Johnny Depp Enters Horror in First ‘Day Drinker’ Teaser

The teaser introduces Depp as a mysterious guest aboard a private yacht where Cline’s character works as a bartender.

What begins as an encounter between the two quickly becomes something much more dangerous.

The official synopsis reveals that the bartender and Depp’s enigmatic passenger become entangled with a threatening criminal figure played by Penélope Cruz, while also discovering that they are connected in a way neither expected.

The trailer suggests considerably more is happening than the deliberately vague synopsis reveals.

There are weapons. There is blood. There are hints of revenge. And there is imagery that appears distinctly supernatural.

At one point, the teaser even raises the possibility that the story unfolding before us could be a ghost story.

Exactly what that means remains a mystery.

And that’s probably exactly how Lionsgate wants it.

One of the most intriguing things about the first teaser is how difficult Day Drinker is to neatly categorise.

On the surface, the official synopsis could describe a crime thriller: a bartender meets a stranger before the pair cross paths with a dangerous figure from the criminal underworld.

But Lionsgate is categorising the film as horror, and the teaser introduces imagery that suggests something stranger is going on.

That doesn’t mean we should start declaring Depp’s character a vampire, ghost or some other supernatural creature.

None of that has been confirmed.

Instead, the mystery surrounding his character may be one of the film’s biggest selling points.

The footage presents him as unpredictable and potentially dangerous, while moments involving apparently ghostly figures and other unsettling imagery suggest that Day Drinker could eventually move far beyond the crime story established by its synopsis.

For horror fans, that’s where things become particularly interesting.

Day Drinker also reunites Depp and Cruz for the fourth time.

The pair previously appeared together in Blow, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Murder on the Orient Express.

This time, however, their relationship appears considerably less friendly.

Cruz plays the criminal figure who becomes entangled with Depp and Cline’s characters, though Lionsgate is keeping many specifics of her role under wraps.

The wider cast includes Manu Ríos, Arón Piper, Juan Diego Botto and Anika Boyle.

Madelyn Cline, meanwhile, plays a central role as the private-yacht bartender whose encounter with Depp’s character seems to set the chain of events in motion.

Another interesting name attached to Day Drinker is Marc Webb.

Webb is best known for directing 500 Days of Summer and the two Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield, while his most recent feature was Disney’s live-action Snow White.

Day Drinker takes him somewhere rather different.

Zach Dean wrote the screenplay, with credits that include The Tomorrow War, Fast X, and The Gorge.

The production also has a serious action pedigree.

Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee — producers associated with the John Wick franchise — are among the producers of Day Drinker, alongside Adam Kolbrenner, Dean and Nathan Kahane.

That combination makes some of the teaser’s bursts of violent action considerably less surprising.

Perhaps the smartest thing about this first teaser is what it doesn’t explain.

We know there’s a bartender.

We know there’s a mysterious passenger.

We know Penélope Cruz is playing a dangerous criminal figure.

And we know things apparently become extremely violent.

But the supernatural element remains tantalisingly unclear.

Rather than explaining exactly what’s happening, the teaser throws out enough strange imagery to make audiences question what kind of film they’re actually watching.

Crime thriller?

Revenge movie?

Ghost story?

Or some combination of all three?

For now, Lionsgate isn’t giving away the answer.

Day Drinker is currently scheduled to open in US cinemas on March 26, 2027.

With Lionsgate officially positioning the movie as horror and the first teaser leaning heavily into mystery, violence and apparent supernatural imagery, it’s now firmly on the All Horror Movies radar.

The biggest question may be exactly who — or what — Johnny Depp’s mysterious passenger really is.

For the moment, we’ll have to keep drinking in the clues.