Horror Industry News — Tuesday, June 2, 2026

StudioCanal and The Picture Company set Zack Snyder to write and direct a reimagining of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York; Carpenter exec produces and the feature is being lined up for theaters.

Neon sets Sept. 9 U.S. theatrical for Na Hong-jin’s sci-fi creature feature Hope after Cannes presales to roughly 200 territories recouped nearly half the net budget; Mubi, Focus Features and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions are among the buyers.

Lionsgate picks up Christopher Golden’s supernatural thriller Carry Me to My Grave, with Francis Lawrence boarded to develop and potentially direct through his first-look deal. Cameron Maconomy produces; the novel lands at St. Martin’s Press on July 21.

$118M global opening for Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has turned the Vancouver-shot horror adaptation into an overnight franchise play; Chris Ferguson says new offers are flooding in as A24, Atomic Monster, Chernin Entertainment and 21 Laps back the breakout. Neon-backed Phobos is using the Longlegs playbook to push the next wave of genre packaging.

Kane Parsons' Backrooms has surged to $81.4M domestic on a reported $10M budget; A24 now has a breakout horror hit and Parsons is already teasing sequels.

A PEACEMAKER actress goes cannibalistic in FEVERGOTH: KURU, putting another indie horror title on the radar. No financing or distribution details are attached yet.

Coin Operated has secured Robert R. McCammon’s Yellowjacket Summer for feature development, with Daniel Kraus on screenplay duties and Gary Dauberman/Mia Maniscalco producing. The creature-feature adaptation is moving under Dauberman’s horror-focused production banner.

Natasha Lyonne boards Red Sea as producer on Lina Malaika’s Saudi survival thriller, now in development and in casting/funding mode with writers Heaven Howard and Brooke Schlegel attached.

Production is underway on Hyde, with Holt McCallany joining Bruce Greenwood, Bill Camp, Nathalie Emmanuel and David Harewood in the serial-killer thriller from Graham and Parker Phillips. Phillips Pictures, Traction and Cassian Elwes are producing; Keith Danko is on as EP.

A24 is fast-tracking Backrooms 2 after the first film’s $80M+ run; Kane Parsons is still hunting a screenwriting collaborator, with no stars or greenlight in place yet.

Zach Cregger has split from Artists First after roughly 15 years and is staying put with CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. The Weapons and Barbarian filmmaker remains booked through Sony’s Resident Evil, New Line’s The Flood, and the Weapons prequel Gladys.

Paradigm adds Iona Bell as Lionsgate readies Sunrise on the Reaping; her next run includes Netflix thriller Yeti and the slasher Pinocchio Unstrung, while twin Cameron Bell lands at the same shop.

Disney+ UK & Ireland has taken Australian horror-comedy Gnomes, while AMC Global Media grabbed Spain and Portugal; the six-parter pits Asa Butterfield and Megan Smart against bloodthirsty garden gnomes and demon hunters.

Sitges and Fundació SGAE open the second Josefina Molina fantasy feature screenplay prize, a €10,000 award for women writers submitting original, unpublished scripts. The winner will be announced at Sitges 2026 through the festival’s WomanInFan program.

Mubi Fest Chicago returns July 10-12 for its third edition, with Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma getting a Chicago premiere alongside a preview of Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebush Pruning and repertory screenings of The Substance and Lurker. The event doubles as a brand push for Mubi after last year’s $100M Sequoia investment backlash.

AMC is fielding multiple bidders for The Walking Dead rights as Netflix’s license on Fear the Walking Dead nears expiry; co-exclusive packaging could keep the zombie franchise split across streaming homes.

Sydney Sweeney’s Honey Trap lands a Sony first-look; Barbarella stays active at Sony/TriStar with Edgar Wright attached, Jane Goldman and Honey Ross scripting, and Sweeney producing and starring.

Sanaa Lathan boards Sophia Banks’ wildfire-set thriller as Evie’s mother; the Getaway Entertainment feature is already in production in Los Angeles with Briana Middleton and Kyle Allen leading the cast.

Alien whistleblower pic Disclosure Day gets Spielberg’s most fact-driven sci-fi framing yet, with the director positioning it as a summation of his genre work ahead of its June 12 theatrical launch. Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell and Colin Firth lead the cast.

At Deadline’s Reality TV Summit UK, Felicity Morris said Netflix’s American Nightmare deliberately made Denise Huskins’ kidnapping and Aaron Quinn’s treatment by police the focus, leaving Matthew Muller as “a footnote”; the March 2015 case was a global Netflix top 10 hit.

Focus Features paid $14-15M for Obsession at TIFF off a sub-$1M budget; the film has topped $148M worldwide, while Backrooms is already at $118M and has a sequel on the way.

A24 and Lyrical Media co-financed Wingard's desert-set action-horror feature; principal photography ran in Albuquerque from November 2024 to January 2025, with nationwide theatrical rollout set for Sept. 4, 2026.