Horror Industry News — Thursday, April 23, 2026

Alien: Romulus (Fede Álvarez; produced under Disney/20th Century) will arrive on Hulu May 21 after a $350.9M global box office on an ~$80M budget; Disney has a sequel in development though Álvarez won't return to direct.

Studio Dome’s Horror Collective acquired worldwide rights to slasher 213 Bones (dir. Jeffrey Primm) and will launch international sales at Cannes; package highlights a 1993 Pacific Northwest slasher, a Jason Baker‑designed mask, and ’90s soundtrack assets to boost marketability.

Focus Features acquired distribution for Curry Barker’s Anything But Ghosts (wrapped in Vancouver) starring Aaron Paul; produced by Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Spooky Pictures and Divide/Conquer — Barker directed and co-wrote, indicating a major studio pick-up for a rising horror filmmaker.

A Netflix preview lists five high‑profile 2026 originals relevant to genre watchers: Apex (survival/action with Charlize Theron, Apr 24), The Whisper Man (psychological thriller with Robert De Niro and Adam Scott), plus franchise/adaptation tentpoles including Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man and Narnia (Greta Gerwig) — framing Netflix's growing original film spend.

A24's Elden Ring adaptation released set photos showing Kit Connor and a depiction of Queen Marika, signaling the film will incorporate key FromSoftware canon (possibly a pre‑Shattering story); Alex Garland remains attached as creative lead and the production appears high‑budget for a prestige game adaptation.

James Mangold and Robert Levine are developing a Cop Land TV adaptation for Paramount Television Studios and Miramax Television with Levine as showrunner; the property, mined from Miramax’s library, has attracted multiple offers and stems from Mangold’s overall deal with Paramount.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Japanese horror Never After Dark (directed by Dave Boyle) with a planned theatrical release this fall after festival play.

Courtney Kemp retools her pitching: shows must prove budget, scale and franchise potential up front; her new Netflix-set series Nemesis (starring Matthew Law and Y'lan Noel) is positioned as a scalable, action-leaning crime drama filmed in L.A.

IDW Dark has an original OPERATION: IRON COFFIN series reimagining Dracula in a WWII/John Wick–style revenge arc — a public-domain Dracula riff positioning the IP for high-concept genre comics and potential cross-media interest.

A24 acquired TV rights to Nick Brucker's (pen name Nicholas Binge) novel White Smoke for Benedict Cumberbatch, who will star and produce a limited series about con men stealing Vatican treasures during a papal conclave.

David Duchovny says he’s had “talks” with Ryan Coogler about the Hulu X‑Files reboot (which already has Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel attached and Gillian Anderson in discussions), but nothing is concrete and he hasn’t read the script yet; production is expected to begin soon.

UK-based CMG Productions has partnered with independent podcast company Stak to co-develop a slate of original sport and true-crime podcasts with plans to expand those IPs into multi-platform adaptations.

Catalog and release news: Ginger Snaps is returning in a Vestron Collector’s Series 4K/BD + Digital on May 19 (MSRP $39.97); Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus hits theaters June 19; and Natalie Erika James’ Saccharine opens in select theaters May 22.

Amazon MGM Studios launched a public consultation for a major redevelopment of Bray Film Studios — restoring heritage buildings, adding new sound stages and workshops to enable two major productions simultaneously, targeting net‑zero all‑electric stages and creating an estimated 3,000+ UK jobs; formal planning submission expected this summer with a decision due autumn 2026.

CinemaCon 2026 saw studios coalesce around reinstating longer theatrical windows (commonly 45 days or more), with Universal leading and other majors — including Disney and Amazon MGM — publicly committing to extended windows as a strategy to bolster theatrical revenue and exhibitor relations.

Comcast execs say Peacock is at an inflection point and expects to approach profitability in Q2 after NBA amortization effects ease; Peacock reported EBITDA losses of $432M, 46M subscribers, and revenue topping $2 billion as Comcast outlines a path toward durable profitability.

Paramount has opened an internal/global investigation after a leak related to an upcoming Avatar film; the probe underscores rising studio focus on IP security and potential legal or production delays tied to leaks.

Reports that James Ortiz, Rocky's puppeteer from Project Hail Mary, has been deemed eligible for Best Supporting Actor consideration by the Academy/SAG rules, framing this as a potential shift in how practical/expanded performances are campaigned and judged.

Paramount+ will add the 2004 Battlestar Galactica (miniseries + Seasons 1–4) and related TV movies to Paramount+ and free ad-supported Pluto TV on May 1, 2026; Caprica lands on Paramount+ only—content/streaming programming move that expands genre catalog and free AVOD access.

Image Comics’ eco-horror miniseries Of the Earth (launch May 20) by Chris Condon, Andrew Ehrich and artist Charlie Adlard is presented as a slow-burn, neo-noir eco-horror that favors atmosphere and off-screen dread; final order cutoff April 27.

Netflix is expanding hydrogen usage on film sets to reduce diesel consumption — a production-infrastructure sustainability move that could lower location emissions and influence greener practices across genre shoots.

Annecy opens the Cité Internationale du Cinema d’Animation on June 19 as a year-round hub with exhibitions (including Ankama and a Laika showcase), training, residencies and screenings to expand animation’s cultural footprint and industry pipeline.

Jinny Howe, Netflix’s Head of U.S. & Canada Scripted Series, will deliver the first keynote at the Banff Summit Series during the 47th Banff Media Festival (June 14–17); she was promoted to her current role in 2023 after joining Netflix in 2018 and has overseen high-profile series including Beef and Bridgerton.

CinemaCon coverage flags structural shifts in theatrical: fewer wide releases, premium-screen competition for PLFs, new interactive tech (CtrlMovie voting on narrative choices) and TikTok increasingly dictating breakout titles — trends that will shape release strategies for genre films.

Irish VFX veterans Ed Bruce and Nicholas Murphy launched Dublin studio Enbarr (part of Dream Machine FX Group) to serve international productions and leverage partner studios globally, timed with an Irish VFX tax uplift to 40% that should boost local VFX capacity for genre shoots.

Analysis argues Netflix struggles to expand tentpoles into compelling franchises — examples include Stranger Things’ animated spinoff Tales From ’85 and underwhelming follow‑ups to Squid Game and The Witcher — signaling franchise strategy execution and creative dilution risks for the streamer.

Maggie Gyllenhaal will preside over the international jury at the 83rd Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12), leading decisions on the Golden Lion and other prizes as appointed by La Biennale di Venezia.

Analysis: A24's brand has created an audience shorthand for tone-driven, ambiguous films (cited Backrooms and recent releases like The Drama), signaling that internet-born aesthetics and younger filmmakers are reshaping how genre films are marketed and consumed.

Gerry Duggan and Javier Garrón's Marvel series will conclude their trilogy later this year with a multiverse-spanning arc that brings Godzilla into the Marvel multiverse, merging kaiju spectacle with mainstream superhero comics.

Capcom’s new sci‑fi IP Pragmata sold over 1 million copies within two days of launch — the fastest-selling new IP in Capcom history — credited to a simultaneous Switch 2 release and a free demo that broadened reach.

ABC managing director Hugh Marks warns Australia has shifted financing and distribution risk offshore over time, eroding local financing/distribution capacity and long-term upside for producers (cites Ludo Studio/Bluey as an example).

Next Narrative Africa Fund study (by Parrot Analytics) finds the U.S. is the largest single market for African storytelling (8.7% of global demand) and highlights a supply gap—non-English African stories are 28% of demand but only 16% of supply—supporting NNAF’s $40M commercial fund and $10M nonprofit venture studio as opportunity signals for increased financing and distribution.

Cannes added 15 new titles including Zachary Wigon’s Victorian Psycho—a gothic psychological thriller now in Un Certain Regard starring Maika Monroe (replacing Margaret Qualley) and Jason Isaacs—after A24 dropped the project and it landed at Bleecker Street; Werner Herzog’s film appears headed to Venice instead.

SSFF & ASIA 2026 in Tokyo (May 26–June 9, online through June 30) selected ~250 shorts from 5,000 submissions under a “Cinema Engineering” theme; programming includes genre entries such as the Korean horror short “4:44: Time of Fear” (starring Onew), expanded AI-focused initiatives, and high-profile director debuts from Renée Zellweger and Charlie Kaufman.

Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, distributed by Neon, is an experimental, surreal satire starring Keke Palmer and Demi Moore that blends class struggle themes with playful genre-bending and occasional supernatural elements, and is receiving strong festival/critic attention for its visual inventiveness.

20th Century Studios reports Send Help had a $40M production budget and grossed $64.7M domestic / $29.3M international for a $94M global total; the Sam Raimi film (Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien) will stream on Hulu/Disney+ May 7, 2026.

Investigation Discovery (WBD) will air The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle as a two-night true-crime documentary that examines a medical/amnesia mystery, positioning ID to continue leaning into human-interest investigative specials.

Pocket‑lint highlights Guillermo del Toro’s Devil’s Backbone as a forgotten horror masterpiece now available to stream free, boosting visibility for a classic that can drive catalog viewership and renewed critical interest.

Blood Pact Films is programming a one‑day theatrical event (May 17) in Evansville, IN, to screen two extreme independent horror titles — The Benefactress (An Exposure of Cinematic Freedom) and Tape Me — offering rare theatrical access for extreme/experimental horror.

Netflix's new animated Stranger Things spinoff Tales From '85 recasts Robert Englund in a different role (Cosmo, a tabloid editor); the series premieres Apr 23 and features a largely new voice cast with the franchise's creators and 21 Laps attached as EPs.

Eli Roth, director Adam MacDonald and Peyton List are teaming on Be Mine, a Valentine’s Day VR slasher/experience — a genre experiment combining slasher tropes with immersive VR distribution that could signal more premium horror in immersive formats.

At a UK convention Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard teased both characters will return in Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, suggesting the movie will give their characters more interaction than FNAF 2 did; Emma Tammi directed the prior entries from Scott Cawthon’s screenplay and the franchise remains a theatrical IP.

Prime Video and MGM+ unveiled two new key art posters for Spider-Noir, a 1930s noir take on Ben Reilly starring Nicolas Cage; produced by Sony Pictures Television with showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot and EPs Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal.

North American rights for cyberpunk psychological sci‑fi thriller April X (starring Connor Storrie and Lilly Krug) were acquired jointly by Sunrise Films and Rialto Distribution for a planned theatrical release in over 500 U.S. theaters this September.

Netflix’s true‑crime feature Yiya Murano: Death at Tea Time (dir. Alejandro Hartmann, prod. Vanessa Ragone) revisits the Argentine serial‑poisoning case with dramatizations and new interviews, including the convict’s son and investigators; it streams from April 23.

Universal released a 30-second promo for Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day that finally shows alien anatomy and a triangular spacecraft; the big-budget sci‑fi thriller starring Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor opens in June 2026.

Filmmaker Jorma Taccone returns from a decade-long break with Over Your Dead Body, a bloody, funny home-invasion thriller he discusses in an IndieWire interview alongside pop-culture asides.

AMC has released an opening-scene preview for The Terror: Devil in Silver starring Dan Stevens; the new season premieres May 7 on AMC+ and revisits a haunted psychiatric-hospital setting.

Studiocanal has attached Liam Neeson to star in Cold Storage — an upcoming Studiocanal‑backed film project (details limited in the excerpt), adding a marquee lead likely positioning the title as a commercial thriller.

Austin’s Paramount Theatre and Hyperreal Film Club will host Bleak Week (June 3–9), a curated series of melancholic and psycho-terror films including Eraserhead, Perfect Blue, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and The Virgin Suicides — tickets on sale now.

Trend piece arguing 'cozy horror' is rising in games, citing Grimshire, Cult of the Lamb, Graveyard Keeper, Crop, and Grave Seasons (Perfect Garbage + Blumhouse Games) as proof of market demand and signaling publisher investment in darker takes on cozy mechanics.

Indie developer Playground Pigeon will release a Steam demo for Lovecraftian fishing game The Wake on April 24, offering an early playable slice ahead of the full release later this year.

Nightmare on Film Street hosts a podcast interview with writer/director Damian McCarthy about Hokum, a new supernatural Irish folklore horror starring Adam Scott that follows a disgruntled author encountering strange, uncanny events at a rural inn.

Severin Films’ 2024 documentary Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of Clasificada “S” surveys Spain’s post‑Franco boundary‑pushing horror cinema with filmmaker interviews and archival context, anchoring a new Severin box set that pairs the doc with multiple 1970s genre titles.

Review/retrospective of the 2010 Chinese found-footage horror Video Cassette of 31 Degrees North Latitude: an obscure Blair Witch–style cryptid film set in Hubei’s Shennongjia (Yeren folklore), notable for atmosphere, landscape photography and a bit more gore than typical Chinese examples of the subgenre.

A cultural/retrospective piece argues Lucky McKee’s 2002 cult horror May is experiencing a Gen Z revival and reads as a dark counterpart to Sex and the City, framing its themes of obsession, fetishization, and female desire for modern audiences.

Image Comics will collect Frank J. Barbiere and Morgan Beem's queer portal-fantasy The Author Immortal as Volume One this spring, positioning the creator-owned series for broader discoverability.

Warner Bros./DC Studios released a trailer for Clayface—an R‑rated, body‑horror‑leaning DCU film directed by James Watkins from early drafts by Mike Flanagan and a rewrite by Hossein Amini—starring Tom Rhys Harries, with a reported $40M budget and an October 23, 2026 theatrical date.

Collider (exclusive) teases a savage first teaser for Sam Raimi’s returning fantasy-horror franchise (implied Evil Dead universe), signaling a new installment and early marketing push—an industry-level franchise relaunch for Raimi’s IP.

IFC Films and Shudder released the first trailer for Natalie Erika James’ Saccharine — a supernatural body‑horror about a medical student drawn into ash‑eating and toxic weight‑loss culture — following premieres at Sundance and Berlin; stars include Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald and Madeleine Madden.

Dark House of the Mannequins, written and directed by Staci Layne Wilson and starring Arielle Brachfeld, gets its first trailer and is set for a summer release across Prime Video, Vudu, Tubi and BloodstreamTV—positioned as a grindhouse-flavored, gore-soaked midnight‑screening cult play.

AMC’s Anne Rice saga retitles season three The Vampire Lestat and teaser material positions Sam Reid’s Lestat as a modern rock-star vampire—signaling a tonal pivot and major promotional push for the franchise’s next chapter in June.