Johnny Flynn Western Thriller 'A Prayer for the Dying' Gets Exclusive Sneak Peek Before October Release

A frontier town is stricken with the plague in the new Western movie A Prayer for the Dying. Johnny Flynn and John C. Reilly star in the movie, which is set to premiere in theaters next month. Before it does, Collider is proud to exclusively present one of the film's more surreal moments as a sneak preview. The film takes place in the Wisconsin town of Friendship in the 1870s. Largely populated by Scandinavian immigrants, the town is a peaceful place until residents start dying from diphtheria.

The town's doctor (Reilly, Chicago) has bad news: the town will need to be completely quarantined, with nobody entering or leaving. The responsibility of enforcing this falls to Jacob Hansen (Flynn, MobLand), the town's priest, undertaker, and sheriff. However, as a wildfire begins to ravage the countryside, the stricken residents of Friendship may have no choice but to flee.

In our exclusive sneak peek, a new group has come to town: a travelling circus and medicine show. However, there's something off about this band of nomads: the circus animals seem to be entirely fake. The "zebra" is a painted horse, the "elephant" is a Trojan Horse-like contraption, and the rest of the animals are just performers in costume. Professor Sylvester McCoffer (Tadhg Murphy, The Running Man), the man at the head of the caravan, wants passage for his motley crew, but Hansen won't even let them through the territory after being offered a hefty bribe, taking the Professor by the throat. Will the town of Friendship endure these dual disasters? You'll have to hit your local theater on October 9, when A Prayer for the Dying makes its debut.

Who Are the Creatives Behind 'A Prayer for the Dying'?

The film is based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Stewart O'Nan (Snow Angels). It is directed by Dara Van Dusen, making her feature directorial debut; she also penned the script with O'Nan. In addition to Flynn and Reilly, the movie also stars Kristine Kujath Thorp (Sick of Myself), Gustav Lindh (The Northman), Hilton Pelser (Devil's Peak), and Andrew Whipp (Outlander). Despite its Wisconsin setting, it was filmed on location in Slovakia.