news ‘Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon’ Trailer: Ana Lily Amirpour’s Thriller Stars an Unhinged Kate Hudson

Ana Lily Amirpour is back for her third feature just in time for scary season.

The supernatural thriller “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon” paints a different picture of the seedy underbelly of New Orleans. The film centers on a mental institute escapee, the titular Mona Lisa (Jun Jong Seo), who befriends exotic dancer and single mother Bonnie (Kate Hudson) in an effort to go on a crime spree thanks to Mona Lisa’s unique otherworldly talents. Yet when a detective (Craig Robinson) starts putting the pieces together, Bonnie and Mona Lisa’s “Bonnie and Clyde” run just might be over…or come to a fatal end. Ed Skrein and Evan Whitten also star.

After premiering at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon” will be released in theaters, on demand, and on digital September 30 from Saban Films.

Writer-director Amirpour follows up 2014 vampire Western “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” and 2016 cannibal romance “The Bad Batch” with the genre-bending “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon.” Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski (“Hereditary,” “Midsommar”) reunites with Amirpour after collaborating on the pandemic short film “Ride It Out” together.

IndieWire’s review of the horror film applauded its “maximalist stylings, self-conscious hipsterdom,” and the subverted concept of “women who stalk nocturnal streets solo, undermining audience expectations of their vulnerability in possibly supernatural ways.”

The review added that “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon” calls to mind “Spring Breakers” and “Zola” along with Jim Jarmusch films featuring “uncanny nighttime sojourns, oddball friendships, and tone of deadpan disaffection.”

“Themes of outsiderdom, weirdo camaraderie, parenthood, and even institutional abuse are all present, but not especially unpicked or engaged with,” critic Christine Newland wrote. “Amirpour’s fascination with petite young women who seem to be vulnerable to the vagaries or violence of men — and who reverse that with gusto — doesn’t feel especially novel. Tens of dozens of TV shows and films have stolen the image of uncanny power in an unassuming vessel — a kid, a cute animal, or a small woman — at this point, and Amirpour doesn’t seem to have much else to say about it.”

Check out the trailer below.
 
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