VIDEO: Jake Gyllenhaal Plays an Art Critic Haunted by Killer Paintings in ‘Velvet Buzzsaw’s’ First Trailer

Jake Gyllenhaal must contend with a collection of killer paintings in the first trailer for “Velvet Buzzsaw,” Netflix’s darkly comedic horror-thriller written and directed by Dan Gilroy.

The Oscar-nominated actor and past Stern Show guest plays Morf Vandewalt, a stuffy, bespectacled art critic and collector whose world gets turned upside down after stumbling across a creepy collection of macabre works painted by an unknown artist who recently died. It isn’t until the pieces are acquired by L.A.’s richest and most pretentious art snobs that Morf learns the paintings were created by a criminally insane artist and are imbued with pure evil.

“There is some sort of power, some spirit—it’s connected to his art,” Gyllenhaal screams at one point (above) over a montage of paintings killing their owners. “Something truly god damned strange is going on.”

“Velvet Buzzsaw” also features John Malkovich, Toni Collette, Daveed Diggs, Zawe Ashton, Billy Magnussen, “Stranger Things” actress Natalia Dyer, and Rene Russo, the last of whom stared opposite Gyllenhaal in Gilroy’s critically adored 2014 film “Nightcrawler.”

It’s shaping up to be an interesting year for Gyllenhaal. In addition to this flick about evil paintings, he’s starring in July’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” as the bizarre Marvel supervillain Mysterio. Both roles are about as far as one could get from the punch-drunk boxer he played in “Southpaw,” the film he joined the Stern Show to promote back in 2015—see clips from Jake’s sit-down with Howard here.

“Velvet Buzzsaw” premieres Jan. 27 at Sundance Film Festival before debuting Feb. 1 Netflix.