The first trailer for A24’s queer BDSM romance Pillion has landed, and it’s equal parts raunchy and hilarious.
Directed by Harry Lighton, in his feature debut, the film follows Colin, a “weedy wallflower letting life pass him by,” and Ray, the “impossibly handsome leader of a motorbike club” he becomes the submissive to.
Henry Melling, known for his performance as Dudley Dursley in that wizarding franchise and Harry Baltic in The Queen’s Gambit, stars as Colin, while Ray is played by the True Blood and Big Little Lies icon Alexander Skarsgård.
Pillion’s official synopsis reads: “Ray uproots Colin from his dreary suburban life, introducing him to a community of kinky, queer bikers and taking all sorts of virginities along the way.
“But as Colin steps deeper into Ray’s world of rules and mysteries, he begins to question whether the life of a 24/7 submissive is for him. Has he found his calling, or simply swapped one form of suffocation for another?”
In the first trailer, set to Peggy March’s ‘I Will Follow Him’, Colin is caught off guard when Ray approaches him in a bar, setting the stage for their wild sub-dom dynamic.
Across a series of chaotic and hilarious scenes, Ray – serving a bit of Eric Northman! – refuses to let Colin sit beside him at dinner (saving the seat instead for his Rottweiler), Colin squeals in agony during a raucous wrestling match, and he’s even put to work running errands for Ray.
It culminates in a hilariously awkward moment when Ray instructs Colin to buy a butt plug because he’s “too tight,” prompting Colin to stammer: “Yeah, yeah, erm… lovely. That sounds like a plan… Bye then.”
Pillion premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay and the Palm Dog, and earned nominations for both the Caméra d’Or and Queer Palm.
PILLION. Tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/As4ISzUT2N
— A24 (@A24) September 30, 2025
Since then, it has garnered universal acclaim, holding a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the leads’ performances, Lighton’s bold direction and its unexpectedly tender love story.
Based on the novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, Pillion also stars Douglas Hodge as Pete, Lesley Sharp as Peggy, Anthony Welsh as Darren and Scissor Sisters star Jake Shears as Kevin, another sub.
It will be released theatrically in the UK by Picturehouse on 28 November.
Watch the first Pillion trailer here or below.
