First Look At Lars Von Trier’s Serial Killer Pic ‘The House That Jack Built’

It’s not like they’ve ever actually gone away from pop culture — there are still countless procedurals littering the network airwaves — but serial killers are once more grabbing the imagination thanks to David Fincher’s gripping “Mindhunter,” a show that seems familiar on the surface, but really does more than almost anything so far to get under the grubby skin of those who take lives. But if you think that Fincher and his team put together something truly disturbing, we imagine Lars Von Trier is about to top it.

The Danish enfant terrible, Lars von Trier, recently accused, albeit semi-obliquely, of sexual harassment by his “Dancer In The Dark” star Björk, has been quiet since “Nymphomaniac” was released in 2014, but he’ll return to theaters in 2018 with “The House That Jack Built,” which looks to do for the life of a murderer what that earlier film did for the sexuality of a woman.

READ MORE: Björk Further Details “Paralyzing” Sexual Harassment By Lars Von Trier

Starring Matt Dillon as the title character, the film will follow him over 12 years as it shows his passage to becoming a serial killer, with Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, “Downton Abbey” actor Ed Speleers, “The Killing” star Sofie Grabol, Riley Keough and “Oldboy” actor Yu Ji-tae also in the cast. And with the film reportedly nearing completion for a premiere next year, its Facebook page has released a first look at the movie, featuring Dillon looking decidedly creepy behind some plastic sheeting.

Von Trier’s always been a provocative filmmaker (he hopes to premiere the movie at Cannes although he’s still supposedly persona non grata there), but we wonder whether the recent Bjork accusations have seen von Trier find himself over a line that it’s difficult for him to recover from. It’ll be interesting to see how the response to his return, and the movie, plays out over the next year: IFC Films will release “The House That Jack Built” sometime in 2018.