Horror Industry News — Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Warner Bros. has acquired Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me for a screen adaptation; Temple Hill, Sunswept Entertainment and Langley Park are producing, with Kevin McCormick on his first announced studio project.

Prime Video Spain has greenlit a Zeta sequel and Mercedes Ron’s Dímelo 3 as part of its 2027 local originals slate. The lineup also adds the true-crime series Mataleón and the psychological thriller Cuando solo quedemos nosotros, signaling continued Spanish-language genre investment.

Sphere Entertainment is locking its next immersive movie bet on The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with the 2027 experience assembled through a deal involving Primary Wave Music and 20th Century Studios. The move follows Oz’s $400 million-plus sales run and extends Jim Dolan’s strategy of turning classic IP into high-ticket, tech-driven venue events.

Creator-led horror is proving theatrical upside at scale, with Obsession at $260 million worldwide and Backrooms at $262 million giving YouTube and the wider creator economy a new box-office blueprint. The run is already pulling studios back to the table, while Creator Camp’s $100,000 horror-comedy Two Sleepy People sold Europe to mk2 after a guerrilla rollout.

Romania’s 30% cash rebate, capped at €10m per project, keeps pulling in international production, with Mandalay/Columbia’s Archangel, the UK thriller Bedlam, and Canal+ series Lost Paradise all tapping the scheme. The ministry is also pushing an extension through 2029 for financing agreements and 2031 for payments, widening the runway for inbound shoots.

Netflix has a 106-minute original sci-fi thriller in the platform's all-time top 10; the result spotlights how compact genre originals are still punching above their weight on streaming.

Fangoria Studios and Panick Studios are adapting folk-horror comic Black Diamond into a feature, with Ernest Dickerson boarding to direct and executive produce. Brendan Columbus is writing from his cult-comic IP about a ski trip turned cult nightmare.

Ridley Scott’s push to reclaim Alien is complicating 20th Century’s hunt for a Romulus sequel director after Fede Álvarez exited pre-production and Sebastián Vanicek talks collapsed. The last film grossed $350 million worldwide on an $80 million budget, keeping the sequel high-priority.

Cineverse pushed Return to Silent Hill onto Hulu on June 12; the psychological horror sequel hit Hulu’s Top 15 in its debut weekend. Christophe Gans returns to the franchise with Jeremy Irvine and Hannah Emily Anderson starring, while Davis Films and Ashland Hill Media Finance financed the feature.

Lionsgate is developing Christopher Golden’s Carry Me To My Grave as a film with Francis Lawrence attached to direct; the 1956-set vampire horror-thriller follows a soldier carrying his mother’s body across the country as ancient things rise from the ground.

Obsession has blown past 1,000 crore worldwide on a 7 crore budget and is now pulling 70 crore in India alone. The horror hit has vaulted into the top tier of imported horror grosses in India, with The Conjuring: The Last Rites still ahead at 82 crore.

Focus Features drops the trailer for Hot Spot ahead of an Aug. 21, 2026 domestic theatrical bow; Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s AI-dystopia sci-fi thriller is an official Polish-Greek co-production starring Noomi Rapace and Andrzej Konopka. The trailer also tees up Focus’s 2026 genre slate, including Robert Eggers’ Werwulf and Curry Barker’s Obsession.

Inevitable Studios is launching its first feature with Grace, a deaf-led crime thriller co-written by and starring Millicent Simmonds. Production is set to kick off early next year, with Ari Costa and Eren Celeboglu directing and producing alongside the Inevitable Foundation-backed banner.

Grace Gummer boards Apple TV’s untitled thriller series alongside Dakota Fanning and Daryl McCormack. Alex Cary created the series, which centers on an undercover Treasury agent inside a corrupt global conglomerate; Kari Skogland directs and Sony Pictures Television is behind the project.

IDW Dark and Paramount are extending Smile and A Quiet Place into new limited comic-book tales, deepening franchise monetization across publishing. The move keeps both horror brands active between screen installments and reinforces Paramount’s IP flywheel.

Amazon MGM Studios has picked up Shots! Shots! Shots!, a Jason Momoa action-comedy.

Netflix’s 8-part crime thriller has broken out globally, giving the streamer a fresh international hit and another proof point for serialized genre fare outside the U.S.

Four-year Unreal Engine 5 build from Mad Head Games lands 8 Oct. on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC; Saber Interactive publishes, Clive Barker stays directly involved, and Doug Bradley returns as Pinhead.

Netflix is mounting one-year anniversary screenings for 'KPop Demon Hunters' across the U.S. and 15-plus overseas territories as the film logs 52 weeks in the global top 10 and nears 640 million cumulative views.

Blumhouse Games is publishing Perfect Garbage’s Grave Seasons, a horror-farming sim built around murder mystery, romanceable killers and cozy-life mechanics. The team is framing the title as a deliberate genre mash aimed at both farming-sim players and horror fans.

Curious Gremlin and Take a Trip Media are adapting Ava Reid’s gothic novel Lady Macbeth, with Kari Skogland set to direct and Emma Donoghue on script duty. The project keeps a dark, feminist genre tilt as it moves into development.

Brainstorm Media sets Big Baby for VOD on August 7, following its Screamfest LA world premiere; Spider One’s meta slasher stars Brandon Scott and Krsy Fox, with Cher on exec duty.

LD Entertainment lines up a 2027 U.S. release on Andrew Scott's Elsinore as Studiocanal books a broad Cannes market sales package; Danny Boyle's Ink and several other slate titles also moved internationally.

Sarah Michelle Gellar boards THUD as the Grim Reaper; Radio Silence produces Mali Elfman's supernatural romance about a meet-cute between Death and the Devil.

Evil Dead Wrath is locked as a 1972 prequel to The Evil Dead; Robert Tapert says Francis Galluppi is chasing a warm, Ektachrome-era look and a nastier coming-of-age angle ahead of the April 7, 2028 theatrical slot.

Breaking Glass Pictures puts Twisted Love on Amazon Prime now, with additional digital rollouts queued in the coming weeks; Akasha Williams' supernatural-tinged psychological thriller turns a black-magic love triangle into a murder spree.

KPop Demon Hunters has lost its crown, Daredevil is being called a flop, and Netflix may abandon theaters after all, according to the Entertainment Strategy Guy’s latest industry analysis.

Maternal Instinct took Netflix’s U.S. movie crown after four days on the service and is sitting at No. 3 globally, another chart win for the streamer’s true-crime lane. Jessica Dimmock directs the 96-minute doc on Taylor Parker, pushing Jennifer Lopez’s Office Romance off the top slot.

Amazon Prime Video has renewed One Night in Idaho: The College Murders for a three-episode Season 2, adding never-before-heard testimony from the investigators and officers who apprehended Bryan Kohberger after the 2022 Idaho student stabbings. The season includes bodycam footage, police interviews and forensic evidence, plus new context after Kohberger’s 2025 guilty plea.

Lionsgate sets Capps Crossing: Wrong Side of the Dead for July 28 on VOD and digital; Mike Stahl’s serial-killer thriller stars Beverly D’Angelo, Sabina Gadecki, Garrett C. Phillips and Shawna Della-Ricca.