'The Standoff At Sparrow Creek' Trailer: Someone Is Hiding Something

The Standoff at Sparrow Creek earned positive reviews out of Fantastic Fest, and now the first trailer is here. This shadowy thriller finds a group of militia members descending into paranoia after one of their members engages in a mass shooting at a funeral. But who did it? No one knows for sure, and the clock is ticking. Watch the tense Standoff at Sparrow Creek trailer below.

Well, this certainly looks nerve-wracking. There are shades of Reservoir Dogs here, but in a much more subdued slow-burn kind of way. Here's the official synopsis:

After a mass shooting at a police funeral, reclusive ex-cop Gannon realizes that the killer belongs to the same militia he joined after quitting the force. Knowing the police will be closing in on them, Gannon quarantines his fellow militiamen in a remote lumber mill. There, he sets about a series of grueling interrogations, intent on ferreting out the killer and turning him over to the authorities to prevent further bloodshed.

Reviewing Sparrow Creek at Fantastic Fest, Matt Donato wrote: "As an isolated scenario of steamy pressure-cooker provocation, and not a moral compass, fist-clenched captivation this effortless is rare. It all goes along with the pit left in your stomach as our world's bleakest tendencies are disgustingly exploited by a smoking gun." Our own Jacob Hall, who also saw the film at Fantastic Fest, had high praise as well, calling The Standoff at Sparrow Creek "intense and clever," and adding: "This is disconcerting, dizzying filmmaking that challenges even as it thrills...As a thriller, the film is the kind of edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting, stomach-churning experience you hope to find when you sit down to watch the latest "Reservoir Dogs in a _____."

All of this sounds pretty damn great, and I'm immensely interested in laying eyes on this movie when it arrives in January. I particularly like the shadowy, almost impenetrable visuals on display here – characters lurking in darkness, cast in silhouette against minimal light sources. So many indie films shirk any sort of visual style for a bland point-and-shoot mentality. When an indie film goes the extra mile with how it presents itself, I tend to take notice.

Written and directed by Henry Dunham, and starring James Badge Dale, Brian Geraghty, Patrick Fischler, Chris Mulkey, Happy Anderson and Robert Aramayo, The Standoff at Sparrow Creek opens in theaters, on VOD and Digital HD January 18, 2019.