‘American Animals’ Opening Scene: The Orchard Posts Four-Minute Clip

The Orchard has posted the first four minutes of Bart Layton’s American Animals on YouTube, paving the way for this weekend’s expansion of the art heist film. Last weekend, the film – a Sundance fest co-acquisition by The Orchard with MoviePass – took in a solid $140K from four locations in New York and L.A.

The four-minute clip efficiently sets up the movie’s premise – no, it’s got nothing, or very little, to do with animals of the four-legged variety, though violent nature illustrations intercut with the human action give a intriguing bite to the clip.

Starring American Horror Story‘s Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd and Udo Kier, Layton’s thriller tells the true story of four young friends from Kentucky who set out to brazenly steal valuable art books from a college library.

In the four-minute clip, we see Peters carefully applying the old-man make-up that his character uses to walk unrecognized with his pals into the library. Intercut with that are faux-documentary-style interviews with teachers and parents recalling the crime and its seemingly good-kid perpetrators.

Take a look at the clip and let us know what you think. Here’s a newly released poster for the film listing the expanded markets.