‘The Nightingale’ Trailer Shows Off A New Kind Of Horror From The Director Of ‘The Babadook’

After The Babadook became an overnight sensation in the United Kingdom and the United States, netting more in its first weekend of release in both countries than its entire theatrical run in Australia, director Jennifer Kent had free reins to do pretty much whatever she wanted.

The Brisbane-born filmmaker was offered a series of high-profile projects — including, notably, Wonder Woman, which she turned down. Instead of going big, Kent decided to go personal, developing her own project, a dark, unsettling period thriller called The Nightingale.

Now, after a controversial reception at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, where it was championed as both a masterpiece and as an unremittingly bleak spectacle, the first trailer for the film is finally here. Have a look:

First thing worth noting is that yes, The Nightingale is a far cry from The Babadook in both period and setting. Described as a “colonial revenge story”, The Nightingale follows a young Irish convict named Clare (Aisling Franciosi) who must wreak her revenge after her husband and child are murdered by a vicious English captain, Hawkins (Sam Claflin). She is aided along the way by Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), an Indigenous tracker with a detailed knowledge of the area, who soon becomes an unwitting collaborator in her quest for violence.

So gone are the genteel suburbs of The Babadook, replaced by sparse wooden forests, shacks, and bitter winds. But don’t think that Kent has completely changed tact — if the chilling, quietly unsettling trailer is to go by, then The Nightingale will be just as disturbing as the director’s first feature; filled with as many surprises and generally as vicious and unexpected as the stab of a shiv.

The Nightingale will be released in Australian cinemas on Thursday August 29. Sydney Film Festival fans need not wait that long, however, since the film is playing as part of the fest.