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I\u2019m very excited about this week\u2019s BEHIND THE LENS and my special guest, director KEVIN LEWIS. \u00a0This marks Kevin\u2019s third appearance on #BTLRadioShow, following the brilliantly bonkers WILLY\u2019S WONDERLAND and PIG HILL.\u00a0 Still, this time we\u2019re talking about his new film MISDIRECTION, which, in many respects, is a big departure from the horror films you\u2019ve come to know and love from Kevin.<\/p>\n
Set over one long night in a glass-walled modern house, MISDIRECTION follows a couple driven to carry out a series of high-end heists to pay off a dangerous mob debt. When their latest break-in \u2014 targeting a prominent defense attorney \u2014 spirals out of control, the pair find themselves caught in a web of secrets, deception, and deadly consequences.<\/p>\n
A glasshouse should offer clarity, but in MISDIRECTION, it does the opposite \u2014 reflecting, refracting, and distorting truth until every face becomes suspect. \u00a0With a script by Lacy McClory, Kevin sets this sleek neo-noir thriller inside a space that promises transparency, then weaponizes it, turning glass, marble, and open space into instruments of paranoia over the course of one long, unforgiving night as Sara and Jason are planning that one final heist before leaving their life of crime behind. Everything goes smoothly until things don\u2019t. \u00a0Their target, wealthy lawyer David Blume, returns home unexpectedly and stops their escape in its tracks. \u00a0But Blume is neither the easy mark they thought him to be nor the person they thought he was; but then, neither are Sara and Jason.<\/p>\n
Directed by Kevin Lewis and written by Lacy McClory, MISDIRECTION stars Frank Grillo, Olga Kurylenko, and Oliver Trevana.<\/p>\n
MISDIRECTION is a completely new style for Kevin. \u00a0It\u2019s a bold, different work in his filmography. \u00a0So used to seeing horror films from him, he dazzles with this neo-noirish home-invasion crime thriller, which begs the question, how does directing a contained non-horror film like MISDIRECTION differ from multi-location films like “Pig Hill” and “Willy’s Wonderland”?<\/p>\n
As you\u2019ll hear, Kevin frames the difference as being driven entirely by what each script demands, not by genre labels like \u201chorror\u201d vs \u201cnon-horror,\u201d but you can see and hear clear contrasts in how he talks about them.<\/p>\n
For MISDIRECTION (contained, non-horror neo-noir thriller), it\u2019s about being trapped in one house where the house is a character.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cnon-horror\u201d and more because it demands intimate, performance-driven, one-environment suspense, versus the bigger, location-driven, concept-y mechanics of \u201cPig Hill\u201d and \u201cWilly\u2019s Wonderland\u201d. \u00a0Each film\u2019s geography dictates his directing muscles and he makes perfect use of each of them with MISDIRECTION.<\/p>\n
With Willy\u2019s, you\u2019re trapped in a pizza fun land for kids; with MISDIRECTION you\u2019re trapped in this glass house with three people who might be lying to you. The locations are characters, but the way they create tension is completely different.<\/p>\n
The deeper we get into MISDIRECTION, the more emotionally complex it becomes, and Kevin dives into how performance and action influenced the emotional tonal bandwidth as he leans on performance first, and action second to create that emotional complexity; the fights are really extensions of what the actors are already playing.\u00a0 \u00a0With performance driving the tone, Kevin talks about the film as \u201cprimal\u201d and built on jealousy, anger, and dark emotions.<\/p>\n
Working with longtime editor Ryan Liebert, Lewis starts MISDIRECTION as a slow burn, then tightens the screws by cutting from wide, glass-walled compositions into suffocating close-ups and ticking-clock inserts, so the tension creeps up until the house feels as claustrophobic as any horror set.<\/p>\n
On his first collaboration with DP Matti Eerikainen, a favorite DP of Renny Harlin, Kevin found a partner who wasn\u2019t just chasing a cool look but was moved by the script\u2019s emotional core, shaping MISDIRECTION\u2019s handheld, anamorphic, glass-and-shadows aesthetic around the characters\u2019 inner lives.<\/p>\n
Every craft choice is in service of jealousy, secrets, and morally gray areas: the glass house promises transparency but hides pockets of darkness; handheld anamorphic keeps us trapped in real time with people who may be lying; Olga Kurylenko\u2019s stripped-down look as Sara removes any glamour barrier between the audience and Sara\u2019s guilt; and even Bob, her battered stuffed dog, becomes a visual reminder of how love, hurt, and loyalty can coexist in the same fragile object.<\/p>\n
MISDIRECTION is available on digital on February 10, 2026, from Cineverse.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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