Horror Industry News — Friday, May 15, 2026

Toei, Thailand’s M Studio and Korea’s Showbox board a cross‑border Junji Ito adaptation The Long Hair In The Attic with Thai director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri attached; the VFX‑heavy horror is in development with a 2027 shoot and is positioned as a regional model for internationally scalable genre filmmaking.

XYZ Films and Paris financier Vixens ink a multi-picture slate financing deal with Flesh Of The Gods—starring Kristen Stewart and Wagner Moura—set as the first title and backed by IPR.VC and YouRoc; the arrangement continues XYZ’s model of market-savvy international genre financing. The slate dovetails with XYZ’s track record on filmmaker-driven genre (Panos Cosmatos’ A24 acquisition mentioned) and expands cross-border investor appetite for indie genre projects.

Joe Begos and WTFilms are developing They Call Him Zorro, a violent, horror-leaning reimagining of Johnston McCulley’s Zorro set in present-day Los Angeles with Begos writing/directing and shooting planned on 35mm; WTFilms is financing and casting the lead while positioning the property as a brutal vigilante horror-action hybrid.

Alex Turner boards to direct Beg the Devil, a thriller adaptation of Sean Doolittle’s novel The Cleanup, with Brenton Thwaites, Grace Van Dien, Emile Hirsch and Ron Perlman attached and production slated to begin in September in the U.S.; Film Mode Entertainment is handling market representation at Cannes.

26-year-old Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession led Focus Features to acquire his follow-up Anything but Ghosts and A24 to tap him to reboot Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Barker is a YouTube-to-feature success with a horror sensibility likened to Ari Aster, marking another young-director pipeline into mainstream genre filmmaking.

Natalie Dormer boards Netflix thriller The Big Fix; Baltasar Kormákur directs and produces alongside Peter Chernin and David Ready for Chernin Entertainment; Mark Wahlberg and Riz Ahmed star; script by Guy Bolton and Justin Haythe; book adaptation inspired by Brett Forrest about an international FIFA match‑fixing scandal.

Malcolm McDowell boards a new Herbert West: Reanimator adaptation scripted by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe with production set to shoot in Alton, Illinois; project revives Lovecraft IP with a veteran lead attached.

Netflix greenlights Barbaric, adapting Vault Comics' medieval fantasy with Sheldon Turner as series creator/co‑showrunner and Robert Rovner co‑showrunning; Sam Claflin boards as lead, Patrick Stewart voices the demonic axe, and Michael Bay set to direct episodes.

Ron Scalpello boards as director on Deployed: Colombia, the first in a planned film series adapting Andy McNab’s Liam Scott novels; MasonMediaMatrix holds rights with Circus Studios as EP and international sales lead, positioning a franchise of gritty military thrillers for global distribution.

Crypt TV boards Peter Klausner’s body-horror short Stomach It for digital release May 15 after a heavy festival run including Screamfest and Panic Fest; ISOTRE Films and producer Torey Rubin produced the practical-effects-heavy crime-scene-cleaner tale debuting at Cannes and streaming on Crypt TV.

$14.3 million in new California antitrust funding added to the 2026‑27 budget to beef up investigations and litigation; funding aims to support probes including the ongoing Paramount–WBD merger review and signals heightened state enforcement risk for major media consolidations.

Amazon MGM paid roughly USD 70 million to acquire worldwide rights to Supermax from Miramax; Will Smith headlines, David Gordon Green directs, filming starts mid-August and the studio plans a Prime Video streaming release, signaling a high-value streamer-backed thriller play.

$110 billion proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery mega‑merger on the table; analysts claim the deal could create 40,000 jobs and a 30‑picture annual slate with a pledged 45‑day theatrical window, positioning the combined studio to reshape theatrical/streaming economics.

The Nomadic Film Space launched at Cannes as a traveling market platform to connect African creative producers with institutional capital; curated by Yetu (Un)limited with partners including Afreximbank, Téléfilm Canada, Film Fund Luxembourg and SACD, the platform aims to create structured investor engagement from development through distribution.

UK indie Unified hired Claire Lamarra as Creative & Production Executive and brought on Aidan Milburn as a digital consultancy to expand its film and TV slate and digital arm; Unified’s slate includes Shane Meadows’ Chork and Scorn, and the company is supported by the UK Global Screen Fund and BBC’s Small Indie Growth Fund.

Deep Fusion appoints Max Alexander, a Vine FX veteran, to head a new VFX/AI division; move signals growing studio investment in AI-enabled effects workflows that could lower costs and accelerate postproduction for indie horror and genre VFX-heavy projects.

Final California governor debate omitted film-production issues including expansion of the state film tax credit despite prior candidate support for an uncapped plan; the absence matters as federal incentive talks and competitive international markets put production policy back on studios’ radar.

ACFM released the Second Half 2025 edition of The A Report mapping trends across 16 Asian screen industries; the report highlights market shifts, festival and distribution signals relevant to international buyers and producers.

Sundance names 10 fellows and eight projects for its 2026 Episodic Lab relocating to Dunaway Gardens, Georgia May 15–20; creative advisors include James Wong from American Horror Story and industry mentors from Netflix, AMC+ and 3 Arts, signaling continued pipeline support for genre-leaning TV creators.

Airlines are tightening content budgets and shifting to more frequent refresh cycles; buyers like Anuvu still pre-buy indie titles but note that horror and excessive nudity underperform for in-flight audiences, a distribution constraint impacting genre sales and presales strategies.

Premiering in Cannes’ Midnight Screenings, Species is Marion Le Corroller’s body-horror debut; 103-minute French medical-virus thriller stars Mara Taquin and Karin Viard, pairs strong practical effects with a Gen Z–linked viral-mutation conceit and high-impact midday hospital setpieces.

Marion Le Corroller's debut unleashes a gore-forward coming-of-age fantasy that marries social satire with visceral practical-effects set pieces; midnight-circuit crowd play expected but no industry deals or distribution news disclosed.

Collider positions Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma as Schoenbrun’s most horror‑leaning film yet, praising its exploration of identity, fandom and eroticism while noting it’s crafted as a love letter to slasher culture with Hannah Einbinder anchoring the emotional core opposite Gillian Anderson.

Japanese genre cinema programming—branded The Horā!—is showcased on the Croisette at Cannes, highlighting Japan’s horror and genre titles for international buyers and festival programmers this market season.

Sci‑Fi‑London Day Three spotlights two time‑travel/loop films; Sam Voutas’ Yesterday Island riffs on transferable Groundhog Day residencies with a dark moral-comedy bent, while Steve Taylor’s ReLive sends a mother back to assassinate the technologist behind a mass‑vanishing event.

$30.99B total primetime upfront spend last year; streamers grabbed ~$13.2B while broadcast and cable split the rest; upfronts tilted toward sports rights, star-driven renewals and conservative slates with AI ad tech buzz, and Peacock/Peacock-adjacent presentations surfaced A24/Linda Cardellini’s Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake on the advertiser stage.

Frameline50 logs Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma as its closing-night film and will present Jane Schoenbrun with the Frameline Queer Lens Award; Mubi is lined up to release the film theatrically Aug. 7 and star Hannah Einbinder will attend the Castro Theatre screening.

Marion Le Corroller’s Species is a Cannes midnight body‑horror that channels Cronenberg and Ducournau with a standout lead turn from Mara Taquin; WTFilms handles sales and the film blends grotesque practical effects with social satire and an unusually bleak climax.

Production has begun in Rhode Island on teen horror My Boyfriend Is a Demon; cast boards include David Arquette, Rosanna Arquette, Coco Arquette, Jack Champion and Mattias Ferrell, positioning the film as multi-generational horror casting with indie production footprint.

IFC sets CHUM for theatrical + VOD/digital release June 5, 2026; Jonathan Zuck directs a destination‑wedding shark thriller starring Alice Eve with international Malta shoot and producers Ryan R. Johnson and Kurt Fethke attached.

Lanterns will span 2016 and 2026 across eight episodes with Hal and John chasing linked mysteries; showrunner Chris Mundy promises grounded, practical VFX for Green Lantern constructs and teases Sinestro’s complex role rather than a straight villain arc.

Kate Beckinsale boards WHITE, a shark-set survival thriller also casting Katherine McNamara; the project continues the persistent shark-horror subgenre and positions star-driven survival fare for festival and genre-market interest.

Casting rumor links a creature performer from Alien: Romulus to the role of 'The Lifeform' in A24’s Backrooms film; if true it signals A24 favoring practical creature talent and cross-pollination between indie creature-heavy projects.

Myriad Pictures secured U.S./North American rights to Sebastian Schindel’s Argentine crime-psychological thriller A Silent Death and plans a Q3 2026 release after a deal negotiated by Kirk D’Amico and Guido Rud.

Screenlife cyber-heist thriller LifeHack debuts its opening five minutes ahead of a May 15 theatrical release via Triple Media Film and Iconic Events; Irish first-time feature director Ronan Corrigan uses true-event inspiration for a screenlife-format genre entry.

Lanterns uses two timelines (2016 and 2026) with events of Superman occurring between them; showrunner Chris Mundy confirms Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner appears multiple times and frames Hal Jordan as a reluctant mentor to John Stewart ahead of the Aug. 16 HBO/HBO Max premiere.

Lucasfilm pulled The Mandalorian Season 4 in favor of a feature, and Jon Favreau rebooted the story from scratch to make The Mandalorian and Grogu a standalone film that works for newcomers while still rewarding series fans; Dave Filoni emphasizes accessibility as the rationale for the format shift.

Well Go USA released a trailer and will VOD-release Broken Land in June; J.T. Walker's modern Western thriller stars David Morse as a reclusive rancher drawn into protecting an injured pregnant migrant, with themes of redemption and border tensions.

Leaks suggest Assassin’s Creed 'Hexe' is set during the 1620s Würzburg Witch Trials with a rumored protagonist Anika Auditore, descendants-of-Ezio connective tissue, and supernatural mechanics including blood magic, spirit pacts, and Ezio’s ghost as a guide; details remain unconfirmed but indicate a darker, witchcraft-forward tonal pivot for the franchise.

Obsession (writer‑director Curry Barker) lands strong critical praise for tight tension and standout performances from Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston; psychological wish‑horror premise rated highly by this reviewer.

HBO/DC’s Lanterns will run dual timelines with Sinestro fallout and Guy Gardner integral to the plot; showrunner Chris Mundy frames the series as a decade-spanning cop-mystery that preserves Green Lantern mythology.

$70M Supermax heads to Prime Video with Will Smith and David Gordon Green; the piece parses the logic of a streaming‑first release despite star power and studio budget, highlighting writers David Weil and David J. Rosen and Green’s recent genre track record.

Inde Navarrette’s lead turn in Curry Barker’s horror debut Obsession is being positioned as an awards-season contender; the piece argues the Academy’s growing openness to genre performances increases her prospects as the film opens May 15.

Curry Barker’s Obsession is framed as a violent, effective modern Monkey’s Paw tale that spotlights codependency and delivers a standout lead performance, reinforcing the film’s positioning within contemporary supernatural horror.

Cannes-bound psychological thriller Karma unveils a teaser with Marion Cotillard leading director Guillaume Canet’s village-set mystery; marks another auteur-driven international thriller premiering at Cannes.

Shark survival thriller Chum lands a June 5 theatrical/On Demand release; Alice Eve headlines a Mediterranean-set pic about a wedding turned nightmare with a predatory fisherman and a ravenous shark, positioning it in summer genre play.

South Korea theatrical bow set for June 17, 2026; new trailer teases Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s latest horror feature, confirming an imminent theatrical rollout in Asia.