US-based Italian director Mitzi Peirone's comic horror thriller Saint Clare, starring Bella Thorne, will be the lung-opener of the Taormina Film Festival's 70th edition.

The film follows horror film Braid (2018), which was Peirone's debut.

Set in a small town, the synopsis of Saint Clare reads, "a solitary young woman is haunted by voices that lead her to assassinate ill intended people and get away with it, until her last kill sucks her down a rabbit hole riddled with corruption, trafficking and visions from the beyond."

The film is based on US author Don Roff's novel Clare at Sixteen.

Peirone has co-written the script with the American Psycho writer Guinevere Turner. Besides Thorne, who plays the lead, the film also stars Ryan Philippe, Rebecca DeMornay, Frank Whaley, and Bart Johnson.

The film's technical crew includes music composers Zola Jesus and Philip Klein, cinematographer Luka Bazeli, and editor Patrick Sanchez Smith.

Saint Clare will have its world premiere on July 13 at the Taormina Festival which begins from July 12 and goes on till July 19.