Film Preview: Dead Man’s Wire (2025)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(November 2, 2025) Original
(January 4, 2026) New Posters (#2-#3)

Release Date:

January 9, 2026

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “On February 8, 1977, Tony Kiritsis entered the office of Richard Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun wired with a “dead man’s wire” from the trigger to Tony’s own neck.”

Poster Rating: C / C+ / C

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Review: (#1, C) Pulling the film’s antihero out from a still is poorly handled with the cut around the head feeling a bit too smooth with an empty backdrop to limit the viewer’s interest in the design itself.

(#2, C+) A standard design putting three of your primary characters into the words on the design. It limits the wasted space but not terribly well as the inserts are minimalistic. (#2, C) This returns to the errors of the first and gives the viewer nothing genuinely intriguing to look at.

Trailer Rating: C+

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Review: (#1, C+) In some ways, this concept reminds one of Dog Day Afternoon without a charismatic lead performance. The trailer mostly fails to convey a sense of camaraderie with the anti hero. Without creating a measure of sympathy with the protagonist, it’s impossible to become engaged with the material. While that is its biggest drawback, the film features a few interesting moments that might suggest a better film than what we’re initially presented.

Oscar Prospects:

Gus Van Sant should always be considered an Oscar contender but the film’s failure to break out after Venice suggests that it’s not likely to be a contender. We’ll have to see if the stated release date will be it or if there will be an Oscar-qualifying run since it doesn’t currently show a 2025 release date. That might be the strongest sign yet that it will be forgotten.