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August 16, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — The makers of Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer have released the first trailer of the riveting drama set to open in theaters on October 12.

Completed in 2015, the film depicts the arrest and trial of notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who killed newborns who survived abortion in his filthy, blood-splattered clinic by snipping their spinal cords with scissors, and who preserved the feet of his tiny victims in jars.

According to the 280-page grand jury report, Gosnell allegedly killed hundreds of infants by this method in his “house of horrors,” where witnesses described baby abortion survivors “swimming” in toilets “to get out.”

Gosnell, 77, was sent to prison for life five years ago on three first-degree murder convictions for killing babies, and on a conviction of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 41-year-old mother.

Directed by Justified actor Nick Searcy, the movie stars Dean Cain, of Lois and Clark fame, as the detective who pursues Gosnell, and Earl Billings as the abortionist.

It was created and produced by husband-and-wife team Phelim McAllen and Ann McElhinney, who also wrote a book on the abortionist, and Magdalena Segieda.

The movie is rated PG-13 despite the horrific subject matter, because filmmakers took pains to avoid being too explicit, executive producer John Sullivan told Hollywood Reporter in June.

“We were very careful not to make it too graphic. Gosnell saving feet of infants in jars as trophies plays a role, and you’ll see him take scissors out, but that part plays out as theater of the mind.”

The drama also probes how Gosnell got away with murder allegedly for years, and it incriminates a media that did not investigate complaints against Gosnell — and that for weeks ignored his shocking 2013 trial — as well as government bureaucrats who looked the other way, and the court system.

Indeed, Judge Jeffrey Minehart sued for defamation in June 2017 to block the release of the film, objecting to his portrayal as part of “Philadelphia's liberal corrupt government.”

With the lawsuit settled in June, the producers obtained a distribution deal with GVN Releasing to release Gosnell in 750 theatres in October.

That’s not the only obstacle the Gosnell movie makers faced.

When Kickstarter allegedly disallowed a fundraising campaign, they moved to IndieGoGo, raising the film’s shoestring budget in a record-breaking campaign in which nearly 30,000 people contributed $2.3 million in 45 days.In December 2016, the filmmakers alleged that multiple studios and distributors had rejected the movie because it was “too controversial.”

“I’ve been on hard films before, but this one was particularly difficult,” Sullivan told the Hollywood Reporter.

“Hollywood is afraid of this content. It's a true story the media tried to ignore from the very beginning, so I wasn’t surprised to see Hollywood ignore us.”

That was echoed by McElhinney, who has admitted elsewhere working on the Gosnell book and film “brought me back to prayer” after she fell away from her childhood Catholic faith.

“It’s a story that needs to be told fairly and we’ve done just that,” she told Hollywood Reporter.

“The cover-up stops here.”

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