This week, the first trailer for Facade, Andrea Howard’s horror thriller, was released online. The movie follows a group of old friends who find their lives threatened when they are pulled into a deadly escape room controlled by artificial intelligence.

Synopsis –

Ten years after an AI experiment destroyed their friendship, former college friends reunite and are trapped in an AI-controlled escape room where every puzzle reveals a secret and every round could kill them.

When a group of former college friends reunites, they are unexpectedly locked inside a high-stakes escape room controlled by an unseen force. As they struggle to uncover the truth, the game forces them to relive the consequences of a past AI experiment that destroyed their lives. With reality unraveling and paranoia setting in, they must fight to escape-before their own secrets consume them.

With the rise in popularity of escape rooms, there have been several movies around the subject, taking the concept to the inevitable extreme of horror and death. Similarly, the ascent of artificial intelligence has triggered a glut of AI-focused thrillers and horror movies, often in an enclosed environment. So this marriage of the two was surely inevitable.

The trailer doesn’t give a lot away in terms of the artificial intelligence, or what happens in the escape room itself. It is mostly focused on the characters, which suggests it will be the interpersonal relationships, and the conflicts that arise form them, that will be the driving force of the movie. The synopsis talks about an AI experiment that destroyed their friendship, which begs the question why they are participating in the escape room together in the first place. Have they been invited independently? If so, it seems likely someone is toying with them. So is it the AI that is the villain of the piece? Or is a member of the group responsible for what’s happening?

Facade is written and directed by Andrea Howard, her first feature film. The movie stars Julian Mattei, Tanecia Scott, Kristel Estephania, and Jelani Aurelus, among others. It is distributed by Buffalo 8, and is scheduled for release on Amazon on October 23rd. You can check out the trailer below.

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