Brandy really needs to get out in new The Front Room trailer

Can twin brothers Max and Sam Eggers fill the gaping hole left by their older sibling, Robert? That’s the question A24 is attempting to answer with The Front Room, a new horror-comedy that Max and Sam co-wrote and directed. Robert Eggers, of course, is the auteur who broke onto the scene with the masterfully unsettling The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), both of which he produced with the indie studio before jumping ship to Focus Features and Universal for his next film, The Northman, in 2022. Based on this trailer, the younger Eggers may still have a little ways to go before they dream up their own version of Willem Defoe delivering maritime curses or posing naked with a beam of light emanating from his eyeballs.

The Front Room is a horror-comedy led by Brandy Norwood, marking the multi-hyphenate’s first return to the genre since 1998’s I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. She stars as Belinda, a pregnant woman trying to keep it together after her “diabolical” mother in law (a discomforting Kathryn Hunter) moves in with her and her husband (Andrew Burnap). 

There are shades of Hereditary here (Brandy delivers a cheeky “I am her mother” in the film’s first trailer), mixed with a whole lot of Get Out. Set to Doechii and JT’s “Alter Ego,” the trailer sees Belinda forced to deal with her monster-in-law’s many aggressions—both micro and not-so-micro. What starts as an uncomfortable comment about Belinda’s name escalates to a certified “United Daughters Of The Confederacy” certificate and eventually a vague Catholic ritual involving Belinda’s unborn child. It’s not made entirely clear in the trailer whether Hunter’s character is an actual demonic entity or just a really terrible person, but either way, it’s not looking great for Brandy.

The Front Room premieres September 6 in theaters. If you want to keep it in the family, Robert Eggers’ long-anticipated Nosferatu also arrives this year, on December 25.