It generated some uncomfortable buzz at Sundance earlier this year, but this trailer for Blue Caprice gives the rest of us our first glimpse of what looks to be a haunting psychological thriller. Based on the true events dubbed the Beltway Sniper Attacks, the film is directed by Alexandre Moors, and stars Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond, with appearances from Tim Blake Nelson and Leo Fitzpatrick.
The central violent events of the strange story took place over three weeks in 2002, in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. Ten people were killed and three more critically injured in apparently random sniper shootings from a vehicle travelling on the Interstate 95. The perpetrators were eventually revealed to be John Allen Muhammed and his adopted Antiguan son Lee Boyd Malvo, operating from the blue Chevrolet of the film's title (a converted police car). Muhammed was executed for the shooting spree in 2009, while Malvo was given six life sentences.
The film, unsuprisingly, focuses on the strange relationship between Muhammed and Malvo (the names haven't been changed), and on the horrifying way in which Malvo calmly buys into his "father's" madness. There appears to be no grandstanding from Washington: but a quiet intensity that makes his performance all the more chillingly powerful.
Empire's Damon Wise caught Blue Caprice at Sundance, calling it "a tough watch... unlikely to break out into the mainstream", but also a "provocative, minor key project". There's no UK release date yet, but it gets a limited run in the States from September 13.
