Writer-director Michael A. Nickles brings us Playback, a horror film (‘based on true stories’, like many horror films) starring Christian Slater (True Romance), and distributed by Magnolia Pictures’ Magnet Releasing, who’ve also distributed the likes of The Troll Hunter, Hobo with a Shotgun, 13 Assassins, and Gareth Edwards’ brilliant feature debut, Monsters.

Magnet have put out a new red-band trailer for the film through Hulu, via BloodyDisgusting, that definitely earns its red-band rating, so if you’re reading this at work, be sure to come back later to watch it, because there’s blood and gore galore, as well as a little nudity, so you’ve been warned.

“While digging into their town’s infamous past, a group of high school students unwittingly unlock a dark secret, unleashing an evil spirit that takes possession of its victims.”

Along with Slater, who plays the local town cop, the film also stars Johnny Pacar, Ambyr Childers, Alessandra Torresani, and Toby Hemingway.

The trailer begins a little unconvincingly, with some blood that doesn’t really look like blood, and following the recent trend of found-footage style, but it moves away from that to what looks like it has some potential to be a solid horror movie, so it’s something to check out if you’re a fan of the genre. Naturally, this probably won’t hold a candle to Slater’s performances in something like True Romance, but it looks like it could be a pretty good ninety-odd-minute horror.

If you’re reading this in the States, Playback should already be available via VoD and will be getting a limited release in theatres on 9th March. For us here in the UK, there’s no word yet of a release, and we’ll most likely be getting it later this year straight-to-DVD. Either way, hopefully it’ll come to shores one way or another, because it does have some potential.

Here’s the trailer to whet your appetites. And remember, pretty damn red band, so a hundred per cent not suitable for work.