Jeva Films and 4 8 Fourteen Films are thrilled to share the first teaser and poster for the upcoming thriller, 7 Keys. Officially Selected for this years Pigeon Shrine FrightFest and screening through their ‘First Blood’ strand, the film will celebrate its UK Premiere on 24th August at the iconic horror festival.
Written and directed by Joy Wilkinson, the film stars Emma McDonald (Moonhaven & The Serpent Queen) and Billy Postlethwaite (SILO & The Winter King). This is not the first time the couple have shared lead roles, having both starred in Paul Hart’s adaptation of Macbeth in 2019 as well as the short horror film, The Everlasting Club, also directed by Wilkinson. This is Wilkinson’s feature debut, which had its World Premiere at SXSW in March, and builds on her successful writing career for stage and screen, including Doctor Who, Lockwood & Co, and the upcoming Channel 4 thriller Suspect.
When her date lets her down, single mother Lena meets lost soul Daniel and there’s an instant connection, especially when she learns that he’s kept the keys to all the places he’s ever lived. Lena doesn’t want to go home. She wants to run away from the troubles of her real life and recapture all the fun she’s missed out on, using Daniel’s keys to go on the ultimate tour of London, a wild weekend getting to know each other intimately in other people’s homes. In each home, they peel back another layer of each other’s identities and this thrilling game gets deeper. It seems like they’re soulmates, made to save each other, until reality kicks in and dark secrets are unlocked. Will either of them survive the weekend and own the seventh key?
From tiny apartments to riverside penthouses, 7 KEYS is a toxic romance condensed into one weekend. A twisted love story that explores the unseen London, the thrilling allure and the dark underbelly of life in a modern city where young people struggle to find their place – and sometimes struggle to survive.
“I’m thrilled that 7 KEYS will have its UK Premiere at Frightfest. I’m a huge fan of the festival and found a lot of inspiration there, so to have my feature debut in its First Blood strand is beyond my wildest dreams – and my dreams can get pretty wild, as the film proves! I can’t wait to watch it with the Frightfest crowd, especially in this extra special 25th anniversary year.” said Joy Wilkinson, Director and Writer.
FILMMAKER STATEMENT FROM JOY:
I’ve always been obsessed with keys and property, the stories that lie behind every closed door. I’ve never used an old key to steal into someone else’s home – so far, at least! – but, like Daniel, I have found keys hard to throw away, and, like Lena, that gave me a wild idea that I couldn’t let go of either.
I became fixated with this boy who had kept all his old keys and this girl who wanted to use them, so I had to find out who these people were. Writing the film became an odyssey like Lena and Daniel’s journey through London, peeling back their layers in hidden corners of the city in a modern twist on Salome’s ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’, ‘Bluebeard’ and ‘Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld’. What I discovered thrilled, shocked and moved me, like I hope it will for you.
The third character in their relationship and in the film is London, a city I fell in love with at first sight and have never been able to quit, entranced by its romance, energy and endless possibilities, but ever aware of its cruelties, inequalities and dangers. I wanted the film to explore that ambivalence, the way world cities let us escape and be anonymous, but leave us struggling to connect and find people who really care. Luckily I managed to find people who really cared about this film enough to make it as my feature debut, and the first part in what I intend to be my Bad Romance Trilogy – movies that explore emotional relationships, sex and violence through suspense, action and horror.
High concept and character-driven, 7 KEYS embodies my love of genre and how female directors can bring a different take and tell new stories. The thrillers I grew up watching often confined women within the male gaze, while the female gaze was confined to pure arthouse. I’m excited to be part of a bigger renaissance now and a recalibration in the kinds of films women get to make –7 KEYS is a sexy urban thriller with a complex couple at its heart, who both have depth, flaws and surprises in store.
