Altered Innocence Strikes North America Deal With Charades For Queer Gothic Romance ‘No Rest For The Wicked’

September 28, 2026 7:29am

EXCLUSIVE: Altered Innocence has acquired all North American rights to Kasper Kalle’s queer gothic romance No Rest For The Wicked.

The film, which world-premiered in Competition at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival won the Cheval Noir Award for Best Director and the Cheval Noir Award for Best Actor (Pilou Asbæk). It will continue its festival run ahead of a theatrical release in 2027.

Set against the windswept landscapes of the Faroe Islands in 1862, the movie follows Baldur (Egor Venned), “a young fisherman whose isolated life is transformed by the arrival of Helge (Pilou Asbæk), a rugged Danish whaler. As a forbidden attraction grows between the two men, tragedy unleashes supernatural forces upon their deeply religious community. Baldur and Helge’s passion gives rise to a haunting tale of love that refuses to die”

The movie is inspired by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs’ 1885 short story Manor, an early work of queer Gothic literature published more than a decade before Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The deal was negotiated between Frank Jaffe from Altered Innocence and Hélène Espeisse from Charades.

Written by Rasmus Birch and directed by Kasper Kalle, the movie stars Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones), Egor Venned, Sofia Nolsøe Mikkelsen, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson and Kjartan Hansen. Pic film was produced by Lars Bredo Rahbek for SF Studios, with Faroese Outlier Projects (Faroe Islands) and Truenorth (Iceland) co-producing; with support from the Danish Film Institute and the Faroese Film Institute.

“I’ve always had a huge love for queer horror, so it’s especially exciting to get to release one that operates at this level,” said Altered Innocence founder Frank Jaffe. “No Rest For The Wicked is a stunning, sexy and deeply romantic gothic tale that I can’t wait for fans to sink their teeth into!”