Opening: GOD'S COUNTRY, Alone and Besieged

Opening in more than 500 U.S. theaters tomorrow (Friday, September 16), God's Country stars Thandiwe Newton as a professor "living and working in a rural college town." Stop right there. You had me at Thandiwe Newton.

For those who need a little bit more, there's this (from the official synopsis): "She discovers a mysterious red truck parked in her driveway and soon learns it belongs to a pair of local hunters seeking to enter the forest behind her house." Uh, oh. That's never a good sign.

"Sandra (Thandiwe Newton) turns them away politely but firmly - her experience tells her these are not the sort of men to welcome freely into her world. But they won't take no for an answer, and soon Sandra finds herself drawn into an escalating battle of wills that puts her most deeply held values to the test."

The trailer does a great job of establishing a tense atmosphere, a fitting setting for "an escalating battle of wills." As it happens, Newton began the latest Westworld season as a character who was hiding out in the wilderness.

Here, though, she is out in the open about her identity and is not hiding from anyone, yet she receives absolutely no support, human or otherwise, and is told by local law enforcement, in essence, that she should handle it herself.

I'm sure she does. Watch the trailer and look at the pretty pictures below. God's Country opens via IFC Films, so visit their official site for more information.