ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 along with the 2005 remake starring Ethan Hawke.
NAILS will world premiere at ADIFF on Monday, February 20th, at 20:45 PM at Cineworld, Parnell Street, Dublin. Tickets go on sale at 18.30 on 18th January at www.diff.ie, by phone on +353 1 687 7974, or in person at DIFF House & Box Office, 13 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1.
