New Elijah Wood and Sasha Grey led thriller Open Windows debuts its first trailer.
Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1954 thriller, has had an enormous impact on film history. Credited with helping to usher in post-modernism on film, Rear Window plays with the idea of a character’s agency, the ways in which characters can influence the world around them. In realism, films like John Ford’s westerns, characters have infinite ability to influence the world and they are masters of the natural world around them. Deserts and harsh conditions be damned, nothing would stop John Wayne! But in a film like Rear Window, the main character has his agency stripped away. The character is presented as a casual observer, struggling to impact the events that unfold before his eyes. The trend of the casual observer goes on to be a staple of modernist and post-modern films, and it’s almost all in thanks to Rear Window.
60 years later, Rear Window is still influencing filmmakers, this time being credited as inspiration for the new film Open Windows, starring Elijah Wood and former porn star Sasha Grey. Grey stars as actress Jill and Wood as Nick, her biggest fan. When Nick wins a contest to go on a date with Jill that Jill doesn’t honor, Jill’s manager gives Nick the opportunity to secretly spy on Jill using his computer. Little does he know, that window into Jill’s world develops into a dangerous game of cat and mouse that puts both of their lives in danger.
Utalizing webcams and found footage techniques, director Nacho Vigalondo (V/H/S Viral) really strove to add his own twist on the familiar setup. “Some years ago my producers asked me to come up with a movie in which social networks and the language of the Internet would feature heavily. I made a counter-proposal: taking the concept to its limit by writing a film that took place entirely on the desktop of a computer, pushing the envelope of the production to make it a really unique adventure," said Vigalondo.
The first trailer has arrived and we have it below. Open Windows debuted at the SXSW Film Festival, but the rest of us can see it on VOD October 2 and in theaters November 7.
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