What do you get when you combine a post-apocalyptic survival thriller with a high school horror flick with a sweet queer romance with punk rock attitude? You get Riot Girls, the debut feature from XX director (she did the segment “The Box”) and former Rue Morgue editor Jovanka Vuckovic.
The film takes place in the sort of idyllic small town that so often serves as the setting for high school drama, but with a twist: In this town, all of the adults are dead, turned into desiccated corpses by a mysterious illness that only affects people over the age of 18. In their absence, the kids have divided themselves into two warring camps, the punky East Side and the preppy West Side. When East Side leader Jack (Alexandre Bourgeois) is pulled into a deadly confrontation with West Siders, his little sister Nat (Madison Iseman) and her best friend/secret crush Scratch (Paloma Kwiatkowski) must journey into the jock-infested unknown to save him.
We’re debuting an exclusive clip from the film above that introduces our leads Nat (with the blonde hair) and Scratch (with the mohawk), then demonstrates why you shouldn’t fuck with them under any circumstances.
Riot Girls opens in select theaters and on VOD on September 13.