The Western has quietly become one of the more adventurous spaces in American film, mostly because nobody really expects it to be a major box office force anymore. That’s opened the door for filmmakers to use the genre for darker, stranger, and more personal stories, and we’ve seen plenty of that over the past several years.

A Prayer for the Dying fits comfortably into that lane. The film marks the feature debut of writer-director Dara Van Dusen, stars John C. Reilly in a rare fully dramatic role, and puts Johnny Flynn front and center just as he's set to reach a much bigger audience as the new Lucius Malfoy in HBO's Harry Potter series. After premiering at Berlinale in February, where it picked up a Best First Feature nomination, the film is now officially in theaters as of Oct. 9.