If you use the term ‘killer dress’, I’m guessing you usually reserve it for the rare times you buy a drop dead gorgeous dress that has the ability to stop people in their tracks.
What you probably won’t be using it for is to refer to a dress that actually kills people, because that would just be ridiculous.
Well, yes, it would be ridiculous, and yet it’s the entire premise of upcoming film In Fabric, in which a woman seriously regrets buying said dress almost as soon as she’s put it on.
Take a look at the trailer below:
The film follows newly divorced Sheila, played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies), who is trying to move on after a painful separation from her husband.
In preparation for a first date (with a man who hands her a wonky rose and thinks saying ‘you look different’ is an appropriate conversation opener for a woman he’s trying to impress), Sheila indulges in a bit of retail therapy. Because why not.
Hoping to make a bit of a statement, she buys a red dress from a mysterious saleswoman who I would not be buying anything from, and soon realises this was a big mistake. Well yeah, I could’ve told you that…
Shortly after taking the dress off, Sheila begins to notice strange wounds all over her body and soon starts to realise that the dress must be cursed. Either that or she’s seriously allergic to whatever fabric the dress is made from.
Directed by Peter Strickland, the film has an impressive cast, including Gwendoline Christie, Fatma Mohamed, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill, Julian Barrett, and Steve Oram.
The film made its debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, after which Strickland told Entertainment Weekly his inspiration came from secondhand shops.
The director explained:
I always had this fascination with objects. I think what started it was going to secondhand shops. You find clothes with stains on them, you find clothes which stink of body odour, you find clothes from dead people.
Already, there’s a haunting. You buy a shirt, and probably someone cried having to give that shirt away because it belonged to someone they loved who died.
One thing’s for sure: I’ll never use the term ‘killer dress’ in the same way again. Well, that and the fact that I won’t be stepping into a vintage shop again either.
It’s just not worth the hassle.
The film is expected to sashay into cinemas on June 28.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).