ScreamWire Daily

A24’s podcast horror undertone—shot in Canada and starring Nina Kiri—has drawn strong critical praise as a timely, unsettling film; it opens in U.S. cinemas March 13 and in the U.K. April 10, with critics singling out Kiri’s performance and the film’s sound design.

Netflix Spanish-language psychological thriller Firebreak (Cortafuego) surged to No.1 worldwide on Netflix Feb 23–Mar 1 with more than 20 million views in its first 10 days; director David Victori discusses long takes, withholding the ending from cast, and sound design choices that shaped the tense, contained wildfire-missing-child story. Produced by Espotlight Media (Anxo Rodríguez, Ferran Tomás), the film is starring Belén Cuesta, Enric Auquer, Joaquín Furriel and Diana Gómez and is being positioned as another international Spanish-language breakout for Netflix.

Roger Jackson — the voice of Ghostface — has been cast to voice Rabbit in the upcoming indie horror sequel Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 3, which enters production next month as part of the Twisted Childhood Universe from Jagged Edge.

Panic Fest 2026 (April 9–15, hybrid) announced a 130+ film lineup including Neon’s Hokum, Focus Features’ Obsession, Lionsgate’s The Furious, Danielle Harris & Scout Taylor‑Compton’s Last Chance Motel, world premieres, special podcast events, and a virtual VHS-themed fan experience.

Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) is adding a dedicated genre section (six projects including Lam Li Shuen’s mythological body-horror Strange Root and Turkey’s crime-thriller The Power Plant), reflecting a push to court private investors and 'elevated genre' projects while HAF also expands animation offerings.

Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games released a new dev diary for Hellraiser: Revival (ESRB rated), featuring Doug Bradley and detailing how the game adapts Clive Barker's franchise core—underscoring continued cross‑media investment in a legacy horror IP.

Tubi Originals’ free-streaming vampire comedy-thriller Slay — starring RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni including Trinity the Tuck, Heidi N Closet, Crystal Method and Neil Sandilands — is being promoted as a low-budget, transgressive horror-comedy that adds to Tubi’s original genre slate and is available to stream now.

Tatino and the Slovenian Film Centre launched the Slovenia Next Wave Genre Lab to develop two feature-length Slovenian genre projects; selected teams will attend a July development lab within Full Circle Lab (Bordeaux) and a three-week Pop Up Film Residency in autumn 2026, with winners to be announced at Cannes.

Anna Sawai, now Emmy‑winning, discusses returning for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two (Apple TV+/Legendary), balancing awards season while filming, and previews upcoming film roles including A24’s Enemies and Nicholas Hoult’s How to Rob a Bank.

Slanted — a coming-of-age body‑horror dramedy written and directed by Amy Wang — opens in theaters Mar 13 and blends social satire (race and identity) with sci‑fi body‑horror, featuring Shirley Chen and McKenna Grace in lead roles.

Skeet Ulrich says writers have just been hired and a script is being written for a putative Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, and Matthew Lillard has previously indicated a third film was always planned — but no official studio greenlight has been announced.

Alex Prager’s Dreamquil — a near-future psychological sci‑fi blending body horror and AI commentary — gets SXSW exposure with Elizabeth Banks starring (she inadvertently clones herself) alongside John C. Reilly; the cast also includes Juliette Lewis, Sofia Boutella and Kathryn Newton.

Bi Gan’s Cannes Jury Special Prize winner Resurrection will stream on the Criterion Channel starting March 24, with a Criterion Premieres home-video release following April 21; the genre-blending, long-take film — featuring a shape-shifting dreaming monster and vampiric elements — is being positioned as a major arthouse event.

Netflix releases Apex on April 24 — a Most Dangerous Game‑style survival thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur starring Charlize Theron (hunted by Taron Egerton) with Eric Bana also aboard; R-rated for strong violence and grisly images.

Shaun Hutson’s brutal novel The Weight of Eyes has been adapted to film by director Jason Figgis and is now available on Digital/VOD from BayView Entertainment, starring Bill Fellows, Cora Fenton and Bryan Murray as a transgressive psychological horror.

Renny Harlin's shark movie Deep Water has been rated R by the MPA for 'violent content/bloody images and some language' and is scheduled for theatrical release May 1 via Magenta Light Studios.

Julia Ducournau’s Alpha is a visceral body‑horror allegory about an AIDS‑like virus set in an alternate 1990s that centers on a 13‑year‑old girl and her fractured family; critics note overwhelming intensity balanced by emotionally resonant quieter moments.

Critic review finds Crabmeat's concept—horror rooted in monotonous work—promising but argues the film fails to sustain tension, suggesting limited awards/market momentum despite a strong premise in contained, workplace horror.

Director Addison Heimann discusses how his personal struggles inform Touch Me, a horny horror-comedy that follows from his prior feature Hypochondriac and leans into personal storytelling and mental-health themes.

THE SEEING EYE DOG WHO SAW TOO MUCH — a giallo spoof short — is highlighted as a must-see short at SXSW 2026, positioning it as a festival crowd-pleaser in the genre shorts slate.

David Ellison held a Warner Bros town hall less than two weeks after Paramount/WBD boards agreed to a $110bn merger; he pledged 30 theatrical releases a year and defended plans for a combined streaming service while avoiding specifics on announced $6bn in cost cuts tied to the deal.

The European Parliament passed a resolution urging that EU copyright law apply to generative AI—calling for fair remuneration, transparency on training data, sector licensing markets and rightsholder opt-outs—with screen bodies (FERA, FSE, SAA) urging the European Commission to implement enforceable rules.

As WGA and SAG‑AFTRA head into 2026 talks, the WGA (led by Ellen Stutzman) is pushing stronger AI guardrails, higher streaming residuals and bigger minimums while AMPTP negotiator Gregory Hessinger returns to the table; SAG‑AFTRA is negotiating a proposed 'Tilly tax' to levy studios for using AI actors (prompted by the emergence of the AI actor 'Tilly Norwood') and seeks healthcare and digital twin protections.

The British Film Institute unveiled a £33.5m audience development programme for 2026–29 (a 21% increase), allocating £10.8m to the Film Audience Network, £3m to the Open Cinemas Escapes programme and £19.87m to the National Lottery Audience Projects Fund to support distributors, exhibitors and festivals across the UK.

Rebel Audio launched an invite-only AI podcasting app after an oversubscribed $3.8M seed round and named Mark Burnett an adviser; the platform automates production tasks (titles, clips, voice cloning, translation) and offers tiered subscriptions from $15–$70/month.

Sony Pictures Television's Spider-Noir is a new-universe take on Ben Reilly with Nicolas Cage starring and EPing; Harry Bradbeer directed the first two episodes and Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot serve as co-showrunners, with Prime Video and MGM+ set to stream the series late May.

Adobe rolled out a public beta of a conversational AI assistant in Photoshop and added conversational generative tools to Firefly Image Editor (Generative Fill/Remove/Expand/Upscale); Adobe's existing Quick Cut hints that similar text-driven/video AI tools will likely expand into Premiere/Firefly Video, affecting editing workflows.

Toronto Film Critics Association apologized for editing Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ pre-recorded acceptance speech (which included comments about Palestine), pledged future winner review/approval of prerecorded speeches, and has reached out to members who resigned after the incident.

Filmmaker Jenna MacMillan — inspired by SXSW — launched Canada’s Anchor Fest and is bringing her feature directorial debut to premiere in Austin during SXSW, using festival experience to seed a new festival model back home.

Corridor Crew released CorridorKey, an open-source AI chroma keyer on GitHub that produces reconstructed foreground color and linear alpha channels (supports 16/32-bit EXR, 4K, and integrates with Nuke, Fusion, DaVinci Resolve) to simplify difficult green/blue-screen composites.

Shudder’s adaptation of the indie horror game The Mortuary Assistant, directed by Jeremiah Kipp and written by Tracee Beebe and game creator Brian Clarke, premieres on Shudder March 27 and stars Willa Holland and Paul Sparks—positioning it as a notable horror-game-to-screen conversion for the streamer’s 2026 slate.

Shay Hatten is writing the English-language remake of The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil from a Brian Helgeland draft, with James Wan directing and producing (via Blumhouse–Atomic Monster) and Ma Dong-seok attached to reprise his role; additional producers include Sylvester Stallone and Balboa Productions.

Sofia Meetings selected 13 feature teams (March 18–22, SIFF) including Matt Harlock’s Reconstruction — a follow-up to his Frightfest-viewed thriller Blockhead — plus Florian Hoffmeister’s Her Story and Gözde Kural’s dark comedy In Those Darkest Nights; participants will pitch projects in development and 10 works-in-progress will also be showcased.

Prime Video’s Scarpetta — an eight‑episode series adapting Patricia Cornwell’s novels — streams Mar 11 with Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis headlining a serial‑killer crime thriller that intercuts events from 1998 and the present.

Darren Lynn Bousman revealed an unmade Saw pitch—an opening that destroys Jigsaw iconography and spawns Fight Club‑style viral arenas of copycat torture—Lionsgate passed on the concept and the franchise is now being relaunched with James Wan and Leigh Whannell returning under Blumhouse/Atomic Monster.

Twisted Comics and Banijay Rights launched a Kickstarter to fund a graphic novel adaptation of the Black Mirror episode 'San Junipero', tapping a fan favorite episode for queer sci‑fi romance comics expansion.

Kiersten White's novel reimagines the Van Helsing/Dracula mythos with a fresh POV and page-turning pacing, positioning the book as a contemporary horror take on the Stoker legacy.

The Banff World Media Festival named Spain its Country of Honor for 2026 to spotlight Spanish producers and boost international co-production as Spain positions itself as an expanding production hub with new tax incentives, crew training and inbound investment.

Fifth Season has acquired UK studio The Story Collective, folding its slate into Fifth Season’s UK arm while Damian Keogh joins Fifth Season leadership; Simon Vaughan exits to launch Storyworks with a first‑look deal back to Fifth Season as the company scales UK production for Netflix, Sky, Apple, BBC and others.

Screen Nova Scotia awarded 13 projects through its Amplified Voices fund, distributing regional development/production support to local film and TV initiatives and signaling continued provincial support for independent productions in Nova Scotia.

Ran Telem is departing his role as Head of International Development at The Mediapro Studio after nine years amid broader senior exits and a reported workforce reduction plan that could cut ~250 staff across Barcelona and Madrid.

Focus Features acquired North American theatrical rights to Curry Barker’s supernatural horror Obsession (TIFF premiere, Fantastic Fest play) in a $14 million distribution deal; the film is produced by Teashop/Capstone with Jason Blum credited as an EP via Blumhouse.

Damian McCarthy’s Hokum — produced by Roy Lee and Steven Schneider and starring Adam Scott — will premiere at SXSW and opens theatrically May 1 from NEON; first poster and cast details (Austin Amelio, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot) have been released.

Janus Films/IFC Center are bringing Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s revenge thriller Serpent’s Path and horror spiral Chime to U.S. theatrical programming with the two films opening as a single program in New York on March 27.

ACE Team’s Lovecraftian four-player co-op game The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu will launch July 15 on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, positioning another cosmic-horror IP into the summer release slate.

Roadside Attractions and Saban Films will release David Mackenzie’s tense ensemble action-thriller Fuze in North America on April 24 after its TIFF premiere; Ben Hopkins wrote the script and the cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Sam Worthington and Gugu Mbatha‑Raw.

MGM+ released the official trailer for From Season 4, confirming an April 19 premiere and listing the expanded ensemble led by Harold Perrineau as town residents press toward increasingly terrifying answers.

Shochiku rolled out a second trailer for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner — Kurosawa's first period-piece — a Warring States-era psychological mystery opening on a road tour in Japan in June 2026 ahead of international rollouts.

Indie Screenlife-style thriller LifeHack from Ronan Corrigan — produced by Timur Bekmambetov and EP'd by Michael Fassbender — follows teens who pull off a Bitcoin cyber-heist and will release in May after premiering at SXSW last year.

Shudder’s The Last Drive-In has ended its regular run, but producers are selling the show’s actual screen-used 1966 Shasta Airflyte trailer as part of auction activity tied to the series’ wrap; four specials will still air this year.

Exclusive trailer debut for Tender positions the film as a slow-burn domestic thriller edging into domestic horror, starring Jesse Garcia, Jess Weixler and Robert Longstreet about a failing marriage that becomes increasingly claustrophobic.