A24 has landed the rights to “Instinct,” an erotic psychological thriller from “Bodies Bodies Bodies” director Halina Reijn.
A24 is planning a one-night-only event to release the film on the company’s screening room on Thursday, Sept. 22. Tickets will go on sale Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. ET.
“Instinct” had its world premiere at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland and later played at the Toronto International Film Festival. Next Thursday’s screening will be the first time “Instinct” has been available in North America since its pre-pandemic festival debut.
Additionally, the evening will mark the first time that A24 uses its screening room to show a film that the indie company has acquired, as opposed to one of its own productions.
“Instinct” will be available as a double feature with Reijn’s latest feature film “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a satirical slasher about rich 20-somethings who plan a hurricane party that turns deadly. The movie, also from A24, has generated $11 million at the domestic box office since August.
Carice Van Houten, best known for “Black Book” and “Game of Thrones,” stars in “Instinct” as Nicoline, a criminal psychologist who begins work at a prison where one of her new cases, Idris (played by Marwan Kenzari), an apparently reformed sex offender, is preparing for release after five years of confinement. Despite her professional misgivings, Nicoline becomes infatuated with her charismatic, manipulative patient.
In Variety’s review, Guy Lodge praised the movie as a “risky, impressive debut” for Reijn (remember, it premiered on the festival circuit before “Bodies Bodies Bodies” opened in theaters), calling it “intelligently sensational adult fare, crafted with paper-cut precision on all fronts.”
In addition to directing the film, Reijn produced “Instinct” with van Houten via Man Up and Frans Van Gestel, Arnold Heslenfeld, and Laurette Schillings of Topkapi Films. Films Boutique represented international sales on “Instinct.”
Reijn is repped at CAA, 2AM, and Jackoway, Austen, Tyerman, Wertheimer, Mandelbaum, Morris, Bernstein, Trainer & Klein.