Noticias

As a longtime admirer of films that rearrange form—whether it’s Godard’s sudden jump cuts or the raw immediacy of modern indie dramas—I approached Alex Thompson’s Rounding with eager anticipation. This 91‑minute psychological horror/medical drama unfolds in a snowbound rural hospital in the fictional town of Greenville, where every sterile corridor feels both routine and ominous.

We meet Dr. James Hayman, a medical resident haunted by a breakdown after an assisted suicide incident, who arrives here hoping for a clean slate. His fixation on Helen Adso, a teenager with inexplicable asthma crises, propels the story into darker territory.

Thompson’s direction marries the measured pace of ward “rounds” with fleeting, unsettling imagery that lingers at the edge of perception. Nate Hurtsellers’s cinematography bathes scenes in icy blues and stark shadows, while Quinn Tsan and Macie Stewart’s score weaves a subtle, pulsing undercurrent—think...

Rounding, the new film from Alex Thompson, who directed Saint Frances and, with 25 New Face partner Kelly O’Sullivan, Ghostlight, is in theaters today from Doppelgänger Releasing. Below, Thompson discusses five of the cinematic influences upon his darkly anxious hospital-set thriller. To say that Rounding is an experiment is an understatement. Borne in the backyard in Kentucky during the pre-vaccine days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rounding was an attempt take the same team and ethos that made Saint Frances and apply it to a different genre and specificity. These are five films that influenced us along the way. Bunny Lake […]

The post Five Films that Influenced Alex Thompson’s Hospital Thriller, Rounding first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Rounding, the new film from Alex Thompson, who directed Saint Frances and, with 25 New Face partner Kelly O’Sullivan, Ghostlight, is in theaters today from Doppelgänger Releasing. Below, Thompson discusses five of the cinematic influences upon his darkly anxious hospital-set thriller. To say that Rounding is an experiment is an understatement. Borne in the backyard in Kentucky during the pre-vaccine days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rounding was an attempt take the same team and ethos that made Saint Frances and apply it to a different genre and specificity. These are five films that influenced us along the way. Bunny Lake […]

The post Five Films that Influenced Alex Thompson’s Hospital Thriller, Rounding first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Once considered the most disreputable of screen genres, horror has become so pervasive and popular that it’s not unusual now to see a movie presenting itself as such simply for the sake of commercial insurance. That seems the case with “Rounding,” a well-acted and atmospheric psychological thriller with Namir Smallwood as a medical resident who unravels in his new hospital placement. It’s got enough going on that the shoehorning of horror elements — including an eventual monster — feels gratuitous within a tricky narrative already over-compressed into an hour and a half.

Alex Thompson’s sophomore feature was actually made before last year’s acclaimed “Ghostlight,” though it’s only getting released well after a 2022 Tribeca Festival premiere. Doppelganger is distributing to U.S. theaters and on-demand platforms as of Feb. 14.

Working here sans his usual directing and writing partner Kelly O’Sullivan (though she plays a supporting role), Thompson establishes...

Alex Thompson’s thriller Rounding doesn’t lack for details. Early on, after medical resident James (Namir Smallwood) shuffles between hospital rooms in burgundy scrubs, he releases his nervous energy by jogging through a blanket of snow, making the name of the rural town in which the story is set, Greenville, feel like a knowing joke. When he arrives home, it’s to a cramped basement apartment where the sounds of the upstairs neighbors echo through the ceiling. Would that Rounding’s story were as memorable as those details.

Rounding’s rudderless screenplay, which Thompson co-wrote with his brother Christopher Thompson, casts out in several directions at once, as though hoping that one of them will have a substantial impact on the viewer. James has transferred to Greenville after a breakdown, hoping the rural change of scenery can allow him to get his groove back. But complicating matters is that...

Yes, we’re still in the warming glow of award season, but new movies never stop. Happily there are exciting new films to check out this February, including Cannes winners, cryptocurrency heists, cute little furry creatures, and some psychedelic horror.

Armand

When You Can Watch: February 7

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Øystein Røger

Why We’re Excited: This Norwegian psychological drama premiered at Cannes, earning a Caméra d’Or for first-time feature director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (grandson of Ingmar Bergman), pegged as one of ten European filmmakers to watch in 2015 by European Film Promotion. The story was inspired by the character of Elisabeth, Armand’s mother (Reinsve from The Worst Person in the World), who is called into school when her six-year-old threatens his classmate. The confrontation and ensuing revelations invite reflection on the way we form opinions about...

Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s deeply moving drama Ghostlight made a splash last year following its Sundance Film Festival premiere and subsequent summer release. Now, one of Thompson’s prior features, the psychological thriller Rounding, which premiered back at Tribeca Festival in 2022, is now finally getting a release next month. Led by Namir Smallwood, Michael Potts, and Never Rarely Sometimes Always star Sidney Flanigan, the new trailer has now arrived ahead of a February 14 theatrical and digital release.

Here’s the synopsis: “After a traumatic incident during his residency, young medical student James Hayman (Namir Smallwood) transfers to a rural hospital for a fresh start. Observing that James is struggling and having difficulty connecting with patients, Dr. Harrison (veteran stage and screen actor Michael Potts) suggests he take a class focused on bedside manner and facilitating deeper relationships with patients. The demons of James’s past begin to catch...

"There's something off... it just doesn't quite add up.." Doppelgänger Releasing has unveiled a new official trailer for an indie horror film called Rounding, which is finally getting a small theatrical + VOD release starting in February 2025. This one first premiered in 2022 at the Tribeca Film Festival and despite a solid festival run, it was never released. In the meantime, director Alex Thompson went on to make Ghostlight which was a big hit from last year's Sundance. After a traumatic incident, a driven young medical resident named Dr. James Hayman transfers to a rural hospital for a fresh start, but the demons of his past start to catch up to him when he becomes consumed by the case of a patient with mysterious symptoms. Described as a "humanist and unconventional genre vision." The film stars Namir Smallwood as Dr. Hayman, with Sidney Flanigan, Michael Potts, Rebecca Spence. This trailer gets really...

“Ghostlight” and “Saint Frances” writer/director Alex Thompson is back onscreen with another festival hit: “Rounding.”

Thompson’s latest psychological thriller stars “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” breakout Sidney Flanigan as an asthma patient who starts to experience mysterious symptoms. Her stay at the hospital intersects with the arrival of young medical student James Hayman (Namir Smallwood), who previously endured a traumatic incident during his residency before transferring to a rural hospital for a fresh start.

Per the official synopsis, “the demons of James’ past begin to catch up with him when he becomes consumed by the case, and his grip on reality starts to slip as his disturbing nightmares, anxiety-fueled speculations, and physical injuries collide with the harsh realities of the world of medicine.”

Michael Potts and Rebecca Spence also star.

“Rounding” premiered at Tribeca 2022, and went on to screen at Rooftop and the Chicago International Film Festival. The film...

Music Box Films’ genre label Doppelgänger Releasing has acquired North American distribution rights to director Alex Thompson’s thriller “Rounding” from world sales company Visit Films.

The tense and chilling sophomore feature debuted in 2022 at the Tribeca Film Festival and screened at the Chicago Film Festival. Doppelgänger Releasing will open “Rounding” on Jan. 3 in select theaters. The film will hit digital platforms on Feb. 18.

“Rounding” stars Namir Smallwood (“American Rust”), Sidney Flanigan (“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”), Michael Potts, and Tony Award-winning director David Cromer.

After a traumatic experience while treating an elderly patient near the end of her life, resident doctor James Hayman (Smallwood) transfers to a rural hospital in Greenville, Illinois, for the second year of his residency for a fresh start. Having trouble connecting with patients, his superior Dr. Harrison (Potts) urges him to be more personable and take a “Bedside Technique” class.

When James becomes consumed with...

If you've listened to our Corpse Club podcast, then you know we're big fans of Tubi here on Daily Dead, and the streaming service has plenty of ghoulish goodies in store for horror fans this October, as their month-long "Terror on Tubi" celebration features six Tubi Originals and a massive 27,000 hours of horror- and thriller-themed content (comprised of both new and previously released titles), including the reimagining of the 1980 slasher Terror Train:

Press Release: San Francisco, September 21, 2022 – Tubi (www.tubi.tv), today announced its lineup for the resurrection of “Terror on Tubi,” a month-long streaming celebration beginning October 1st of 13,000 spooky, eerie, thrilling, creepy and terrifying titles that fans love to indulge in around Halloween. Creeping into the catalog of Tubi’s scary good streams are six brand-new Tubi Originals that will debut throughout October, ranging from beastly and chilling documentaries to slasher and thriller films, including Alone In The Dark...

Tubi (www.tubi.tv) today announced its lineup for the resurrection of “Terror on Tubi,” a month-long streaming celebration beginning October 1st of 13,000 spooky, eerie, thrilling, creepy and terrifying titles that fans love to indulge in around Halloween.

Creeping into the catalog of Tubi’s scary good streams are six brand-new Tubi Originals that will debut throughout October, ranging from beastly and chilling documentaries to slasher and thriller films, including Alone In The Dark (October 7); Battle Of The Beasts: Bigfoot Vs. Yeti (October 12); The Final Rose (October 14); a remake of the cult classic Terror Train (October 21); Lights, Camera, Murder: Scream (October 26), and A Party To Die For (October 28).

“Terror on Tubi” will also offer timeless Halloween content, from spooky seasonal titles to horror film buff favorites, totaling 27,000 hours of movies and TV shows, including horror films such as Stephen King’s “It,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Hellraiser,” and “Twilight Zone: The Movie...

Exclusive: Sistas alumna Novi Brown and Terrell Carter (Empire) are set to star in horror thriller Alone In The Dark, a Tubi original movie set for premiere on Fox’s free ad-supported streaming service in October.

Directed by Brant Daugherty, and co-written by Daugherty and wife, Kimberly Daugherty (A Christmas Movie Christmas), who also appears in the movie, Alone In The Dark revolves around a recent divorcée under house arrest who must deal with a stalker that appears to have control over her surroundings.

Brown plays Bri Collins, a recent divorcée who is under house arrest due to her ex-husband’s crimes. As she begins to feel stalked in her own home, she hires a personal bodyguard named Xavier at her friend’s recommendation and works with him to take down her stalker.

Carter portrays Xavier Johnson, a personal security guard searching for his missing sister when he is hired...

Exclusive: Sidney Flanigan (Never Rarely Sometimes Always), Frederick Weller (BlacKkKlansman), D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai (Reservation Doggs) and Will Ropp (The Greatest Beer Run Ever) will topline the indie thriller Only the Good Survive, from writer-director Dutch Southern, which has wrapped production.

The film picks up with Brea Dunlee (Flanigan) following a heist gone wrong resulting in the deaths of three of her friends, as she finds herself in the custody of the small-town sheriff Cole Mack (Weller), who may be hiding just as many secrets as her. The only thing for certain is only one of them will survive. Darius Fraser (The Chair), Lachlan Watson (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Jon Gries (The White Lotus) also star in the film being eyed for a 2023 release.

Thomas Mahoney (Wild Indian) and Justin X. Duprie (Bad Turn Worse) are producing, with Brian Udovich, Renn Vera and Maureen Taylor serving as EPs.