Sundance 2011: Trailer For Michael Tully's SEPTIEN

The midnight program at Sundance this year looks to include some good head scratchers and while Calvin Lee Reeder's The Oregonian will almost certainly be the leader in that regard it appears that Michael Tully's Septien won't be far behind.

Eighteen years after disappearing without a trace, Cornelius Rawlings returns to his family's farm. While his parents are long deceased, Cornelius's brothers continue to live in isolation on this forgotten piece of land. Ezra is a freak for two things: cleanliness and Jesus. Amos is a self-taught artist who fetishizes sports and Satan. Although back home, Cornelius is still distant. In between challenging strangers to one-on-one games, he huffs and drinks the days away. The family's high-school sports demons show up one day in the guise of a plumber and a pretty girl. Only a mysterious drifter can redeem their souls on 4th and goal.

Triple-threat actor/writer/director (and disturbingly gifted athlete) Michael Tully creates a backwoods world that's only a few trees away from our own, complete with characters on the edge of sanity that we can actually relate to. A hero tale gone wrong, Septien is funny when it's inappropriate to laugh, and realistic when it should be psychotic. Goooaaaaaaaaal!

The official trailer for this one has launched over at Vice - you need to wait through a bit of a pitch session for the overall Sundance Selects program but it's there - and what I have learned from that is that the movie contains an awful lot of facial hair, a grifter, abandoned athletic potential and a whole lot of menace. Check it out below.