Horror Industry News — Friday, March 6, 2026

Banijay and All3Media have completed a 50/50 JV with RedBird IMI, creating a large independent production superpower and targeting €50M ($59M) in synergies within 12 months while signalling further consolidation in global production markets.

Allen Family Capital acquired a 10.7% stake in Starz for $25 million (1,803,786 shares at $13.86 each) from Steve Mnuchin’s Liberty 77 Capital; Starz reported 12.7M U.S. streaming subscribers and recent Q4 streaming revenue of $210.3M amid Lionsgate’s corporate split last year.

Megan Ellison is rebuilding Annapurna Pictures with returning execs Chelsea Barnard and Matthew Budman named co-heads of film as the company re-launches after previous financial troubles and recent Sundance sales success.

Focus Features and Blumhouse will release horror Obsession in theaters on May 15, with a new still revealing leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette and teasing the film's unsettling central relationship.

Callie Cooke has been cast as the female lead opposite Keanu Reeves in Tim Miller’s Warner Bros. sci‑fi time‑loop action feature (formerly Shiver), now in production in the Dominican Republic with an Aug. 13, 2027 theatrical release.

The 37th GLAAD Media Awards honored a broad slate of inclusive content — winners included Heated Rivalry, Stranger Things, Palm Royale and several film winners (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Plainclothes) — underscoring continued visibility for genre hits with LGBTQ representation.

FX's Alien: Earth will begin production on Season 2 in May with filming moving from Thailand to London’s Pinewood Studios, per star Sydney Chandler who says new scripts haven't yet been seen.

Director Meekaeel Adam’s debut feature The Trek is an elevated horror‑western shot on location in South Africa that uses Khoen‑inspired mythology and practical, on‑location cinematography (including a ravine sequence shot without green screen) to create a lean, immersive production.

James J. Robinson’s debut First Light — a Philippines-shot, faith-driven drama with supernatural/exorcism elements — premiered at Rotterdam and is screening in competition at Glasgow; Robinson leaned into Filipino spiritual traditions during production and resisted financiers urging a horror pivot.

FX/Hulu’s The Beauty — a Ryan Murphy–created body‑horror dark comedy about a sexually transmissible beauty drug — is a high-profile genre series with an 11‑episode season and a large ensemble including Evan Peters, Ashton Kutcher, Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Pope, streaming now on Hulu.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein won Best Production Design – Major Motion Picture at the British Film Designers Guild awards, while Mickey 17 and other genre titles also scored production-design honors, highlighting craft recognition for high-profile genre productions.

TheWrap rounds up new streaming premieres this weekend across platforms — highlights include A24’s mockumentary The Moment now VOD, Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock (Prime Video), Netflix’s Vladimir limited series, and Spielberg-exec’d nature doc The Dinosaurs on Netflix.

Collider’s review lambasts IFC Films’ Dolly as a failed exploitation-horror entry, calling it a disaster for the subgenre and criticizing its execution and tone.

Supernatural horror The Containment, about a possessed teen and escalating church interventions, hits VOD on March 24 via Level 33 Entertainment, moving the indie into the digital market this month.

The PGAs honored producers Jason Blum and Amy Pascal in the same weekend, framing Blum as emblematic of modern franchise/horror-focused production while Pascal represents legacy studio power — a snapshot of the shrinking middle ground in American moviemaking.

Maja Holand’s documentary Hex—about Norwegian female black‑metal band Witch Club Satan—has its international premiere at Thessaloniki and will screen at CPH:DOX; Cat&Docs is handling sales and the film uses staged modern witch‑trial sequences to dramatize social-media backlash and gendered resistance.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 leans into Lovecraftian imagery — a 1957 Chilean village with Titan-worship and sacrificial vibes explicitly echoes The Shadow over Innsmouth, deepening the series' horror pedigree within the MonsterVerse.

A documentary-branch Academy voter gives candid ranked-ballot picks and commentary — citing unfamiliarity with some titles and praising films like Sentimental Value and Sinners while placing Frankenstein low due to not viewing it in full.

TheWrap updated its list of the 40 best movies on Netflix right now, spotlighting titles across studios and genres — selections include Titanic, Sicario (Lionsgate), and the recent Jurassic World Rebirth.

Vulture's recap of The Pitt S2 E9 '3:00 PM' focuses on Javadi's medical error that nearly kills a patient, escalating stakes for character arcs and hospital politics this season.

Real Time With Bill Maher is airing a new episode tonight; HBO has renewed the series through 2026 and this week’s episode features an interview with Annabelle Gurwitch and a panel including Sen. Adam Schiff and Don Lemon.

A /Film piece highlights that Lucille Ball cited Sam Wood's Oscar‑nominated Our Town as her favorite movie and notes that the film is currently streaming free on Pluto TV and Tubi.

A production‑design deep dive explains how Love Story’s team painstakingly recreated 1990s Manhattan — rebuilding sets like the Roxy, dressing locations, and painting out modern anachronisms to achieve period authenticity.

Collider premieres the Season 3 trailer for BBC’s boarding‑school dramedy Boarders and confirms the final season arrives March 15 on BBC iPlayer (and March 15 on Tubi in the U.S.), with returning cast and several new guest additions.

Collider positions Alan Ritchson’s new Netflix sci‑fi action movie as this generation’s Predator, signaling a high-concept creature/action film aimed at streaming audiences on Netflix.

Beyond Fest is launching an inaugural Chicago edition in April at the Music Box Theatre, bringing the Los Angeles genre festival brand and curated genre programming to the Windy City for the first time.

Prime Video’s Fallout logged 1.01 billion viewing minutes the week of the Season 2 finale (Feb. 2) per Nielsen — its second consecutive week above 1 billion minutes after a weekly-release rollout that began Dec. 16 and includes leads Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins.

Freestyle Digital Media will release indie Bigfoot horror adventure Squatch on VOD March 10, with Bloody Disgusting running an exclusive clip of the film's climactic encounter.

Capcom reports Resident Evil Requiem has sold over 5 million units since its Feb. 27 launch, signaling strong commercial momentum for the mainline survival-horror franchise and boosting cumulative franchise sales metrics.

Profile/interview with Rob Rausch about the media tour and unexpected fame following his win on Peacock’s The Traitors, covering his media appearances, background on gameplay, and feelings about publicity.

A fashion/portrait feature gathers international filmmakers — including Guillermo del Toro and Kristen Stewart — sharing short director quotes and production-facing anecdotes; no project deals, budgets, or production-stage news disclosed.

Netflix’s War Machine, directed by Patrick Hughes and starring Alan Ritchson, is a gory, R‑rated sci‑fi actioner about U.S. Rangers facing a giant alien killing machine; it leans into practical stunt work (shot primarily in Australia) but is criticized for thin characters and basic screenplay.

A personal piece traces a father‑daughter trip to the filming locations of Jennifer's Body, reflecting on the film's legacy and the people—like Diablo Cody—behind the cult horror title.

Netflix’s Beef season two expands from a two-person story to ensemble intergenerational crime-comedy drama set at a country club, starring Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny as the younger couple and adding Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Youn Yuh-jung, and Song Kang-ho; season two premieres April 16 on Netflix.

Bloody Disgusting publishes a fan-sourced ranking of all seven Scream films to coincide with Scream 7's theatrical run, reflecting ongoing franchise engagement and audience debate rather than new business or production news.

Matt Groening publicly removed his name from a 1995 Simpsons episode after objecting to a crossover with The Critic, sparking a public feud with producer James L. Brooks and internal controversy over perceived cross-promotion and series integrity.

Collider profiles Milla Jovovich's post-Resident Evil trajectory, focusing on the new creative and physical challenges she’s taking on since the franchise.

Bloody Disgusting's Murder Made Fiction podcast episode revisits the Jack the Ripper case as foundational true‑crime material, continuing the series' focus on high‑profile historical crimes.

A new clip and featurette for the theatrical sci‑fi Project Hail Mary highlights Ryan Gosling bonding with an alien named Rocky and promotes the IMAX theatrical experience ahead of release.

A Monster High Skullector doll of Morticia Addams—based on Catherine Zeta-Jones’ portrayal from Netflix’s Wednesday—is being released, extending the show’s merchandising and cross-brand IP exploitation.

Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman says The Housemaid — adapted from Freida McFadden’s novel and produced with Lionsgate — became a global theatrical smash ($385.9M worldwide on a $35–$60M budget) and has a green-lit sequel entering production this year.

Webtoon Entertainment promoted Yongsoo Kim to President to run global operations and the film/TV development arm (Webtoon Productions) — the unit behind multiple book-to-screen projects and Video Episodes — signaling continued scaling of IP-to-screen pipelines after the company’s 2024 IPO.

Koei Tecmo and Team NINJA released a demo for the Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake across PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series and PC (Steam) one week before launch, with save data transferable to the full game.

George Lucas collaborated with famed X‑Men writer Chris Claremont to expand his Willow sequel ideas into the Chronicles of the Shadow War novel trilogy (Shadow Moon / Shadow Dawn / Shadow Star), but the books were tepidly received and the franchise never regained mainstream traction.

Netflix has renewed thriller The Night Agent for Season 4 to film in Los Angeles (production must begin within a six-month window tied to a $31.6M tax credit awarded to Sony Pictures TV); showrunner Shawn Ryan confirmed a writers' room is active and production should start by late May.

Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett) say the upcoming Mummy 4—reuniting Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz—has ‘all the heart and character’ they wanted, signaling a tonal continuity push for a legacy franchise revival.

Warner Bros. Discovery is developing a Game of Thrones movie (also being considered as a TV show) centered on Aegon I's Conquest; critics argue the conquest is narratively thin and risks being a spectacle-heavy, low-tension adaptation.

JAMS mediators faulted CAA for breaching fiduciary duties in canceling vested equity to departing agents, prompting a planned mass action spearheaded by attorney Bryan Freedman and Range‑affiliated agents; CAA has filed an appeal after the arbitrators’ roughly $40M‑and‑rising determination.

U.S. payrolls fell by 92,000 in February and unemployment rose to 4.4%; entertainment employment (movies & music) dropped by ~9,200 to 344,100 and broadcast/content providers shed about 400 jobs, a data point that could temper studio hiring and production plans amid Fed rate expectations.

Following David Ellison’s proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. megamerger, Ellison intends to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single streaming offering, raising questions about programming authority for Casey Bloys, Cindy Holland’s expanded streaming role, and how HBO’s creative independence will be preserved amid restructuring.

Netflix acquired InterPositive, the AI filmmaking company founded by Ben Affleck, signaling the streamer’s move to integrate filmmaker-focused AI tools into production workflows and position technology under creative oversight.

Examines Paramount (post‑Skydance merger) rehiring several men with prior #MeToo allegations — Max Landis, Johnny Depp, John Lasseter, Brett Ratner and Jeff Shell — framing it as cost‑driven talent rehabs amid debt pressures and signaling a wider cultural shift in hiring practices at major studios.

WGA West canceled its awards amid a staff strike; comedian Atsuko Okatsuka — who had been slated to host — is headlining a WGSU fundraiser on March 1 alongside several performers as the staff union continues pickets and bargaining over alleged unfair practices.

The Academy’s final Oscar voting window has closed with a new rule requiring members to watch all nominees in a category before voting, and anonymous ballots show a tight two-film best-picture race between Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, while Michael B. Jordan is emerging as a serious best-actor contender.

Greenwich Entertainment acquired North American theatrical rights to Ryuya Suzuki’s Jinsei — an Annecy-premiering feature animated almost entirely by Suzuki over 18 months — with a summer theatrical release planned.

BBC director‑general Tim Davie says the BAFTA broadcast incident involving Tourette’s tics and a racial slur was a 'genuine error' by the edit team, acknowledges failures in post‑broadcast removal from iPlayer and vows lessons will be learned.

Warner Bros. executives confronted the BBC over the BAFTA broadcast error that left a racial slur audible, demanding explanations for how the incident and a 15-hour delay on iPlayer occurred; BAFTA and the BBC have launched internal reviews.

Giorgio Gosetti, founder of Venice Days and longtime Venice Film Festival collaborator who also ran Italy’s Courmayeur Noir in Festival, has died at 70; he was a major figure in Italian festival programming and film culture.

The Academy announced a third wave of Oscar presenters — including Robert Downey Jr., Anne Hathaway, Paul Mescal and Conan O’Brien will host — ahead of the March 15 broadcast, with several presenters tied to multi-nominated films like Hamnet and One Battle After Another.

Anna Saura’s feature documentary The Kid in the Photo. Carlos Saura, an intimate portrait of the Spanish auteur, will be represented by Latido Films at Málaga Festival-Spanish Screenings and highlights Saura’s body of work — including the violent classic The Hunt — as context for his legacy.

Nielsen streaming metrics for Feb. 2–8 show Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer topping viewing with 2 billion minutes (its best premiere week), Bridgerton and Fallout following, while overall streaming minutes dipped due to the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics.

TheWrap lists all songs featured in Netflix’s limited series Vladimir — the soundtrack ranges from classical (Strauss, Vivaldi, Mozart) to contemporary artists including Chappell Roan, Patti Smith, Doechii and Lizzo.

Sara Shahverdi, the protagonist of Oscar-nominated Iranian documentary Cutting Through Rocks, cannot attend the Academy Awards due to the U.S. visa ban on Iranians and escalating conflict in Iran, the filmmakers said after an eight-year production.

Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s Variations on a Theme won Rotterdam’s Tiger Award and will play Joburg Film Festival; the docufiction centers an elderly goat herder in South Africa and is being handled for world sales by Kraal.

John Cameron Mitchell is taking a 4K restoration of Hedwig & the Angry Inch on a U.S. and Canada tour starting June 14, appearing for post‑screening conversations, Q&As, acoustic performances and meet‑and‑greets to mark the film’s 25th anniversary.

Amazon MGM Studios hired Warner Bros. Discovery Japan veteran Buddy Marini to run Amazon MGM Studios Japan, tasking him with building local originals across film, TV and anime for Prime Video as part of an aggressive push to scale Japanese and anime content globally.

South African debut director Imran Hamdulay’s The Heart Is a Muscle — South Africa’s official Oscar entry — is rolling out nationwide and at Joburg Film Festival after a Berlinale launch and festival run; the family drama explores intergenerational trauma and is repped globally by MMM Film Sales, with the director planning a Cape Flats adventure feature next.

Collider publishes an exclusive 2‑minute sneak peek of Shudder’s upcoming found‑footage horror, promoting the streamer’s next original and signaling a new entry in Shudder’s found‑footage slate ahead of release.

Netflix released the trailer for Beef season 2, positioning the series as an anthology in the spirit of White Lotus with a new ensemble led by Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan; season 2 debuts April 16, 2026.

Atlas Distribution will release the supernatural horror-comedy Scared to Death—starring Lin Shaye and Bill Moseley—into select theaters on March 13 after a trailer debut, positioning it as an indie genre play with veteran horror icons attached.

Dead Boss Games and Evolution Publishing are releasing AFFECTED: The Asylum, a narrative-driven psychological VR survival horror experience for Meta Quest and SteamVR this summer, positioning the AFFECTED property back into VR-focused horror content.

Prime Video released the trailer for The Boys season 5 (final season), which amps up violence and stakes as Homelander seeks ultimate invincibility while the Boys team with Godolkin U. survivors — season premieres April 8, 2026.

Indie-crafted supernatural adventure The Midnight Walk will launch on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 26 after being showcased in Nintendo’s Indie World, broadening the title’s platform reach and sustaining interest in handcrafted horror-adjacent games.