IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Jordan Scott‘s Cracks, a somewhat bent and frenzied thriller staring Eva Green, Juno Temple, Imogen Poots and Maria Valverde. I talked with a couple of acqusitions guys about Cracks during the Toronto Film festival. They were chortling and snorting and going “whooo!” Lots of merriment and not much belief that it was any kind of “audience” film. Which is okay with me.

Variety‘s Todd McCarthy called Cracks “a drear account of adolescent reveries gone south [that] plays like a cross between Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, shot through with a nasty Lord of the Flies streak.

“Debuting feature director Jordan Scott does a reasonable job of conjuring up a hothouse atmosphere in a depressing English boarding school circa 1934, but the psychological and latent erotic aspects remain largely undeveloped. Eva Green’s star turn in an exotic role will be enough to win the film a berth in most markets, but theatrical flight looks to be short, with better results in ancillary.”