'Violation' Trailer: Feminist Revenge Horror Film Hits Shudder This March

Shudder has released the first official trailer for Violation ahead of the revenge thriller's March premiere on the horror streaming service. The feature filmmaking debut of Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, Violation is a brutal feminist revenge fable that stars Sims-Fewer as a woman on a country retreat with her sister and their partners, who slowly unravels through the weekend. Watch the Violation trailer below.

Written, produced, and directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, Violation first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in fall 2020, recently played at Sundance, and will screen at SXSW next month ahead of its March 25 streaming release.

Its eerie trailer, which is heavy on tone and light on plot, accurately captures the disturbing nature of the film, which many critics have noted, including /Film's Chris Evangelista who called the film in his TIFF review, "an unflinchingly brutal, often quite gruesome story of a woman who goes to extreme lengths following a terrible incident." But he was decidedly mixed on the film, continuing, "Writer-directors Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli do not shy away from the violence, employing meticulously crafted practical effects to portray a jaw-dropping series of events. But while there's genuine dreamy-nightmarish artistry on display here, there's also a scattershot approach that, while intentional, does more harm than good."

The trailer smartly steers away from showing the violence upfront, instead offering up ominous quotes from reviews highlighting Violation's brutality, as well as lots of sounds of sawing. But it's hard to tell what Violation is about otherwise. Regardless, the film's knotty exploration of female trauma sounds intriguing, and will likely offer a interesting contrast to the candy-colored rage of Promising Young Woman.

In addition to Sims-Fewer, Violation stars Anna Maguire as Miriam's sister Greta, Obi Abili as her emotionally distant husband Caleb, and Jesse LaVercombe as her slippery brother-in-law Dylan.

Here's the official synopsis for Violation:

With her marriage about to implode, Miriam returns to her hometown to seek solace in the comfort of her younger sister and brother-in-law. But one evening a tiny slip in judgement leads to a catastrophic betrayal, leaving Miriam shocked, reeling, and furious. Believing her only recourse is to exact revenge, Miriam takes extreme action, but the price of retribution is high, and she is not prepared for the toll it takes as she begins to emotionally and psychologically unravel.

Shudder will release Violation on March 25, 2021.