In recent years, movies like The Rental and The Barbarian have helped crystallize a new type of modern home invasion thriller: the nightmare of an Airbnb-gone-wrong. A lot of fear can be mined from suspicious hosts who spy on you or guests adjusting to an unsettling, foreign environment. In his upcoming film, director and co-writer Kevin Hamedani pairs this idea with extremely timely political themes. The Saviors centers on a couple (played by Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler) who are on the verge of splitting up when they rent their garage out to siblings, played by Theo Rossi and Nazanin Boniadi. However, a sneaky cat-and-mouse chase soon kicks off between each pair when they begin to doubt the other’s intentions. “We all have blind spots and have been taught to expect the worst from something we don’t understand, whether it’s a neighbor, culture, or country,” Hamedani told The A.V. Club last month while discussing the movie, which also stars Kate Berlant, Greg Kinnear, Ron Perlman, and Colleen Camp. During their SXSW debut, we sat down with him, Deadwyler, and Rossi to unpack the film’s visual influences (ranging from John Carpenter to Steven Spielberg), how the actors drew the line between grounded drama and dark comedy, and what The Saviors intends to say about preconceived notions.
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