A medium who’s accustomed to dealing with the strange and unusual realizes she’s in way over her head when she’s hired to purge a stubborn spirit from an isolated home. But her nightmare looks like it will reap riches for scary-movie fans, if Never After Dark‘s eerie, stylish first trailerâfull of praise from the likes of Stephen King and Black Phone director Scott Derricksonâis anything to go by.

Never After Dark hits theaters next month after racking up film-festival prizes, including the SXSW Midnighter Audience Award and a Grand Jury Prize at the Overlook Film Festival. It stars Moeka Hoshi (Shogun) as well as Kento Kaku, Kurumi Inagaki, Mutsuo Yoshioka, BokuzŠMasana, and Tae Kimura.

Hoshi plays “Airi, a wandering medium who spends her life guiding restless spirits out of the world of the living,” according to the film’s official synopsis. “Summoned to an isolated country house, she comes face to face with a grotesque apparition with powers that defy Airiâs experience. As she digs deeper into the houseâs past, a secret comes to lightâand Airi finds herself hunted by a far more unpredictable force. For the first time, her greatest adversary is not the supernatural but the living.”

  • Never After Dark* was directed and written by Dave Boyle. It hits theaters September 25âjust in time to get Halloween season started off right.

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