There’s something viscerally compelling about a premise built on a ticking clock — and Neglected hopes to crank that tension to the breaking point. Josh Duhamel stars as Detective Shaw, who on the very first day of his retirement is called back to the precinct when a blood-soaked teenager named AJ, played by Dylan Sprouse, walks in and surrenders — with a chilling ultimatum: he has buried Shaw’s teenage son alive, and the oxygen is running out.
What follows is a relentless cat-and-mouse psychological thriller from writer-director David Lipper (co-writer Adam G. Levine), who keeps the screws tightening as Shaw is forced to reopen a trail of grisly cold-case murders while simultaneously managing a precinct on the verge of mutiny. The hook is sharp: AJ didn’t choose Shaw at random, and the investigation gradually uncovers a devastating personal truth buried beneath the procedural surface.
Sprouse, who has been steadily carving out darker territory in his post-Riverdale career, brings an unsettling calm to AJ — a suspect who doesn’t just resist interrogation, he thrives on it, weaponizing psychological warfare with the patience of someone who has planned every move. Duhamel anchors the film’s emotional core as a father and detective whose professional cool is being systematically dismantled.
Inaugural Entertainment — a full-service theatrical distribution company focused on connecting compelling stories with audiences across theatrical, PVOD, TVOD, and global platforms — is releasing Neglected exclusively in theaters on May 8, 2026.
The trailer is already generating strong buzz among thriller fans, and the premise lands squarely in the genre sweet spot: equal parts procedural and psychological horror, with a personal stakes angle that elevates it beyond a standard serial killer cat-and-mouse.
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- Neglected (2026) — Film still. Courtesy of Inaugural Entertainment.
Neglected opens only in theaters May 8, 2026.
