EXCLUSIVE: Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr., and Xander Berkeley have been tapped as the leads in The Dark & The Wicked, a horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino. It follows two siblings who are summoned back to the family farm to await the inevitability of their father’s death. What initially appears to be a timeless ritual of loss and remembrance turns out to be something very different.

Lynn Andrews, Julie Oliver-Touchstone, Tom Nowicki, and Ella Ballentine co-star in the film which is shooting in Texas.

The pic marks Bertino’s third feature following his debut pic The Strangers, with Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, and The Monster, starring Zoe Kazan, which was released by A24 last year. He’s repped by UTA and Grandview.

Adrienne Biddle and Bertino are producing The Dark & The Wicked under their Unbroken Pictures banner along with Sonny Mallhi and Kevin Matusow for The Traveling Picture Show Company. Executive Producers are Mike Scannell, TPSC’s Carissa Buffel and Steven Chester Prince, Inwood Road Films’ John Short and James Short, Brian Dalton, and Milan Chakraborty.

Ireland most recently starred alongside Jim Gaffigan in Light from Light, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and appeared in 2018’s Sundance award-winning film, The Miseducation of Cameron Post. She also co-stars in the outcoming FX series Y: The Last Man.

Abbott Jr. starred in A24’s The Death of Dick Long directed by Daniel Scheinert, which also had its premiere at Sundance this year. Other credits include the Matthew McConaughey-starrer, Mud, and Loving with Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton. Berkeley, who recurred on Fox’s 24 and AMC’s The Walking Dead, recently appeared in The Wall of Mexico, which debuted at SXSW.

Untitled Entertainment reps all three leads. Ireland is also repped by ICM.