Horror Industry News — Friday, May 8, 2026

A24's Backrooms, produced for under $10M and directed by 23-year-old Kane Parsons from his viral short, is tracking $25M–$30M opening domestically despite mixed early festival reactions at Beyond Fest; the film features Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, and counts Shawn Levy and James Wan among producers.

Vertical Entertainment schedules Pendulum for a January 1, 2027 theatrical release; Darren Aronofsky produces and Mark Heyman makes his feature directing debut on a horror script he wrote.

Studiocanal; landed option and will fully finance Freida McFadden’s The Divorce with Working Title attached as co‑producer; Ron Halpern and Joe Naftalin overseeing and Studiocanal Stories to handle global distribution across its territories.

Viva Pictures sets Pinocchio Unstrung for North American theatrical release July 24; Poohniverse slasher reimagines the public-domain fable inside an elite London prep school and aims for summer box office.

Pre-sold to 124 regions ahead of its Cannes Midnight Screenings slot; Korean zombie thriller Colony boards Jun Ji‑hyun, Koo Kyo‑hwan, Ji Chang‑wook and Go Soo; Yeon Sang‑ho co-wrote the screenplay and the film lands in Korea May 21 with a US theatrical bow set for August 28, 2026.

Sony Pictures’ FY operating income fell 11% to $687M after impairment from shuttering Pixomondo, while underlying profit rose; motion picture revenue slid with anime and animation (Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man) driving top performers and Sony shifting VFX focus to Canada for incentives.

Starz; terminated its Pay-2 output deal with Universal to accelerate a path to profitability and will instead acquire titles at more favorable economics; Q1 results show revenue drop to $306.9M, operating loss -$152.8M and $625.1M total debt.

An open letter signed by 4,500+ European filmmakers and actors calls on the EU to preserve and prioritise the Creative Europe Media programme when it transitions to AgoraEU in 2028; signatories highlight declining European reach, AI risks and urge legislators to ringfence film/TV funding as Parliament weighs AgoraEU now.

4.02 million euros allocated by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre across 55 film projects in its 3rd 2025 session; slate-level funding broadens Belgium's production pipeline and creates more financing opportunities for indie features and genre work seeking European support.

Golden Globes; new eligibility rules permit limited generative AI use provided human creative direction and authorship remain primary; submissions must include AI disclosures and performances substantially generated by AI are ineligible, with the Eligibility Committee empowered to request supporting materials.

Class‑action litigation naming Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, backed by major publishers and authors including Hachette, Macmillan and Scott Turow, alleges pirated copyrighted works were used to train Llama and calls out an 'infinite substitution machine' risk; a ruling against Meta would reshape how studios and writers protect voices and deploy AI across script and post workflows.

Screen published a comprehensive guide to Cannes 2026’s Official Selection and parallel sections, spotlighting auteur competition titles and genre entries across Competition, Un Certain Regard and Midnight Screenings including Na Hong-jin’s Hope, Zachary Wigon’s Victorian Psycho and Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony in Midnight.

Fantastic Pavilion launches Vertical Cinema Cannes 2026, a Marché du Film showcase of 28 vertical 9:16 genre projects from 17 countries that spotlights micro-horror, sci-fi, fantasy and thriller works and signals accelerating industry acceptance of vertical storytelling, including entries by Lex Ortega and Carlos Meléndez and two Chinese IP-based projects.

Fantaspoa wrapped its 19-day edition with 24 world premieres and reported attendance gains; the festival received the Mlis Silver Award enabling a film access to Sitges' competition for the first time, with Paul Urkijo taking that new European-features distinction.

Charades is taking ten Cannes-selected titles to international buyers ahead of the market; sales push packages multiple festival titles, including genre fare, to overseas distributors.

Blumhouse partner Obsession hits wide May 15; production designer Vivian Gray (Memphis) created the film’s signature One Wish Willow; film was made for under $1M, acquired for $15M by Focus Features at TIFF and partnered with Blumhouse for distribution and marketing.

Germany’s national film fund allocated €2.5m to seven projects, including €600,000 each for Jan Ole Gerster’s German Angst and Sebastian Schipper’s Toter Mann; funding is non-repayable and the session also launched a Netflix-backed East German Perspectives initiative offering grants and training for emerging teams.

Paramount declined a developer extension and Paranormal Activity: Threshold is canceled; Brian Clarke and DreadXP amicably parted ways, developer says he won’t rush a sub‑par release and will return to indie horror projects.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt will direct and co-write an untitled Netflix AI thriller produced by Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street; Caleb McLaughlin joins a cast that includes Rachel McAdams, Jeff Daniels, Joel Edgerton and Nnamdi Asomugha, with production expected to begin this summer.

Affection, written and directed by BT Meza and starring Jessica Rothe and Joseph Cross, mixes mad-scientist sci-fi with time-loop horror; the 90-minute film opens in select theaters May 8 and centers on a woman whose memory resets into a cyclical nightmare.

Jimmy Drain’s satanic cult thriller The Dead Rose begins principal photography in LA and Denver with Frank Stallone, Eric Roberts and Andrew Divoff attached to star; production start signals the project moving into active shoot and casting phase.

Allison Williams and Michelle Randolph board HOMEWRECKER, a new sci‑fi thriller from Xavier Gens that’s being pitched in tone like 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, signaling another mid‑budget high‑concept genre entry.

Puppet Combo; indie studio launching a new retro-styled The Backrooms horror game on consoles May 14 with teaser trailer and wish list live, leveraging popular liminal-IP momentum and low-fi nostalgia to target horror game audiences.

Stjepan Šejić revives his cosmic horror series Death Vigil with a new arc from Image Comics and Top Cow debuting August 5, 2026; revival marks a return for the supernatural franchise to comic shelves and trade channels.

$10M budget; Pacifico positions itself as the biggest Spanish-language sci-fi theatrical ever made and is drawing top-tier buyers ahead of Cannes market screenings; Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks produces with heavy practical/VFX work from director Gonzalo Gutiérrez.

Screen Australia and XYZ backed Natalie Erika James’ body-horror Saccharine; filmed in Melbourne with production investment from IPR.VC and Stan and VicScreen support; Maslow Entertainment secured theatrical ANZ distribution and Stan will launch it as a Stan Original Film after its Sydney Film Festival premiere.

Dark Star Pictures acquires North American rights to Brandon Daley’s crypto-horror feature $POSITIONS ahead of its Fantasia premiere and plans an early-2026 theatrical release; outlet debuts an exclusive clip as festival momentum builds.

Spanish-language sci-fi horror Pacifico drops a teaser showing stranded travelers on a Pacific island confronting an ancient evil; film positions humanity as the real alien in a survival-horror adventure.