Grace Van Dien Navigates a 'Menacing Game of Cat and Mouse' in 'What Comes Around' Trailer (Exclusive)
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Directed by Amy Redford and costarring Summer Phoenix, the upcoming film is about an online love affair gone wrong
Courtesy of IFC Films
Grace Van Dien grapples with an online relationship gone wrong in her new film What Comes Around.
The Stranger Things actress and Twitch streamer, 26, leads the upcoming thriller as Anna, a young woman seduced by a mysterious older man on the internet — who then shows up at her house unannounced.
PEOPLE is exclusively debuting the trailer for What Comes Around, which IFC Films will release in theaters Aug. 4.
“In this immersive thriller directed by Amy Redford, a young love affair becomes a menacing game of cat and mouse,” the film’s synopsis reads. “Nothing and no one are as they seem.”
Formerly titled Roost and adapted by screenwriter Scott Organ from a play he wrote, What Comes Around premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival. It costars Summer Phoenix, 44, as Anna’s concerned mother Beth, who “struggles to defend their new life as past is made present."
Redford, 52, a producer and actor best known for helming the Saffron Burrows music drama The Guitar, tells PEOPLE she hopes this film “fosters conversation” about virtual relationships and communication across generations.
Courtesy of IFC Films
“I think it would be great if we could unpack concepts like ‘slut shaming’ and ‘toxic masculinity’ with more compassion and nuance than seems to be happening today,” the director says. “We seem to be in the great finger-pointing era. Thankfully, we are also in a time where people are trying to dismantle not only the imbalance of power but generational gaslighting."
“We also seem to be in an unprecedented moment where our youth’s community is more virtual than in-person,” she adds. “I see an existential crisis for younger and younger people.”
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Courtesy of IFC Films
As its trailer reveals, What Comes Around dives into complicated mother-daughter dynamics that arise after Anna’s online boyfriend Eric (Smile star Kyle Gallner) insinuates himself into their lives in person. “Don’t you think we should meet someday?” asks Eric, revealing via video call he’s appeared at the family’s door.
His intrusion is a major red flag to Beth and Anna’s friend Brit (Reina Hardesty), who, in the trailer, advises her to “be careful — you don’t even know this guy.”
Courtesy of IFC Films
In a statement about the film, Redford said, “I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to be in the director’s chair after a hiatus, where motherhood and family obligations took front row. Now I see this story through the lens of both the mother and child, and hope that this film invites discourse about the polarity of guilt and innocence.”
Courtesy of IFC Films
She also tells PEOPLE that What Comes Around, developed and filmed in Park City, Utah, around the time COVID made shooting major productions difficult, was “a collective act of faith. We had no time and no money to waste.”
From the moment Organ sent her his play, The Thing with Feathers, Redford says “every person involved had to jump in with both feet and with a lot of generosity.”
She also calls Organ “such a crafted writer — he is also very fair to his characters. He feels compelled to show the perspective of each character, and I respect that.”
What Comes Around is in theaters Aug. 4.
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