Vertical has released a new trailer for Rich Flu, a thriller starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead with an interesting premise. The film follows a mysterious disease that appears to be targeting the world’s wealthiest people. Essentially, the richer you are, the faster you die.
Rich Flu
The description reads: “A strange and unexpected disease is taking the lives of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people. First, the billionaires die, then the multi-millionaires, and so on progressively. The pandemic threatens to reach anyone with any kind of massive fortune. No one knows where the limit is… At first, the masses joyfully welcome the disappearance of these great fortunes, but as the collapse of their economic empires affects the stock market, employment, and economic stability, chaos takes over the First World.“
In addition to Winstead, the film also stars Rafe Spall, Lorraine Bracco, Jonah Hauer-King, and Timothy Spall. Rosamund Pike was originally slated to star in the film, before she dropped out and was replaced by Winstead.
Rich Flu comes to us from Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, who directed The Platform, a dystopian thriller I couldn’t get enough of when it premiered on Netflix in 2019. I know this is just a trailer, but this one isn’t quite grabbing me the same way.
It’s also been sitting on a shelf for a couple of years. The film originally premiered at the 57th Sitges Film Festival in 2024 and was released theatrically in Spain last year. Vertical will launch the film in select US theaters + on VOD starting June 5.
The Platform
The film takes place in a vertical prison with one cell on each level. Two people occupy each cell, and each day, a platform full of food lowers, stopping for two minutes. During that time, the prisoners can eat as much food as they want, but the lower the level, the less food there will be. Each month, the prisoners are randomly reassigned to a new level. So you could wind up on an upper level and feast, or a lower level and starve. It wasn’t for everyone, but I was quite engrossed. A prequel was released in 2024, but it received mixed reviews.
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