On the surface, Maisie Williams’s latest film, The Falling, has a few things in common with Game of Thrones: rape, incest, an interest in the occult, and characters who die suddenly. But although mystical elements might be at play, the film takes place in the real world, in 1969 at an English girls’ school, where the students seem to fall victim to a series of unexplained fainting spells that could be related to either their sexual awakening, an illness, or something more sinister.
“It’s a bit twisted and has this dark, eerie undertone, while at the same time having a beautiful innocence to it,” Williams told Vulture. “My character is a teen struggling to define herself and what role she plays amongst her group of friends, which is an issue I think we’ve all had to deal with in school, and even after.”
In the exclusive clip above, Williams’s character, Lydia, tries to rouse her fellow students from their stupor, so to speak, because she wants the school to address the mass psychogenic outbreak. “You all know something is wrong!” she implores the students and faculty. “Are you not going to fight for the truth? … Kill the system! It’s killing you!”
Previously released in the U.K., The Falling will be distributed by Cinedigm theatrically and on VOD in the U.S. on August 7. “I’m looking forward to the U.S. release mostly because it’s so unlike any other film out there at the moment,” Williams said. “It straddles the line between ‘artistic’ and relatable, which is a pretty rare find in entertainment today.”
