Raised in an oppressive cult, a reclusive schizophrenic discovers that he’s being framed by the cult leaders for a series of ritualistic murders and must prove his innocence by saving their next victim and destroying the evil sect from within.
Mystic Dream Story Studio and Stone Hill, in association with Saint Halo Productions, are excited to announce that their psychological cult thriller, DIRTY BOY, is coming to select UK cinemas from 10th September before hitting digital platforms on 15th October.
The film’s theatrical release follows its multi-award-nominated run at Raindance Film Festival where it was nominated for four awards, including Best Performance in a UK Feature (Graham McTavish), Best UK Feature, Best Director of a UK Feature (Doug Rao) and Best UK Cinematography.
DIRTY BOY‘s standout cast includes Graham McTavish (The Witcher, Outlander, The Hobbit), Stan Steinbichler (Zero Chill, Vienna Blood, Eismayer), Susie Porter (Gold, Wentworth Prison, Cargo) and Honor Gillies (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes). The film was produced by Giles Alderson (The Stranger in Our Bed, Wolves of War, The Dare), Sarah Ann Grill (Slammer, Solitary) and Marek Lichtenberg (The Final 45), who also stars in the film.
DIRTY BOY marks writer and producer Doug Rao‘s feature-length directorial debut, which critics have already started praising with Dread Central saying it “Laughs in the face of horror” and Cut To The Take calling it “Trippy, acid, hella fun in a twisted way“. He said “Dirty Boy was written from a place of intense darkness – and I wanted to find the light and the humour within it. I want to explore the sense that complex understandings are often borne out of suffering.
“I wanted to experiment with identity as a fluctuating concept – can anyone really define themselves as one persona when there are so many versions of ‘the self’? Isaac in Dirty Boy has created an ‘alter’ that his subconscious has formed to process forgotten traumas – but which one is really him? As someone says of Isaac’s tendency to blame his alter for his bad behaviour: ‘He’s you, you asshole, he’s you!’ In Dirty Boy, we also explore both the beauty and the villainy that religious doctrine can inspire.“
“I am delighted with the level of cast I have for my debut feature and getting to work in such a stunning place as the ‘Ausseerland/Saltzkammergut’ in Austria, famously used as a backdrop for The Sound of Music and Spectre adds unbelievable value to the look of the film – a paradisiacal backdrop to a dark fable.”
DIRTY BOY will be coming to UK cinemas from 10th September, followed by Digital platforms on 15th October
Find your local screening here!
