Considering the talent involved, John Hillcoat’s (Lawless) Triple 9 is a film people have heard very little about thus far. Perhaps it’s a result of the film’s scheduling. Traditionally, the month of February – long after the Hollywood awards season hoopla has resided – is when studios tend to dump the less buzz worthy projects (hence “dump month”) in their line-up. And with Triple 9 eyeing a February 19th release date, the film has sort of been stashed away behind a bevy of awards contenders, prestige pictures, and Hollywood blockbusters set to be released in the months before it. Still, with a cast consisting of Woody Harrelson (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2), Casey Affleck (Interstellar), Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs), Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Martian), Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Aaron Paul (Exodus: Gods and Kings), Norman Reedus (TV’s The Walking Dead), Gal Gadot (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), and Teresa Palmer (Knight of Cups) it’s hard to believe the red band trailer for the film won’t at least raise some eyebrows.

While the trailer for Triple 9 is short on any sort of hint of a plot, it does come loaded with gritty and violent imagery, and reveals to us a world fraught with violence.

Directed by Hillcoat – who has an admirable if overlooked body of work which includes The Proposition, The Road, and the aforementioned Lawless – Triple 9 is a crime thriller which focuses on Affleck as a rookie cop who becomes the pawn of a group of corrupt cops who set him up in their plans to pull off a heist. Left for dead, the rook instead survives the incident and decides to bring justice to those involved. Being released by Open Road Films, Triple 9 could be one of those February gems that come along every year and bring some level of balance to the otherwise bleak movie months of the early year.