Transforming the mundane and the familiar into something terrifying is something only skillful filmmakers can pull off well enough that they leave a mark. David Lynch can do it probably better than anyone. Lars Von Trier is also adept at it. Both totally different filmmakers, both highly skilled at making the ordinary scary as hell.

Now add to that list Armenian writer/director Aik Karapetian, whose film The Man in the Orange Jacket had its world premiere at Fantasia Fest. On the surface it’s a simple tale of violent justice in the slasher vein, but it quickly evolves into a haunting nightmare of paranoia and domestic terror. It’s like High Tension sifted through Lars Von Trier’s filter. If that comparison doesn’t have you excited, might want to check that pulse. Also, it’s apparently the first horror film from Latvia! Welcome to the party, Latvia!

A wealthy industrialist has sold one of his harbors, leaving over 200 people without a job. He couldn’t be reached for comment, since he’s on vacation at one of his remote, towering mansions. It’s the type of place two people could live in and never see each other for weeks. A real upper class prick, this guy. Enter the titular man in the titular orange jacket – one of the prick’s former workers out for his piece of the pie. In savage fashion, the man slaughters his boss (not a spoiler, trust me) and shacks up in the mansion for a little R&R.

Making himself comfortable in the lap of luxury, the man drapes himself in expensive robes and lavish meals that he drives to in cars that cost more than the prick probably paid him in 10 years. His personal lifestyles of the rich and famous doesn’t last long however. The man begins to hear faraway sounds in the massive house. A stranger shows up wishing to do business. Then there’s that other guy, the one off in the distance, observing the man. And what does that portrait of Louis XVI keep staring at?

With almost zero dialogue (much like the bulk of High Tension), The Man in the Orange Jacket delivers some of the most chilling and brutal moments of terror you’ll see in 2014. As it tears down the economic divide, the film submerges viewers into a world of violence, the absurd, and an atmosphere so impossibly thick with dread, you may need to walk around the block a bit afterwards to relieve the tension. It’s the sort of horror that truly gets under the skin and sets up camp there, having its way with your private bits.

Although I compared it to High Tension and Von Trier, Karapetian’s film feels like nothing you’ve seen before. The reference points are there, but the images embed themselves in your eyeballs in a wholly unique fashion. The cinematography is stunning at times, particularly during exterior shots in the woods surrounding the mansion. Remember those gorgeous shots in Antichrist that looked like paintings? Some of the shots in The Man in the Orange Jacket resemble those beauties. Inside the house as well the camera passes through rooms and doorways in an attractive, yet creepy manner. – elevating the sense of dread dripping from every frame.

This film marks the arrival of an innovative filmmaker who understands how to take influences and turn them into something fresh. In a genre over-populated with biters, wannabes, and relentless use of jump-scares, we should celebrate a film like The Man in the Orange Jacket for its provocative approach to, well, just about everything it does on screen. Whenever the hell it’s released, this is going to be one of the must-see international breakthroughs of the year.