The First Trailer For Kill Your Friends Is an Inside Look at the Bloody Hell of the 90s Britpop Music Scene

Nicholas Hoult gives American Psycho a run for its money in this satirical British crime thriller.

Ellen Killoran

Aug 25, 2015

The new trailer for Kill Your Friends promises a murderously satirical take on the drug-fueled music industry scene of 1990’s London. Based on the John Nivens novel of the same name, Kill Your Friends is helmed by Owen Harris and stars Nicholas Hoult as Stephen Stelfox, a shark-like A&R executive who eats his competition for breakfast.

“Welcome to the music industry,” Hoult says in voiceover in the trailer. “One thing matters in this racket: Big. Hit. Records…How far are you willing to go?”

Quite far. Stelfox is your quintessential stop-at-nothing climber, with an insatiable appetite for power that he feeds with copious amounts of cocaine and sex. We meet him at the peak of the Britpop music scene, but as his Stelfox’s next big hit eludes him, his thirst for success becomes deadly.

It’s been a big year for Hoult, who is all grown up since his About A Boy feature debut. With Mad Max: Fury Road and the X-Men franchise on his resume, Hoult is already on his way to A-list status. His turn as the sociopathic Stelfox will no doubt draw comparisons to Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman: