In Warner Bros.’ upcoming thriller Don’t Worry Darling from director Olivia Wilde, most everything about the fictional company town of Victory seems perfectly normal from a distance — as do the handful of picture-perfect nuclear families who call the place home. But there’s something sinister about Victory that at least one of its Stepford-esque housewives is becoming aware of in Don’t Worry Darling’s new trailer.
Like all of Victory’s homemakers, Alice Chambers (Florence Pugh) adores her husband Jack (Harry Styles) and delights in almost every aspect of “traditional” suburban domestic femininity like cooking, cleaning, and always having a full face of makeup. Though Alice and the other women don’t exactly know what the men of the town do while they’re off working on the Victory Project, what they do know (because their husbands tell them) is that there’s nothing to worry about. Though Alice may want to believe Jack, Don’t Worry Darling makes clear that there’s some part of her that doesn’t, and she definitely has reason not to.
The idea that there’s some sort of unseen enemy they must rally against is what appears to keep many of Victory’s residents — its women in particular — committed to their marriages and the town. But the way Don’t Worry Darling’s new trailer focuses on Alice’s apparent psychological breakdown as she starts asking questions about Victory makes it more than seem like the danger’s much, much closer to home.
Don’t Worry Darling also stars Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, Kiki Layne, and Nick Kroll and hits theaters on September 23rd.
