An island getaway with Emma Roberts, Awkwafina, and Milla Jovovich sounds like a prime vacation fantasy, right? At first, that’s what the ladies of Paradise Hills think, too, until things get super weird (and sinister) in EW’s exclusive trailer for the upcoming thriller.
Spanish fashion creative and photographer Alice Waddington makes her feature debut with the film, which follows a young woman, Uma (Roberts), who unexpectedly wakes up in a mysterious reform school for wayward women run by a menacing headmistress known as The Duchess (Jovovich).
But Uma soon learns this isn’t your ordinary academy: Attendees (Awkwafina, Dumplin’ star Danielle Macdonald, Eiza González) sport otherworldly costumes, sleep in neon-lit beds, and their every move is scrutinized by the staff of the Duchess, who seeks to curb their renegade ways to fit into a placid society.
“This is an opportunity, Uma. If you could learn your place, you have your best years ahead of you,” the ill-tempered Duchess tells her new pupil, who ultimately tries to escape its clutches in fear of its seemingly cult-like, brainwashing assimilation tactics. “It’s about owning your story, who you truly are.”
At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where Paradise Hills world-premiered to positive reviews from movie critics, EW’s Mary Sollosi praised the film, noting that the “visual language of Waddington’s dystopia speaks loudest in the form of its lavish wardrobe, from the girls’ corseted cages of uniforms to the increasingly elaborate floral confections worn by the headmistress.”
You can book a trip of your own to the (terrifying) sun-soaked shores of Paradise Hills when the film hits VOD, digital retailers, and theaters on Nov. 1. Watch EW’s exclusive trailer above and check out the new Paradise Hills poster below.
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