Polaroid (2019)
Polaroid is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Lars Klevberg, based on his 2015 short film of the same name. It stars Kathryn Prescott, Grace Zabriskie, Samantha Logan, Tyler Young, Javier Botet, Katie Stevens, Madelaine Petsch, Priscilla Quintana, Davi Santos, Keenan Tracey, and Mitch Pileggi.
Dimension Films announced the film in 2015, with Klevberg directing it, with Blair Butler writing the script. Much of the cast joined that summer and principal photography began in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on March 9, 2017 and wrapped in May 2017.
By October 2018, Lantern Entertainment, which acquired The Weinstein Company’s assets through its bankruptcy, and 13 Films, an international distribution and finance company, struck a deal to co-distribute the film internationally. The film was originally scheduled to be released in August 2017. It was then pulled from the schedule several times, with plans to release the film in 2019.
Polaroid was released theatrically in Germany on January 10, 2019, by Wild Bunch. The film was released in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2019.
Shy high school student Bird (Kathryn Prescott) is given an old Polaroid camera by her co-worker Tyler, who got it from a garage sale. The camera has the initials “RJS” carved into it. Bird snaps a picture of Tyler but later notices an odd smudge-like figure on his photo.
Bird attends a costume party with her best friend Kasey (Samantha Logan) and meets her other friends Mina, Mina’s boyfriend Devin, Avery, and Bird’s high school crush Connor (Tyler Young). She uses her Polaroid camera to take the group’s picture and Avery later snaps a selfie with it. Meanwhile, Tyler is killed by the entity, and Sheriff Pembroke informs Bird. At home, Bird sees Tyler’s photo free from the shadow, which has mysteriously transferred to Avery’s photo.
Avery is killed when the entity snaps her neck. When Bird learns about this, she tries to destroy the camera and attempts to warn her friends. Bird and Connor research and discover that the camera was owned by a photography teacher Roland Joseph Sable (RJS) from their school years ago. He was accused of torturing four students and killing three of them while taking maniacal photographs. One of the captives escaped and Roland was killed by police. Bird is attacked by the entity, which behaves like a photograph (it is sensitive to heat). She questions why she was chased too and notices that her reflection is in the photo’s background.
Devin finds Mina’s dead body and blames Bird for her death. He attempts to take a picture of her as a threat. In the ensuing fight, Devin is accidentally snapped by the camera and the shadow transfers to his photo, showing he is next. Kasey saves Bird by stabbing Devin’s photo with a pencil, injuring him in real life. Devin is detained by Pembroke and is later killed in his cell by the entity.
The remaining friends learn Roland’s wife is alive and visit her. They meet an elderly lady named Lena Sable, who explains that the camera actually belonged to her daughter Rebecca James Sable (RJS). Rebecca was bullied by four classmates, who took inappropriate photos of her, and committed suicide out of shame, causing her father Roland to abduct and kill her bullies in a fit of rage. Now even in death, Roland roams, looking for the last bully who escaped to kill him. Lena shows the two a picture of the survivor and they search the yearbooks.
Bird finds out that the survivor was Sheriff Pembroke. In an attempt to stop the entity from killing them, Connor takes a picture of Pembroke, who reveals that Roland was the real bully to Rebecca, having sexually assaulted her. The four students, including him, were Rebecca’s friends trying to warn her of her father’s actions upon finding her nude pictures in his possession. Fearing the public would find out, Roland abducted them, prompting Rebecca to kill herself in fear.
The entity tears Pembroke’s picture in half, killing him. Bird takes a picture of herself, prompting the entity to chase after her instead of her friends. She takes a picture of the entity, crushes it to incapacitate the entity, then burns it, and the entity vaporizes. She reunites with her friends and throws the camera into a river.
Cast
Kathryn Prescott as Bird Fitcher
Tyler Young as Connor Bell
Samantha Logan as Kasey
Keenan Tracey as Devin
Priscilla Quintana as Mina
Javier Botet as The Entity
Mitch Pileggi as Sheriff Pembroke
Katie Stevens as Avery
Davi Santos as Tyler
Shauna MacDonald as Bird’s mother
Grace Zabriskie as Lena Sable
Rhys Bevan John as Roland Joseph Sable
Emily Power as Rebecca Sable
Madelaine Petsch as Sarah
Erika Prevost as Linda
Production
Dimension Films was announced to adapt the 2015 short film Polaroid, written and directed by Norwegian director Lars Klevberg. Chris Bender, Jake Weiner and Jake Wagner which produce in Benderspink, Roy Lee in Vertigo and Petter Onstad Løkke and John Einar Hagen in Eldorado Film, which produced the short film with Klevberg in Norway.[citation needed]
Filming
Principal photography began in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on March 9, 2017.[1]
Release
The film was originally scheduled to be released on August 25, 2017.[2] It was pushed back from this original release date to December 1, 2017, before being pushed up to November 22, 2017.[3] It was then pulled from the schedule, with plans to release the film in 2018.[4]
In October 2018, Lantern Entertainment, which acquired The Weinstein Company’s assets through its bankruptcy, and 13 Films, an international distribution and finance company, struck a deal to co-distribute the film internationally.[5] Polaroid was released theatrically in Germany on January 10, 2019, by Wild Bunch.[6] The film was released in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2019.
