Don’t tell a soul

Discovered during the Deauville American Film Festival, the first film written and directed by Alex McAulay is a successful thriller in which two young brothers from Kentucky will have to face a dangerous psychopath.

Yet everything seems like an ordinary day for Joey (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Matt (Fionn Whitehead) as their mother desperately needs money to pay for her medical expenses following a cancer, they decide to return to an abandoned house to try to find money. Unfortunately, after managing to recover a meagre loot, they find themselves being chased by someone who looks like a security guard but turns out to be a dangerous psychopath. Luck smiles upon them when he accidentally falls into an abandoned well. Joey and Matt are then faced with a dark dilemma: either help the guard and risk being punished for their crime, or leave him at the bottom of the hole without being certain that someone will come to his rescue. Joey and Matt are then faced with a dilemma: either help this person and risk being arrested for their crime, or abandon him without being certain that someone will come to his rescue. A troubled relationship develops between Joey and this person while his relationship with his older brother deteriorates...

Don't tell a soul is certainly based on a very thin but perfectly calibrated scenario that allows us to focus all our attention on its short duration. Thus we find Jack Dylan Grazer in the lead role (that chapter 1 and 2 (It / It cbapter Two (2017/2019), Shazam! (2019).) But also in the role of his character's mother the actress Mena Suvari (American Pie (1999-2012) and Rainn Wilson (Galaxy Quest (1999), Transformers 2 (2009), Shimmer Lake (2017)). With a perfectly mastered cut, this first film managed to make us shiver and capture our full attention until the final dénouement. By setting the main set in a small American town and by playing on the nerves of the audience as well as on the deceptive appearances Don't tell a soul resembles a successful first film and a thriller that is well worth the detour.

Don’t tell a soul
Written and directed by Alex McAulay
Produced by Chris Mangano, Merry-Kay Poe
Starring Jack Dylan Grazer, Fionn Whitehead, Rainn Wilson, Mena Suvari, Richard Fike, Abigail Esmena Froehle
Music by Joseph Stephens
Cinematography: Guillermo Garza
Edited by Ben Baudhuin
Production companies: Mangano Movies & Media, Unbridled Film
Distributed by Saban Films (United States)
Running time : 84mns

Seen on September 8, 2020 at the Centre International de Deauville

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