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The first trailer for Amy Adams’s forthcoming dark comedy Nightbitch has been released, provoking some confused reactions about the film’s surreal premise.
The film, from Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Diary of a Teenage Girl director Marielle Heller, is an adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s acclaimed debut novel. It follows an unnamed woman who, after giving birth, is forced into a stay-at-home routine while raising her child.
The intensity of the situation and the feral nature of motherhood forces Adams’s character to develop strange new habits, such as walking around on all fours and eating directly from a bowl, leading her to conclude she is turning into a canine.
Part of the synopsis for the film states: “As her symptoms intensify, she struggles to keep her alter-canine-identity secret. Finally jolted to action after an impulsive and disastrous encounter with the family cat, she seeks a cure for her condition in a herbal multi-level marketing scheme, a group of mommies all inexplicably named Jen, and Wanda White, a mysterious academic specialising in ‘mythical ethnography.’”
The psychological comedy horror, which also stars Scoot McNairy as Adams’s absent husband, has raised eyebrows among those who have seen it on social media and are perplexed by the comedic tone of the trailer.
One person said: “Nightbitch’s tone felt a lot more introspective and cynical and dark alongside the humour... but this feels more... commercially funny. Please god, tell me that the trailer is setting this up to be lighter as a misdirect.”
A second complained: “This trailer looks like it missed the tone of the novel completely oof.”
Another, jokingly imitating a scene from 30 Rock wrote: “It’s called NIGHTBITCH, Lemon. Amy Adams plays a mother who turns into a dog at night. It’s the first film in the BCU, the Bitch Cinematic Universe with all the movies loosely based on Meredith Brooks’ 1997 Billboard No 2 single ‘Bitch.’ In some cases, *very* loosely based.”
A fourth viewer had a more rational take, writing: “Nightbitch is exactly the reason I avoid movie trailers because people are already saying, ‘This isn’t what I was expecting at all, I thought it would be better and darker’ and I’m like, well… maybe it is and this is just a trailer that poorly conveys the tone?”
In a press statement released in May, Heller wrote: “I haven’t felt this way about a book since I read The Diary of a Teenage Girl many years ago. Rachel’s darkly hilarious tale of motherhood and rage made me feel seen. And adapting it with Amy Adams in mind has been the thing that has kept me going through the pandemic.”
The film was set to be released on the streaming service Hulu but has since been switched to a theatrical release. It will receive its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September.
