You ever get that feeling… the one where a movie poster stares straight into your soul, and you’re not sure if you should watch the film or call a priest? Killing Faith just did that to me. Dead-eyed little girl, golden light, guns on both sides — yeah, the marketing team knows exactly what they’re doing.
Shout Studios has rolled out the first trailer for Killing Faith, marking Ned Crowley’s feature directorial debut. Not some festival darling sneaking in under the radar — this one’s going theatrical on October 3, 2025. And you can see why: the cast list reads like someone accidentally shuffled their indie-western wishlist with a prestige drama roll call. Guy Pearce. DeWanda Wise. Bill Pullman. All roped into a story about the lawless frontier, a mysterious sickness, and a girl whose touch is fatal.
The set-up’s pure mid-19th-century paranoia. In 1849, a widowed doctor reluctantly escorts a freed slave and her pale-haired daughter across a brutal western landscape to find a distant faith healer. The mother’s convinced the kid is cursed by the devil; the doctor figures it’s just “The Sickness.” But it doesn’t matter what you believe when every living thing the girl touches ends up dead. That’s not exactly a diagnosis you want in your travel party.
And honestly, I’ve seen a lot of “frontier plague” storylines — but the tone here’s leaning closer to a contained horror-thriller than a straight shoot-’em-up. The trailer teases these suffocating silences broken by bursts of violence, plus a lot of side-eye exchanges between characters who clearly don’t trust each other. Bill Pullman, in a wheelchair with a look that says he’s seen the devil twice and lived to complain about it. Guy Pearce, all weathered suspicion. DeWanda Wise, rifle steady and gaze sharper.
It’s not subtle. And maybe it shouldn’t be. Crowley’s script (co-written with David Henri Martin) drops its theme right in the tagline: “Look closer, the devil is in the details.” Which could be metaphorical. Could also mean you’re literally getting an Old West possession tale.
No festival bow, no indie buildup — Killing Faith goes straight to select U.S. theaters this fall. That’s a gamble. But sometimes skipping the festival circuit just means the producers know their audience isn’t wearing lanyards; they’re buying popcorn.
What to Keep in Mind About ‘Killing Faith’
- A Loaded Cast for a First-Time Director – Ned Crowley ropes in Guy Pearce, DeWanda Wise, and Bill Pullman for his feature debut.
- Genre Blend – Equal parts western, thriller, and folk-horror, with a period plague twist.
- A Fatal Premise – The girl’s touch kills everything — the moral question is whether she’s cursed or just sick.
- No Festival Launch – Skips the usual prestige rollout; goes direct to theaters on October 3, 2025.
- Strong Visual Identity – Poster and trailer lean into stark imagery and frontier dread.
So — is Killing Faith aiming to be a slow-burn nightmare, or a straightforward shootout with supernatural seasoning? Guess we’ll find out when it rides into theaters this October.
