Horror Industry News — Thursday, June 18, 2026

Another $34.1M global frame lifts Focus Features/Blumhouse's Obsession to a $286.5M worldwide cume; the $750K TIFF Midnight pickup now stands as the highest-grossing festival buy ever, ahead of Blair Witch Project.

Limonero Films has picked up worldwide rights to the Finnish true-crime docuseries and will launch sales at Sunny Side of the Doc ahead of the July 27 premiere on YLE. Pre-sales are already in place at NRK, SVT and DR, giving the cult-and-conspiracy series immediate Nordic reach.

Netflix has pulled the plug on The Boroughs after one season despite a 5.6M-view opening weekend and 9.5M first-week lift; the sci-fi series had a season 2 writers room open before audience drop-off and VFX cost concerns ended the run.

Francis Galluppi’s Evil Dead Wrath has wrapped production; the prequel is set in 1972 and lands in theaters April 7, 2028. It’s one of two new Evil Dead films in the pipeline, following Evil Dead Burn from Sébastien Vaniček.

Warner Bros. locks a 15-part dystopian sci-fi thriller property for franchise development, extending the studio's YA IP push into a long-tail adaptation play. The project is in development with no writer or director attached yet.

Backrooms opened to $82 million in North America, with 86% of buyers under 35, reinforcing internet-born horror as a breakout theatrical pipeline. The analysis also folds in Blumhouse’s abandoned Jeff the Killer play, Slender Man’s fading franchise power, and the rise of YouTube-born filmmakers like Jane Schoenbrun and Kyle Edward Ball.

BloodStream sets SLASHERCISE for an exclusive July 1 premiere, then widens it to additional platforms Oct. 1; Ama Lea's slasher-aerobics mashup is being positioned as a flagship genre acquisition for the Studio Dome-backed streamer.

Scapegoat is framed as Ari Aster’s next A24 feature, with Scarlett Johansson leading a surgeon story that kicks off after a routine operation turns fatal and triggers public backlash. The project is eyeing a November production start; Darius Khondji is back as DP and additional casting remains open.

Apple renews Widow’s Bay for Season 2 and locks Katie Dippold to an overall deal, extending the horror-comedy’s run after the freshman season. The Apple TV series ends its first season with the island covenant still active, setting up a bigger supernatural engine for the next chapter.

Hulu's Prison Break reboot stays in the franchise world but pushes darker and grittier; Lukas Gage says the pilot is 'dark,' 'scary' and freer than the Fox original, with Elgin James writing and Emily Browning leading the new cast.

Return to Silent Hill hit No. 1 on Hulu's U.S. movie chart from June 14-17 and cracked top 10 in multiple countries; the film has grossed $47.8 million worldwide on a $23 million budget, underscoring durable Silent Hill franchise demand.

Package set up at Amazon MGM Studios with HyperObject Industries attached; action-crime feature reunites Kaluuya and Shaka King following their collaboration on Judas and the Black Messiah.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s pending Paramount acquisition could reshuffle the international Elm Street rights stack; Chuck Russell is publicly warming to Jim Carrey as a Freddy reboot option if the franchise finally moves again.

Nikki Glaser boards Netflix Animation's fairy-tale feature as villain Priscilla; the film is the studio's first fully in-house movie produced across Vancouver and Sydney.

July 13 Prime Video premiere set for Murder 101; the three-part true-crime adaptation of the iHeart podcast follows Elizabethton High School teacher Alex Campbell and a student-led cold-case probe into the Redhead Murders.

Wagner Moura is in talks to board Warner Bros.' Ocean's Eleven prequel opposite Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper; Cooper directs and writes, with cameras set to roll in Paris before the production shifts to southern France.

15 million views in its first week on Netflix; the true-crime breakout reinforces streamer appetite for unscripted genre fare.

Locarno hands Rick Baker its Vision Award on Aug. 12, honoring the Oscar-winning make-up artist behind An American Werewolf in London and Thriller. Darren Aronofsky, Isabella Rossellini and Asia Argento also pick up honorary awards at the festival.

Netflix House Dallas and Philadelphia will host a ticketed “KPop Demon Hunters” immersive experience this holiday season, with fan screenings set for June 20. The streamer is extending its biggest movie into a physical attraction and teasing more pop-ups worldwide.

A 2023 crime film has spiked into a surprise Netflix hit after its limited release, another reminder that library titles can surge once they hit the platform.

Banijay Kids & Family has taken worldwide distribution rights to the adult animated satirical series, with production underway and broadcaster presales already locked at YLE, TV3, RUV and Prima. The IP is built from JP Ahonen’s webcomic and ships with an English voice cast led by Andrew Wheildon-Dennis and Jess Robinson.

STARZ has taken exclusive U.S. and English Canada rights to Tip Toe, the five-part Russell T Davies thriller starring Alan Cumming and David Morrissey. The series, commissioned by Channel 4 and produced by Quay Street Productions/ITV Studios, will bow later this year after a strong U.K. launch.

Chattanooga Film Festival launch pad for Josh Lobo’s Night After Night, where two overnight security guards lose their grip on reality after a mute figure begins returning every night; Alexis Louder, Trace Lysette, AJ Bowen, and Johnny Sibilly headline.

French widow horror angle; Souheila Yacoub fronts Sébastien Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn, with Robert Tapert saying Sam Raimi gave the team permission to push the franchise into a darker, less bloody but more brutal register ahead of the July 10, 2026 theatrical launch.

Prime Video locks Aug. 9 premieres for Bear Grylls-led The Chosen in the Wild and the true-crime docuseries Murder 101. The rollout keeps the streamer’s unscripted slate active heading into late summer.

NYAFF adds 40-plus titles in its second wave, including a Horrorscope sidebar stacked with genre plays like Red Thread and Tha Rae: The Exorcist, while Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony headlines the festival. Joseph Chang, Gianna Jun and Daniel Wu are set for festival honors as the 25th edition builds out a 69-film lineup across five New York venues.

$20M Death of Robin Hood shot on a 30-day Northern Ireland schedule for A24; Hugh Jackman plays an aging outlaw, Jodie Comer boards as a mysterious healer, and Michael Sarnoski is already drafting Death Stranding for next year.

Netflix's Harlan Coben thriller shot in Kingston and Toronto, with additional New York location work; the eight-episode series wrapped after a spring-to-summer 2025 production run.

Cleopatra rolls out Portraits of the Apocalypse on digital and DVD; Nicanor Loreti, Fabián Forte, and Luca Castello steer the Buenos Aires zombie outbreak pic, reuniting When Evil Lurks leads Demián Salomón and Ezequiel Rodríguez.

Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: Brand New Day is shot for SCREENX, with CJ 4DPLEX capturing custom footage on set to feed the premium 270-degree format. Advance tickets are live for a limited run in select SCREENX auditoriums worldwide.