(L-R) Zane Phillips. Photo credit: Jeong Park/SEARCHLIGHT. Jelani Alladin. Photo credit: Ben Mark Holzberg/SHOWTIME
Zane Phillips (Fire Island) and Jelani Alladin (Fellow Travelers) will headline Strangers On a Beach, a queer erotic thriller set in the 1980s, reports Variety. Strangers on a Beach is slated for its world premiere at New York’s Big Apple Film Festival in June.
Written and directed by Michael Schwartz (Snatched), the film is set in 1983 San Francisco, where a serial killer is preying on gay men. The official logline reveals the central tension: “But Calvin just wants to kiss that handsome stranger.”
The cast also includes Juliana Aidén Martinez (Griselda), Jack Falahee (How to Get Away With Murder), Nancy Lam (Miss Saigon), and Perry Young (In The Heights).
Schwartz cites David Lynch and Brian DePalma’s 1980s noir as inspiration for the movie. In a statement, he noted, “Studio films of that era often reveled in queer subtext. 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.”
