When New Orleans bartender Will (Armie Hammer) picks up a cell phone after some kids leave it in his bar, he innocently answers a few messages – only to discover some truly shocking images on it. Those images begin to take root inside him, and as the new movie Wounds unfolds, Will and his girlfriend (Dakota Johnson) – who also makes the mistake of looking at the violent imagery – get progressively sweatier and much more disturbed. Check out the Wounds trailer below.

Wounds Trailer

Wounds comes from Babak Anvari, the acclaimed filmmaker behind the 2016 film Under the Shadow, and he throws himself into this story with glee, delivering genuinely tense moments and goofy scares alike. This is the third Sundance movie I saw at this year’s festival that ended up at Hulu, following the Harvey Weinstein documentary Untouchable and the Lupita Nyong’o zombie comedy Little Monsters. Annapurna originally picked it up and planned release it theatrically in March, but I presume that company’s recent financial struggles led to Hulu swooping in and taking it off their hands. But perhaps Hulu is the best destination for Wounds in the end, since it’s an ambitious horror film that lands about half of its scares and may have left some hardcore genre fans a bit let down in a theatrical environment. Seeing it at home in the dark may ultimately be more effective…assuming you’re engrossed enough by the narrative to not get distracted.

Personally, I found Wounds to be occasionally laughable and occasionally scary, but always captivating. Armie Hammer is solid playing an alcoholic obsessive, and Dakota Johnson does her best with a slightly underwritten role. But I came away especially impressed by Atlanta and Deadpool 2‘s Zazie Beetz, who brings some palpable complexity to her role as an old flame of Will’s. There are also some truly creepy visuals here, like when the characters stare, slack-jawed, at a video of a seemingly never-ending hole, or some shots (like one you see briefly in the trailer) of an eye surrounded by decaying, rotting skin. It’s pretty gross stuff, but like I said – constantly compelling. And it’ll make you want to go out and immediately buy a can of bug spray.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis:

Disturbing and mysterious things begin happening to a New Orleans bartender after he picks up a phone left behind in his bar.

Wounds hits Hulu on October 18, 2019, just in time for Halloween.

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