Shudder Acquires Thriller Film 'Find Your Friends' for June Release

' The acquisition was reported by Variety. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Izabel Pakzad, who also wrote the screenplay. ' The story centers on Amber and her four friends, who leave Los Angeles for a trip to Joshua Tree. They encounter hostility from locals in a desert town.

As interactions with residents become more threatening, tensions arise within the group. The vacation escalates into a violent conflict involving control and survival. Pakzad drew inspiration from a personal experience during a similar trip to Joshua Tree.

In an interview with Variety, she described an incident involving a car chase.

“The Airbnb was on a dead end, of course. So you pull out of the driveway, and there’s this green Mustang that’s waiting outside on the street. He puts his brights on, turns his car and blocks me into the dead end. Immediately, I knew something was weird ... this feels premeditated, something is wrong. On instinct, I just took the car and drove around him — right on the neighbor’s lawn — and just started speeding. But then it turned into a 100 m.p.h. car chase on the Joshua Tree freeway, where he was trying to swerve into my car, swerve me off the road. We were trying to call the police, but we had no service. Eventually, we saw a car in the distance and I just started calling for help and honking, and then he ended up turning around. But it was the most terrifying seven minutes of my life.”

'Find Your Friends' premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival as a headliner. It later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as one of 10 Industry Selects. The film had its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest. The acquisition covers rights in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand.

International sales are handled by WTFilms. The deal was negotiated by Shudder with CAA representing the filmmakers. Pakzad is an Iranian-Greek American filmmaker, writer and actor. Her 2022 short film 'Don’t Worry, It’s Gonna Be OK,' which she directed, wrote and starred in, was selected for the Raindance Film Festival and HollyShorts, and won Best Short Film at the L.A. Film Festival.

She previously produced and starred in the independent feature 'Thena,' opposite Chris Bauer, Virginia Gardner, Brian Marc and Will Peltz. 'Thena' premiered at the Taormina Film Festival in June 2023.

The film was produced by Allison Friedman, Andrea Iervolino, Luca Matrundola, Monika Bacardi, Gary Michael Walters and Pakzad. Bella Thorne served as an executive producer. In a statement to Variety, Pakzad said Shudder supports genre films that challenge conventions for young women characters.

Emily Gotto, senior vice president of acquisitions and productions at Shudder, described the film as beginning as an escape into the desert and descending into a struggle involving paranoia, resentment and survival. The release on June 12 will make the film available to Shudder subscribers in the acquired territories, potentially reaching audiences interested in thriller and horror genres.