When the new red-band teaser for Sam Levinson’s crime drama Assassination Nation offers “a few trigger warnings,” it falls victim to understatement, as what follows is far more than a few. In fact, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 25, ranging from blood and drug abuse to toxic masculinity and, um, giant frogs.
Of course “swearing” comes far too late, as the narrator drops a big one about 19 seconds into the footage.
Written and directed by Levinson, Assassination Nation is a cautionary tale that centers on Lily and her friends, seniors at Salem High School whose life is a whirlwind of partying and social media. When their town is targeted in a malicious date hack, all privacy evaporates, and the lives of citizens are ruined as deadly secrets are exposed. They quickly turn on each other as Salem descends into violence and chaos, as the townsfolk set out to uncover the culprit. That leaves Lily and her friends to band together, Purge-style, if they have any hopes of surviving the night.
Arriving Sept. 21, Assassination Nation stars Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, Abra, Bella Thorne, Bill Skarsgård, Cody Christian, Joel McHale, Maude Apatow, Colman Domingo and Anika Noni Rose.