French Canadian directing trio RKSS are back with Wake Up, which World Premiered at Fantastic Fest over the weekend. Deadline shares a first-look preview clip out of the fest.

In Wake Up, which combines a strong timely message with a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse, a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.

“As soon as we read the script, the core concept and the timely subject were so compelling to us, that we immediately could visualize the film and we knew we had to direct it and bring our own signature into the project,” said RKSS. “A slasher in a closed furniture store and warehouse makes an exciting playground for sure!”

RKSS —short for Roadkill Superstars— are based in Montreal, Quebec and have had their shorts and features screened around the globe and won awards at the Sitges Film Festival, Molins Film Festival, Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival, Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, London’s FrightFest, and more.

The team includes Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell, and François Simard.

After first making headlines with their 2015 Sundance breakout feature debut TURBO KID (Winner of SXSW’s 2015 Midnighters Audience Award), RKSS charmed and chilled audiences with their sophomore feature SUMMER OF 84 (Sundance 2018) and, most recently, the comic book adaptation WE ARE ZOMBIES, which premiered at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival, where it took the Audience Award Gold for Best Québec Feature, and also screens at Fantastic Fest — making RKSS rare directors with two feature films on the festival’s buzzy slate.

Wake Up is written by Alberto Marini, based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, and presented by Borsalino Productions and STUDIOCANAL. The film will next screen at Spain’s prestigious Sitges Film Festival as part of the Official Fantàstic Competition.

The film features an impressive cast of young and emerging talent that includes Benny O.Arthur (Sky and Canal + Django series), Jacqueline Moré (THE ANARCHIST’S DREAM), Charlotte Stoiber (DOWNFALL), Kyle Scudder (Netflix’s upcoming In Love All Over Again), and newcomers Alessia Yoko Fontana and Tom Gould along with celebrated Irish film and television actors Turlough Convery (Black Mirror, Killing Eve) and Aidan O’Hare (MY SAILOR, MY LOVE).

Wake Up is represented in international market by STUDIOCANAL and produced by Gaël Nouaille and Laurent Baudens, executive produced by Adrià Monés, Gaël Nouaille, and Maud Petit and co-produced by Yann Degay and Barnaby Wass.