Ethan Berger has made his feature directorial debut with the campus thriller The Line, which is set to reach select theatres on October 18th, with an expanded release to follow on October 23rd. With those dates swiftly approaching, a teaser trailer for the film has made its way online and can be seen in the embed above.
Berger wrote the screenplay with Alex Russek, crafting the following story: The Line is a campus thriller that plunges into the dangerous world of college fraternities and blind adherence to tradition. Tom, a scholarship student desperate to break free from his working-class background, is charmed by the prestigious KNA fraternity’s promises of high social status and alumni connections that open doors. But upon beginning a romance with Annabelle, a classmate outside of his social circle, and the manipulative schemes of his fraternity president unfolding during the hazing of new members, Tom finds himself ensnared in a perilous game of ambition and loyalty.
The film stars Alex Wolff (Hereditary) as Tom, with Lewis Pullman (The Strangers: Prey at Night) as the fraternity president and Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid) as Annabelle. Also in the cast are Austin Abrams (Dash & Lily), the late Angus Cloud (Abigail), Bo Mitchell (Cobra Kai), Cheri Oteri (Saturday Night Live), Scoot McNairy (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Denise Richards (The World Is Not Enough), and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich).
Alexandre Dauman, Jack Parker, Adam Paulsen, and Lije Sarki produced The Line, with Taylor Grant, Zack Purdo, Ramanan Sivalingam, Dustin Zhang, Magnus Rausing, Ryan Alexander, Stacey Grant, Jay Van Hoy, and Marc Porterfield serving as executive producers.
The Line seems like a throwback to the sort of “youths behaving badly” movies we haven’t gotten in a while – or if we have gotten them recently, they’ve been passing me by – and kind of reminds me of the 2000 campus thriller The Skulls. This one definitely has my attention, and I look forward to watching it in a couple months.
What did you think of The Line teaser trailer? Does this look like a movie you’d want to check out this October? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
