At Comic Con this year, we held a special screening of the thought-provoking thriller Circle. The film had begun gathering buzz when it premiered at the Seattle Film Festival in May, and the chatter surrounding the film continued to grow after we brought it to San Diego. The film, with a rather ingenious premise, just secured itself a distribution deal with FilmBuff that’s going to land it on all of the hottest streaming and VOD platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, and Xbox.

The film centers on a simple, yet brilliant premise that’s rife for director-writers Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione to explore elements of thriller, satire, horror, and even sci-fi.

Fifty strangers wake up to find themselves in a room with a glowing circle in the center.

They cannot touch each other.

They cannot even move.

 One of them will die every two minutes.

The group decides who’s next.

The movie delights in exploring the sorts of snap judgements we make these days about people. In a world where it’s so easy to put someone down based on hardly anything- a misused word in a tweet, an ugly selfie, a “too manly” body on a female fighter, they prefer DC to Marvel, etc- what happens when an itchy trigger-fingered hive can actually decide who lives or dies?

The ensemble cast includes Lawrence Kao (The Walking Dead), Julie Benz (Dexter), Michael Nardelli (Revenge), Carter Jenkins (Valentine’s Day), and Allegra Masters (Extremely Decent). They, and the rest of the cast, embody and flip-on-their-head the kinds of stereotypes we’re so quick to make about people: The Rich Man, The Wife, The Asian Kid, The Latino, The College Guy, The Party Girl, The Nerd, etc.

Here’s a statement from FilmBuff about their decision to pick up Circle:

“Circle is another example of an indie thriller that has dared to intellectually challenge viewers while delivering a heart-pounding and personally affecting experience. Films that challenge the norm are what we strive for here at FilmBuff, and we can’t be more proud to have had a part in helping this film find its audience.”