While it’s not a sub-genre, there’s been a handful of “active shooter” films made in the post-Columbine era. Some of them, like Gus Van Sant‘s 2003 film “Elephant,” or Brady Corbet‘s “Vox Lux,” from 2018, offer an arthouse take on these incidents. Others, like 2020’s “Run Hide Fight,” adopt a pulpy, more exploitative approach.
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“The Desperate Hour,” the latest film from Australian director Phillip Noyce, places his premise squarely in one of Hollywood’s favorite thematic conflicts, the nuclear family in crisis, with a real-time twist. Naomi Watts stars as a mother in a race against time after her son gets caught up in an active shooter situation in their rural hometown.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
Unfolding in real time, THE DESPERATE HOUR is a “riveting and pulse pounding” thriller from award-winning director Phillip Noyce. Recently widowed mother Amy Carr (Academy Award®-nominee Naomi Watts) is doing her best to restore normalcy to the lives of her young daughter and teenage son in their small town. As she’s on a jog in the woods, she finds her town thrown into chaos as a shooting takes place at her son’s school. Miles away on foot in the dense forest, Amy desperately races against time to save her son.
“The Desperate Hour” also stars Colton Gobbo and Sierra Maltby. It’s Noyce’s first film since 2019’s “Above Suspicion.” The movie had its world premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, under its original title, “Lakewood.”
Check out “The Desperate Hour” when it hits theaters and Digital on-demand on February 25 from Roadside Attractions. Watch the trailer below.