“The Town That Takes” Brings the Roanoke Mystery to Theaters This July

The-Town-That-TakesA supernatural horror thriller built around one of America’s oldest unsolved mysteries is heading to theaters next month.

Atlas Distribution Company picked up festival favorite “The Town That Takes” and will release it in select theaters across the top 20 North American markets starting July 10. The film takes the only clue left behind after the Lost Colony of Roanoke vanished in 1590, a single carved word, CROATOAN, and imagines a terrifying answer.

Director Britt Bankhead, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Blaze, stars alongside Miles Mussenden (Doom Patrol), Mike Markoff (Hit Man), and Grace Patterson (Slotherhouse). The story follows Dean Richardson, a troubled Army vet trying to reconnect with his estranged 12-year-old son after his ex-wife’s death. When they stop in a remote town haunted by whispers of Croatoan, a brutal murder puts Dean in the spotlight and his son suddenly disappears.

What starts as a murder investigation turns into something far more sinister as unexplained deaths and impossible encounters pile up across the region.

“Britt Bankhead took one of the oldest unsolved mysteries in American history and built a supernatural thriller that gets under your skin,” said Harmon Kaslow, President of Atlas Distribution.

For indie horror filmmakers, this is another example of festival buzz translating into theatrical distribution, proof the theatrical market for genre films remains alive.

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