Horror Industry News — Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Ari Aster and producer Lars Knudsen’s Square Peg signed a two-year first-look TV deal with Media Res to develop series projects — marking Aster’s formal expansion into television and aligning his auteur sensibility with a respected TV studio.

SCREAM 7 has pushed the franchise’s cumulative box office past $1 billion worldwide, making Scream one of only six horror franchises to cross that milestone and underscoring continued commercial viability for legacy slasher IP.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE BRIDE! is being praised as a wild and excellent new take on Frankenstein, positioned as one of the year's standout horror/art-house entries.

Beyond Fest launches its first Midwest edition in Chicago with a lineup (presented with MUBI) including revived titles like FACES OF DEATH and OBSESSION — expanding theatrical genre festival footprint and MUBI’s festival partnerships.

Jason Blum outlines Blumhouse-Atomic Monster's strategy to prioritize known horror IP while continuing to produce ultra‑low budget (<$1M) originals, signaling a dual pipeline of franchise and sub‑million-dollar films amid a post‑COVID market.

Soulm8te — a Blumhouse/Atomic Monster M3GAN-universe spinoff directed by Kate Dolan and written by Rafael Jordan (with Dolan rewrite) starring Lily Sullivan, Claudia Doumit and David Rysdahl — has been rated R by the MPA for strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity and language, distinguishing it from the PG-13 M3GAN entries and possibly improving its chance to find distribution after being pulled from the release calendar.

Radio Silence confirmed The Mummy 4 will ignore The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor's continuity and reunites Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz; the sequel is scheduled for theatrical release May 19, 2028, and the article notes Tomb of the Dragon Emperor grossed over $400M (box office figure disclosed).

Jason Blum accepted the PGA Milestone Award and reiterated Blumhouse's strategy of backing risk-taking creative voices while warning about algorithmic decision‑making; mentions merger with Atomic Monster and recent Blumhouse releases.

Peacock will begin exclusively streaming Blumhouse's Five Nights at Freddy's 2 on April 3, with extras and bonus content available; the film (Emma Tammi dir.) is produced by Jason Blum and Scott Cawthon and features Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Mckenna Grace and Matthew Lillard.

Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a lavish, monster-forward adaptation of Mary Shelley that leans heavily on visual worldbuilding and Jacob Elordi’s Creature performance while critics note a relative lack of depth for Victor (Oscar Isaac); positions the film as awards-season contender despite mixed takes on character work.

Production wrap and strategy: Jake Gyllenhaal wrapped M. Night Shyamalan’s supernatural romantic thriller Remain, Warner Bros. moved the release to Feb 5, 2027 to target Valentine’s Day, and early test scores are reportedly the best of Shyamalan’s career.

Blumhouse Television hired Abbey Morris as SVP Development & Programming to oversee scripted development, reporting to Melissa Aouate and EVP Chris Dickie; Morris arrives from Irish Cowboy Productions where she worked on Horizon Zero Dawn adaptation and Umbrella Academy.

Blumhouse Games publisher-backed cozy-horror title Grave Seasons is slated for a Summer release after hitting 400,000 wishlists; the narrative farming sim adds a supernatural serial-killer twist that blends cozy gameplay with horror investigation.

An article previews The Thing Expanded, a multi-hour documentary featuring del Toro and other filmmakers and cast weighing in on John Carpenter’s The Thing; producers are Robin Block, David Weiner and Josh Weiss and the doc is available for pre-order through a limited window.

Panic Fest 2026 announced its first-wave programming for Kansas City, featuring 50+ features and 80 shorts including HOKUM and BIG BABY — signaling a wide slate of indie genre premieres and festival exposure opportunities next month.

People reveals the cover and fall release window for Stephen Graham Jones’ new horror novel Off the Reservation (Saga Press), a sequel follow-up to The Only Good Indians that continues its Indigenous horror through a bone‑retrieval supernatural plot.

Blumhouse‑Atomic Monster and Behaviour Interactive have hired David Leslie Johnston‑McGoldrick and Alexandre Aja to write a theatrical adaptation of the hit horror game Dead by Daylight; Wan and Blum producing, director search underway and rights were acquired in 2023.

Christian Bale commented supportively on Luca Guadagnino's planned adaptation of American Psycho (script by Scott Z. Burns and Bret Easton Ellis), noting that high-profile actors have turned down the lead and praising those who try bold reboots.

Stephen King and Ben Percy’s post-apocalyptic newspaper concept THE END TIMES is being adapted into a novel form, extending IP and creating potential cross-medium franchise opportunities.

Collider marks a major anniversary for an influential dark-fantasy saga (Kentaro Miura's work / Studio Gaga/Hakusensha IP) — cultural milestone for dark fantasy fandom with implications for licensing and adaptations.

LA City Council approved a package of film permitting reforms — fee eliminations for certain private-public shoots, fast-track soundstage certification, and free microshoot permits — to cut costs and streamline location production after a steep decline in LA shoot days post-strikes and wildfires.

Luxury dine-in chain iPic Theaters filed Chapter 11 in Florida and plans an expedited sale process while operating; the move highlights continued strain in exhibition amid declining attendance and follows weak quarter results from AMC and mixed box office forecasts for 2026.

The MTM report maps a continued shift from linear TV to digital consumption, confirming accelerating audience migration to streaming platforms and signalling distribution and monetization adjustments producers — including genre filmmakers — should account for in financing and release strategies.

Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann said the streamer’s video podcast slate over-indexes on mobile and daytime engagement versus scripted TV/film, and Netflix is testing vertical video and further mobile personalization later this year.

Banijay Entertainment and All3Media will merge into a single global group (to be called Banijay) in a €4.4bn pro forma revenue vehicle, creating one of the world’s largest production companies with ~170 labels, projected €50m cost synergies within 12 months and a planned autumn close.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav sold roughly $114M in WBD shares after brokering an elevated all-cash sale to Paramount (reported ~$110bn transaction), a deal expected to close in September that will trigger large redundancies as the merged company targets $6bn in synergies and faces heavy debt.

Canada Media Fund’s Distributor Program will shift to an 'envelope' model in 2026-27, changing how distributor support is allocated and signaling a policy-level funding restructure that will affect Canadian distribution financing and festival-to-market pipelines.

Jorma Taccone’s English‑language remake of Tommy Wirkola’s The Trip, Over Your Dead Body, starring Jason Segel and Samara Weaving with Juliette Lewis and Timothy Olyphant, is set for theatrical release April 24 and is produced by 87North (genre-leaning dark comedy/thriller).

New trailer for sci-fi horror THE CURE positions David Dastmalchian as an evil biotech billionaire, signaling a high-concept, tech-adjacent horror thriller likely aiming festival and VOD/streaming play.

First teaser poster for 'Obsession' has been revealed and the full trailer is scheduled to drop tomorrow; no cast, director or release date details provided in the excerpt.