'High-Rise' Trailer: Ben Wheatley's Dystopia Brings Class Warfare Home

Tom Hiddleston as the perfect social climber in Ben Wheatley's HIGH-RISE.
Tom Hiddleston as the perfect social climber in Ben Wheatley's HIGH-RISE. StudioCanal

Ben Wheatley may be the nearest thing we have to John Carpenter in the second decade of the millennium. Since his 2011 Kill List Wheatley has been all over the board, from Sightseer’s murderous comedy to A Field In England ’s mushroom psychedelia. But all of his movies are united by an off-kilter perversity and a clever combination of rigorousness and experiential uncertainty. All of his movies have the feeling of taking place in a slightly more frightening world, just adjacent to ours.

Now there’s a new trailer for Wheatley’s next movie, High-Rise, and it’s a doozy:

High-Rise Trailer #2

The trailer premiered on Tom Hiddleston’s Twitter account.

Digi reviewed the movie after a screening at Fantastic Fest. But while my initial review expressed befuddlement at the massive scope and tonal jaggedness of High-Rise, in reflection I can’t deny the ongoing effect the movie has had on my psyche. Though it’s not really horror, High-Rise is the kind of genre film that will become a rite of passage for horror geeks in the coming years.

Like a claustrophobic Brazil, High-Rise is one of those rare treats that explodes into absolute chaos, without ever blowing up your sense that Wheatley is utterly in control of his vision. Plus, it’s the movie that will finally convince you that Luke Evans can do more than brood.

High-Rise will be in theaters March 18.

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