Who knew a rest stop men’s room could be so horrifically and grotesquely cosmic? Ryan Kwanten’s character, Wes, in Glorious certainly didn’t.
And according to the full trailer (we’ve only had a teaser before today), all life in existence is now on the line as he faces J.K. Simmons’ glory hole god in a less-than-sanitary public restroom.
I could say more, but I’ll just share the official synopsis for Glorious instead:
Spiraling out after a bad breakup, Wes (Ryan Kwanten) ends up at a remote rest stop miles away from civilization. His situation worsens after he finds himself locked inside the bathroom with a mysterious figure (J.K. Simmons) speaking to him from an adjacent stall. As Wes tries to escape, he finds himself an unwilling player in a situation bigger and more terrible than he could possibly imagine…
This batshit Lovecraftian tale (is “batshit” and “Lovecraftian” redundant?) was written by Todd Rigney, Joshua Hull, and David Ian McKendry. Rebekah McKendry (Bring It On: Cheer or Die) directed the movie, which was spawned onto the screen during the pandemic.
“There I was trapped at home, along with the rest of the world, eternally wearing sweatpants and feeling imprisoned, cathartic, and having the worst existential crisis of my life,” McKendry said in a statement. “And that’s when Glorious was created. Joshua and Dave’s script immediately resonated with everything I was going through: isolation, reflection, and a darkly sardonic perspective on our meager lives as we Zoomed into work and tried to make banana bread. I felt this script with every fiber of my sweatpants-laden body and knew I wanted to see the project brought to screen.”
All 80 minutes of Glorious will stream on Shudder on Thursday, August 18.
