Freestyle has picked up U.S. distribution rights to the mystery thriller The Sisterhood of Night, billed as a modern take on the Salem witch trials centered on a group of teenage girls in a small New York town.

The film follows the town’s suspicions when the girls form The Sisterhood of Night, a society that congregates in the woods at night. When one girl says she’s the victim of the Sisterhood’s activities, the town begins a campaign of investigation and persecution against the group.

Kal Penn stars with The Chronicles of Narnia’s Georgie Henley, Breaking Bad’s Laura Fraser and Moonrise Kingdom’s Kara Hayward.

The film is Caryn Waechter’s feature directorial debut and the writing debut of Marilyn Fu, who won an award for the script at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. It’s adapted from a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Steven Millhauser.

Cine Mosaic’s Lydia Dean Pilcher (The Namesake) and Evenstar’s Elizabeth Cuthrell (Meek’s Cutoff) produced, with David Urrutia, Steven Tuttleman and GatalaFilm’s Taha Altayli executive producing. The filmmakers initially raised over $135,000 for the project through a Kickstarter campaign in 2012.

Freestyle will set a theatrical and VOD day-and-date release for later this year.

“The Sisterhood of Night is a bold independent film that we are excited to distribute. The story spotlights today’s social media culture that plays on gossip and some of the unwanted consequences it can cause,” Freestyle president Mark Borde said in a statement.

Bart Walker and Jessica Lacy of ICM negotiated the deal on the filmmakers’ behalf with Chris Charalambous on behalf of Freestyle. K5 handled the international rights at AFM in 2014.

Freestyle’s releases include Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles, the 2006 Edward Norton mystery-drama The Illusionist and recently the Christian film God’s Not Dead.
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“The Sisterhood of Night”

MPAA rating: NR.