Horror Industry News — Thursday, July 9, 2026

Piece of Magic locks Toho’s Godzilla Minus Zero for 46 territories across Europe and beyond, with the rollout beginning November 4 and North America set for November 6 via Toho and GKids. Takashi Yamazaki returns to write, direct and oversee VFX; Anime Limited takes the UK and Ireland.

$17 million opening weekend on a $750,000 budget turned Obsession into a record-breaking indie horror machine; Focus Features paid an estimated $15 million at TIFF and the film has now crossed $404.4 million worldwide.

Universal dumps Soulm8te to VOD on Aug. 1 after pulling the theatrical date; the M3GAN spinoff carries a reported $20M budget and now looks like a write-down after M3GAN 2.0’s $39M run.

Leviticus sweeps BIFAN with Best of Bucheon and Audience awards after its Sundance Midnight and SXSW run, while Neon’s international pickup keeps the queer demonic horror in circulation. The same awards slate flags Obsession as the first sub-$1M film to cross $403M worldwide, and Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma lands the jury prize after a Cannes Queer Palm win and Mubi acquisition.

Obsession has surged past $403 million worldwide on a $750,000 budget, making it the highest-grossing sub-$1 million production ever and reinforcing horror’s outlier theatrical upside.

Paramount’s Possession remake adds Diego Calva to a package already led by Callum Turner, Margaret Qualley and Paul Dano; Parker Finn directs and writes, with Roy Lee, Jonathan Fass and Robert Pattinson producing. The 1981 supernatural thriller update remains in development at the studio, keeping Finn on a high-profile genre track after his breakout run.

‘Dune: Part Three’ is shooting in Abu Dhabi with Denis Villeneuve, Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya back on Arrakis; the 31-day Liwa Desert run leaned on a 35% cashback rebate and more than 600 local crew.

Widow’s Bay lands 19 Emmy nominations, the best tally for any new series; Apple TV’s horror-comedy is already renewed for season 2, with Matthew Rhys, Kate O’Flynn, Dale Dickey, Stephen Root, Betty Gilpin, Hamish Linklater, Katie Dippold and Hiro Murai in the awards mix.

The Horror Section launches with Ice Cream Man as its inaugural feature; Eli Roth’s slasher opens Aug. 7 in 2,000 North American theaters via Iconic Events Releasing.

Devilworks fully finances Hansel & Gretel’s Halloween and launches a teaser for the Grimm-twist horror fantasy; Chris Hoyt wrote the screenplay, with Marcus Mallard and Logan Walcher directing and producing.

David Howard Thornton boards slasher sequel Behind the Mask II, adding Terrifier bloodline cachet to the project’s cast package. The move keeps the horror sequel in the genre conversation without changing the underlying financing or distribution picture.

Popcorn Frights drops its first wave for the 12th edition, signaling another packed genre lineup and a meaningful calendar marker for the indie horror circuit.

Woodcut Media and Sphere Abacus team on true-crime doc Hair Fetish Killer for Prime UK&I; premiere is set for later this year. The package adds another distribution lane for a genre-adjacent crime title with streamer backing.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North America, Southeast Asia and airline rights to Florian Zeller’s Bunker, a survival-bunker thriller starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger. The film is lining up a year-end qualifying run before an early 2027 release and an awards campaign.

Joseph Scrimshaw's DEAD MEDIA kicks off a limited theatrical run July 16 before a July 28 VOD bow; the haunted-DVD horror throwback is booking dates across Braindead, Laemmle, and regional indie cinemas.

Peacock’s Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake arrives October 15, 2026, with Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees; Cardellini said showrunner Brad Caleb Kane has “made sort of this mixtape” of ideas for the character.

10-month Academy Museum horror exhibition opens Sept. 26, 2026; six themed galleries, screenings of Prince of Darkness, Horror of Dracula, The Craft and Carrie, with advisory input from Willem Dafoe and Osgood Perkins.

Na Hong-jin is leaning on Lee, Bong and Jang to juice domestic turnout for Hope; the move reads as Korean box-office positioning rather than a new production or rights announcement.

9 Light Entertainment is spinning up a sales and distribution arm in Canada and launching it with Sound & Fury, a comedic thriller heading into production this fall. Daniel Maslany, Shaun Majumder and Kaelen Ohm star in Charles Wahl’s feature debut.

Fantasia locks its third and final 2026 wave; Nicolas Winding Refn's HER PRIVATE HELL opens the fest and FREAKS PART 2 closes, with folk-horror titles like VILLAGE OF EIGHT GRAVESTONES bolstering the genre-heavy slate.

Principal photography is underway on Scorpion in Cyprus, with the production set to relocate to Bulgaria on July 13. WestEnd Films is handling world sales and will launch first footage to buyers at the TIFF market in September.

70 billion won in backing locks Hope into a high-stakes package; Na Hong-jin’s long-gestating film remains in build mode with a major financing signal now on the board.

HBO/HBO Max’s Casey Bloys says he’s “feeling very good” about officially renewing It: Welcome to Derry Season 2, with the team still developing a take and scripts. Andy Muschietti says the next season is set in 1935 and centers on the Bradley Gang massacre.

Prime Video has rolled ‘Un’Altra Madre’ into production as an Italian psychological thriller from Francesco Carrozzini; Sabrina Impacciatore and Alessandro Borghi star, with Amazon MGM Studios co-producing for a worldwide release.

Na Hong-jin surfaces his next film, Hope, after a decade out of the market; the project is back in circulation but no financing, casting or release details are disclosed.

FX will premiere American Horror Story season 13 on Thursday, Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The cast includes Ariana Grande, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Jessica Lange, and Emma Roberts, with rumors tying it to Coven.

Apple TV takes Hall H at SDCC for the first time, using the platform to push horror-comedy Widow’s Bay, the Matchbox movie and a Dark Matter season 2 preview alongside a Silo installation. The move spotlights Apple TV’s growing genre-adjacent fandom play and gives the streamer a comic-con footprint that doubles as release marketing.

Plus M has pre-sold Na Hong-jin’s Hope into roughly 200 territories out of Cannes, recouping nearly half the film’s net production budget before release; Neon opens the sci-fi creature feature in North America Sept. 9.

Casper Kelly’s twisted creature feature lands in theaters August 28 via Saban; Buddy reframes a children’s mascot as a violent horror figure, keeping the project on the genre festival-to-theatrical lane.

Saban Films sets Feed for an Aug. 14 digital rental/own bow; the vampire horror thriller lands on VOD after the new trailer drop.