Eight years after Ghostland, Pascal Laugier returns behind the camera with Nocturnal, an alluring historical vampire tale.
The films of Pascal Laugier are all the more precious for how rare they are. The French filmmaker has only directed four feature films: the promising Saint Ange, the harrowing Martyrs, The Secret and Ghostland in 2018. Since then, he has mostly stepped in as a director for the adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Ils étaient dix, a mini-series broadcast on Salto (a little angel who left us too soon), and later on M6. Yet genre fans have been waiting eagerly for his return to horror.
They will be thrilled to learn that his fifth feature is in the works, with a team and a premise that promise more than just blood.
New Martyrs for Pascal Laugier?
Deadline was the first to break the exclusive news: Laugier teams up with screenwriter David Birke and producer Saïd Ben Saïd. He thus succeeds Paul Verhoeven, who previously secured the services of the duo for Elle and Benedetta. Birke, who also penned the 2018 Slender Man and 2014’s 13 Sins, is bringing to life a project that has been dear to him since his student days, with SBS Productions (Saïd Ben Saïd’s company) and the director of Martyrs. Nocturnal is currently being showcased at the Cannes film market.
The story unfolds in 1943 and begins “with a group of refugees fleeing Vichy France, who attempt a desperate crossing of the English Channel before wrecking on a so-called deserted island. The island proves to be the domain of an immortal and supernatural evil. The curse of non-death grips each fugitive, one by one, until only one remains alive and still human. She must now adapt to survive on the margins of the strange, violent, and perverse community formed by her former friends.”
Further along, Laugier confirms that this is a vampire film, one that plays with genre archetypes without mocking them. As for Birke, he promises that his script “has as much in common with Picnic at Hanging Rock and Lord of the Flies as with any vampire story.” That statement certainly whets our curiosity, but we’ll have to wait a while before seeing the result, as the team targets an autumn shoot in Latvia.
