A Horrible Way to Die is a 2010 horror thriller film written by Simon Barrett and directed by Adam Wingard

Adam Wingard

Adam Wingard is an American film director, editor, cinematographer, and writer whose films are known for their emphasis on horror, extreme violence, and psychedelic imagery. His dark and sometimes abrasive directing/editing style has been compared to directors such as David Lynch, Darren...

.

A Horrible Way to Die follows the journey of an escaped serial killer as he chases down his ex-girlfriend.

The film had its world premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

 Vanguard program where it was picked up for distribution by Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...

. The film also played at Fantastic Fest

Fantastic Fest

Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of The Iron Giant and Secondhand Lions. The festival focuses on genre films such as horror,...

 where it received three major awards: Best Screenplay for Simon Barrett, Best Actor for AJ Bowen and Best Actress for Amy Seimetz.

Plot

The movie follows the journey of an escaped serial killer as he chases down his ex-girlfriend, who is a recovering alcoholic.

Cast

• AJ Bowen as Garrick Turrell
• Melissa Boatright as Jessie
• Steven Buehler as State Trooper 1
• Brandon Carroll as Rusty
• Jen Huemmer as Dark-haired woman
• Lane Hughes
  Lane Hughes
  -Pop Skull:In 2003, filmmaker Adam Wingard approached Hughes with the idea of doing a semi-autobiographical film about a recent breakup. They conceived the film as "one-part psychedelic, one-part horror and one-part romance" and made it for $3,000....
  
   as Reed
• Whitney Moore as Daphne
• Amy Seimetz as Sarah
• Joe Swanberg
  Joe Swanberg
  Joe Swanberg is an American independent filmmaker. He is a member of the "Mumblecore" movement. His films include Kissing on the Mouth , LOL , Hannah Takes the Stairs , Nights and Weekends and Alexander the Last...
  
   as Kevin
• Holly Voges as Carla
• Michael J. Wilson as Jones

Release

A Horrible Way to Die debuted on 14 September 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

 and opened in other film festivals on the dates given below.

Region	Release date	Festival
Canada		Toronto International Film Festival Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
United States		Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of The Iron Giant and Secondhand Lions. The festival focuses on genre films such as horror,...
Spain		Sitges Film Festival
United States		Hawaii International Film Festival Hawaii International Film Festival The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...
United States		Philadelphia Film Festival Philadelphia Film Festival The Philadelphia Film Festival is held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Until 2009 it was generally held during the first weeks of April....
United States		Denver International Film Festival
Sweden		Stockholm International Film Festival Stockholm International Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year in the second half of November...
United Kingdom		Leeds International Film Festival Leeds International Film Festival The Leeds International Film Festival is the largest film festival in England outside London. Held in November at various venues throughout Leeds, West Yorkshire it shows over 200 films from around the world, commercial and independent....
Canada		Calgary Underground Film Festival Calgary Underground Film Festival The Calgary Underground Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for 7 days. CUFF will celebrate its 8th anniversary April 11–17, 2011. CUFF is screened annually at The Plaza Theatre in Kensington-About the Festival:...

Home Release

A Horrible Way to Die was released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 and Blu-ray in the United States on September 6, 2011. Bonus materials include audio commentary with director/editor Adam Wingard

Adam Wingard

Adam Wingard is an American film director, editor, cinematographer, and writer whose films are known for their emphasis on horror, extreme violence, and psychedelic imagery. His dark and sometimes abrasive directing/editing style has been compared to directors such as David Lynch, Darren...

and writer/producer Simon Barrett and a Behind The Scenes of A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE featurette.