Run girl, run! It’s no coincidence that Erin Vassilopoulos’ feature-film debut begins with a beloved standard horror trope. Heavily influenced by the genre films of her youth, the filmmaker teams up once again with twin sisters Alessandra and Ani Mesa. The screenplay is a loose sequel to the sibling drama in her 2015 short film of the same name. Years later now, Marian, on the lamb, bursts into Vivian’s cosey life, radically shaking up the latter’s financially comfortable but loveless marriage. Kind of a turn-off for husband Michael (in a great performance by Dustin Hoffman’s son Jake), who demands that Marian looks for work at the very least. Alas, an ice cream shop is a bad place for PTSD-laced flashbacks. Buoyed by Jessica Moss’ hypnotic score, SUPERIOR celebrates disorientation as a delightful game, all the way to the stylistically self-assured grand finale.

Erin Vassilopoulos is a New York-based filmmaker whose short films have screened at festivals including Sundance, the Berlinale, BFI London Film Festival and Tribeca, and have been featured online at Vimeo Staff Picks and ARTE TV. Her directorial feature debut, SUPERIOR, participated in the 2020 IFP Narrative Lab and had its world premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. She holds an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she belonged to the elite Dean’s Fellows.

Filmography: 2014 WALKING AND FALLING, 2015 SUPERIOR, 2016 VALERIA, 2019 EVIL GROWS IN THE DARK (all short films), 2021 SUPERIOR