NEON unveils first look image and teaser trailer for creature feature Hope, from The Wailing director Na Hong-Jin

Image Courtesy of NEON

NEON has released a first-look image (pictured above) and teaser trailer (see below) for the forthcoming creature feature Hope, directed by Na Hong-Jin, best known for the 2016 film The Wailing. Hong-Jin's The Wailing is often cited as one of the best and most inventive horror movies of the last decade, so there's a lot of anticipation and excitement about his forthcoming film. Hope just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this past weekend, and it's targeted for theatrical release in the fall.

The movie stars Hwang Jung-Min, Zo In-Sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender. The synopsis reads, "In the remote South Korean village of Hope Harbor, police chief Bum-Seok (Jung-Min) and officer Sung-Ae (Hoyeon) are called to find a mysterious creature that has wrecked havoc on the village. In a nearby forest, a coterie of hunters, including Sung-Ki (In-Sung), set out to track the beast and find themselves hunted instead. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragic of cosmic proportions."

The trailer, which clocks in at under two minutes long, also makes clear that this film is likely to blend and merge genres, much like Hong-Jin's previous work. The Wailing, for example, was a mix of a police procedural narrative with a possession storyline tossed into the mix. The trailer for Hope shows the small village ravaged by the monster. It also introduces police chief Bum-Seok and office Sung-Ae, who seem rather helpless to stop the creature. Additionally, the trailer teases how the monster picks off the hunters one by one, as they try to track it in the forest. There are a few shots of the creature racing through the streets, tossing cars, and showcasing a rather large and terrifying version of itself in the woods. There's a quick scene of a spaceship, so it's likely the monster is an alien of some sort.

Meanwhile, Hope had a positive reception just days ago at Cannes. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the movie drew a standing ovation from audience members, and it may have been the most prolonged and enthusiastic standing ovation that any film received this year at the prestigious film festival. Additionally, first reviews out of Cannes for Hope have generally been positive. Robert Daniels, writing for RogerEbert.com said of the film, "This bloody, motoring adventure relishes the unease it places on the audience, lulling one into a classic heroic Western before morphing into a surprising creature feature whose recollections of 'Predator' and 'Prometheus' further reckons with the morality viewers bring into sci-fi flicks."

There is no word yet on the exact release date for Hope, other than it's coming out this fall. We'll share the date once we have it.

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