‘Rest In Peace’ : Angus Cloud Receives Sundance Tribute at Opening Night ‘Freaky Tales’ Premiere

The raucous Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Freaky Tales” included one somber moment as the cast of the ode to all things Oakland paused to acknowledge their late co-star Angus Cloud.

“Rest In Peace to Angus,” Jay Ellis, who plays basketball star Sleepy Floyd in the film, said. “He gave such a great performance.”

Cloud, best known for his work as Fezco, a drug dealer with a heart of gold, in HBO’s “Euphoria,” died in 2023 of an accidental drug overdose. He was 25. “Freaky Tales” is one of Cloud’s final films; he plays a burglar in a smaller supporting role. Ellis noted that Cloud “was there to have so much fun” during shooting of the film’s climactic action sequence — a blood-drenched finale that can’t be spoiled here.

“Freaky Tales” is set in the Bay Area in 1987 over the course of a single day. In the movie the lives of a depressed hitman, a group of punk rock fans, a pair of aspiring hip-hop artists and an NBA phenom collide in unexpected ways.

There’s also a buzzy cameo from an Oscar-winning actor with Oakland ties.

“Freak Tales” was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the team behind “Half Nelson,” “Mississippi Grind” and “Captain Marvel.” The film is one of several looking for distribution and the -

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audience at Sundance was filled with executives from Netflix, Sony Pictures Classics and Neon.

Fleck said that the movie was loosely inspired by his childhood in Oakland and some of the local legends he observed such as Floyd and rapper Too $hort. “This is sort of my 12 year old fantasy of a movie,” he told the packed house at Sundance’s Eccles Theater on Thursday night.

“No one else was going to make this movie,” he added. “I just had to make it to see it…and of course I dragged Anna along with me for the journey.”

In addition to Ellis and Cloud, the cast of “Freaky Tales” includes Pedro Pascal, Normani Kordei Hamilton, Dominique Thorne and Ben Mendelsohn. “Freaky Tales” is dedicated to Cloud’s memory, a tribute that came during the film’s end credits.

Sundance’s opening day has featured several buzzy premieres, including the debuts of the documentaries “Girls State” and “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” as well as “Veni Vidi Vici,” a scabrous look at the ultra-wealthy.

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