There’s a new (and first?) cycling horror movie making the film festival rounds right now and, from what I can tell, it looks awesome….-ly bad.
Not that I would necessarily know what qualifies as a good horror movie but you can watch the trailer below and be your own judge.
Titled Trapped Inn, the film follows the Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling team - yes, a real Continental level US team - going on an altitude camp in some remote mountain location in French-speaking Europe to prepare for the Tour. But this is not a cycling documentary in the vein of Netflix's Movistar-based series The Least Expected Day.
At first glance, it looks lovely: sweeping mountain roads, sunny weather, pool parties and lots of bikini-clad women around. Apparently at this training camp, the riders’ significant others get to join in on the summer fun.
But things quickly go south. There’s a suspenseful retelling of a legend of ‘something roaming in the woods’ that made a previous team disappear completely, members of the team mysteriously start to die and an airborne illness breaks out, trapping the team inside their mountain lodge unable to leave.
Two rival teammates — the new kid and the veteran— clash as they try to uncover who or what is killing the team and how to survive. Their tension builds even higher when the new kid develops feelings for the veteran’s girlfriend.
Team bonding is taken to the extreme as they must work together to make it out alive.
Dun dun dunnn.
The film is written and directed by Leah Sturgis (who also happens to be the owner of Team Wildlife Generation) and stars American stand-up comedian Matt Rife — whose incredibly ripped physique is unlike any road cyclist I’ve ever seen— and Homeland’s Jaylen Moore.
The film is currently making the Film Festival rounds where the response has been quite encouraging. It won the Best Feature Film award at the Stockholm City Film Festival, the Best Women Filmmaker award at the Sweden Film Awards, the Best Thriller award at the Tokyo Film Awards and Best Narrative Feature at the LA Film Awards.
So perhaps there’s more to this film than the trailer showcases and it could actually be one of the best cycling movies ever made. As of yet, we haven't seen a cinematic or streaming release date for Trapped Inn, but when we do we'll let you know.
