Dumb, for All the Right Reasons: Two Strangers Risk it All to Save Kidnapped Girl in Lionsgate’s ‘Amber Alert’
Tyler James Williams and Hayden Panettiere may have found a scarier adversary than Walkers (Williams) and Ghostface (Panettiere).
In the trailer for Lionsgate’s Amber Alert, the two play a ride share driver and his passenger who must team up to save a little girl who has been abducted after they both receive (you guessed it) an Amber Alert notification.
The film’s official logline reads, “an ordinary rideshare becomes a high-stakes game of cat and mouse when Jaq (Hayden Panettiere) and Shane (Tyler James Williams) receive an alert of a child abduction on their phones. Quickly realizing they are behind a car that matches the description of the kidnappers, Jaq and Shane desperately race against time to save the child’s life.”
After trying (and failing) to get the police to take over the chase, the two feel they have no choice but to follow the kidnapper’s car to a deserted house.
“If we don’t find him, she’ll be gone forever,” Jac warns Shane. But, as a police officer points out, this is a dangerous mission they’re embarking on – the kidnapper is armed and they are not.
Once inside the home, they realize they’re not dealing with a mundane custody dispute but rather a twisted and disturbed individual who has kids in cages, surveillance equipment and creepy horror movie trappings in every room, and of course there are booby traps designed to make short work of any nosy intruders.
Both lead actors are familiar with horror tropes; Panettiere appeared in both Scream 4 and Scream IV, and fans of The Walking Dead no doubt remember Williams as Noah, a beloved character whose death came far too soon and was entirely preventable.
The movie was written and directed by Kerry Bellessa and produced by Summer Bellessa, the team behind 2022 sci-fi film Immanence. Bellessa and Joshua Oram co-wrote the script. Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Ducky Cash, Katie McClellan and Kevin Dunn also star.
Amber Alert bursts into theaters and will be available via On Demand beginning on September 27th.