Get ready, cinephiles and thrill-seekers — a deliciously dark and daring film is about to crash onto the scene, and it’s bringing some of our favorite queer heartthrobs with it. In an exclusive reveal to Variety, it’s been announced that Fire Island star Zane Phillips and Fellow Travelers star Jelani Alladin are teaming up to lead the upcoming queer erotic thriller, Strangers On a Beach. And let’s just say… it’s giving sexy, scary, and oh-so-satisfying.
Photo Credit:@zanethanSet against the sultry backdrop of 1983 San Francisco, the film’s official logline teases: “It’s 1983 in San Francisco and a mysterious killer is targeting homosexual men. But Calvin just wants to kiss that handsome stranger.” High stakes, higher tension, and even higher cheekbones? We’re sold.
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Written and directed by Michael Schwartz (Snatched), Strangers On a Beach is ready to make waves with its world premiere this June at New York’s Big Apple Film Festival. The star-studded cast doesn’t stop with Phillips and Alladin either — joining them are Juliana Aidén Martinez (Griselda), Jack Falahee (How to Get Away With Murder), Nancy Lam (Miss Saigon), and Perry Young (In The Heights). It’s an ensemble stacked with talent and sex appeal, promising a cinematic cocktail that’s part noir, part thriller, and entirely irresistible.
Schwartz describes the film as a love letter to the 1980s thrillers of David Lynch and Brian DePalma — the kind that dripped in mystery, intrigue, and barely-there queer subtext. But this time, the subtext gets flipped on its head. “Studio films of that era often reveled in queer subtext,” Schwartz explained in a statement.
“But even between the lines, queerness was frequently coded as danger. That kind of projection carried difficult consequences, as did the concealment of identity. By centering authentically queer voices – all while keeping things scary, sexy, and strange – we set out to challenge the biases of both the characters and the audience who watch them.”
A sizzling queer thriller that unapologetically centers LGBTQ+ stories, wrapped in noir mystery and served with a side of Zane Phillips in 1980s fashion? Honestly, we’ll be first in line. Strangers On a Beach promises to be the pulse-racing, stylishly sinister flick we didn’t know we needed.
REFERENCE: Variety
Well hopefully when there’s an actual trailer, we’ll get that posted.