Assassination Nation is a feminist thriller reflecting Trump’s America, social media cesspits, rapid meme-fire and the horrors of being a teenager.
In the film, we meet 17-year-old Lily (Odessa Young) and her friends Bex (Hari Nef), Sarah (Suki Waterhouse) and Em (Abra) in the town of Salem (yep, where witches were burnt at the stake and women vilified for supposed deviance). One day, a massive hack dumps the data of Salem residents online, causing mass panic and violence by vengeful local men. The young women are forced to defend themselves in the Purge-like chaos. It’s a seething, fast-paced thriller that touches on toxic masculinity and the dark online and offline world.
In two exclusive clips, we first see high schooler Lily discuss the sexualisation of women by contemporary society at the dinner table with her parents. After the first local man’s phone records are compromised to reveal naked photos of a young woman, they debate over the inherent sexuality imposed on female nudity.
The second clip shows the group of friends take apart male-led revenge movies, discussing the 1971 psychological thriller film Straw Dogs starring Susan George and Dustin Hoffman, and how they’d flip it. They decide, ironically, that if they were in a movie, they’d be in the “girl burns this motherfucking town to the ground scene”.
Assassination Nation debuts in cinemas November 19
