Horror Industry News — Friday, June 12, 2026

Warner Bros. has acquired Rachel Kushner's 'Creation Lake' for Maggie Gyllenhaal to develop, produce and direct; the spy-thriller follow-up keeps the studio in business with her after 'The Bride!' flopped to $24 million worldwide.

Paul Anthony Kelly has boarded Lionsgate’s The Housemaid’s Secret opposite Sydney Sweeney and Kirsten Dunst as the sequel heads toward production later this year. Lionsgate is leveraging Freida McFadden’s 12M-unit thriller trilogy after The Housemaid topped $400M worldwide.

Apple TV orders a second season of horror-comedy Widow’s Bay and locks creator Katie Dippold to a multiyear overall deal. The streamer keeps the cursed-town series in-house while Dippold stays on as showrunner and develops new projects.

$4.2M Monday on day 25 pushed Obsession to a $234.5M worldwide cume; Focus paid around $15M for the $750K horror breakout, and Curry Barker is already being courted for his next move.

$6.5M in Thursday previews for Universal’s original alien thriller after a $115M production budget and $80M in marketing; the Spielberg tentpole is tracking to a $35M domestic opening and would need roughly $300M global to turn profit.

Netflix and Toho launch an eight-episode reboot of Toho's 1960 The Human Vapor on July 2; Yeon Sang-ho and Shinzo Katayama rework the IP as a sci-fi thriller for worldwide streaming.

A24 is rolling out The Death of Robin Hood with a restrained campaign ahead of its June 19 theatrical launch, and the film is entering market with a reported $25M budget and mixed early reception. The release opens opposite Toy Story 5 while Michael Sarnoski’s profile continues to rise at A24.

$750K indie horror "Obsession" has crossed $165M domestic and passed the latest Star Wars title at the U.S. box office; weekday holds and deferred streaming turned the microbudget release into a theatrical outlier.

Lionsgate takes an equity stake in Runway and expands a preferred AI partnership to train models on its IP for studio-sanctioned shorts; John Wick, The Hunger Games, and Saw are the test cases.

Romania has relaunched its 30% cash rebate with a €10 million-per-project cap and a €55 million annual budget after clearing outstanding debts; OFIC says the streamlined incentive is already pulling foreign shoots back into the country.

Warner Bros. passes on George Miller’s next Mad Max pitch, leaving Amazon, Sony Pictures and Universal to circle the franchise IP. Miller is also floating a TV extension as The Wasteland remains in play after Furiosa’s $120M loss at the studio.

Gersh lands Michael Johnston in a competitive signing after Obsession turned him into a breakout; the $750,000 horror hit has now grossed $234.5 million worldwide for Focus, making it the specialty label’s top-grossing title ever.

Shanghai Film & TV Market is putting remake rights front and center, with Latido pitching Netflix’s ‘The Platform’ as a near-sold remake property and Spain’s ICAA corralling four titles for Asian buyers and partners.

Principal photography has wrapped on Mike Flanagan’s new Exorcist movie, taking the franchise reboot into post. The film now has a completed horror tentpole on deck from one of the genre’s most bankable filmmaker brands.

La Brea turned into a Netflix breakout, logging 1.28 billion minutes in its first full week on the service and topping Nielsen's acquired-program rankings. The spike is another clean example of the Netflix effect, where licensing can revive a canceled broadcast series and reshape platform value.

Production has kicked off in New York on Netflix’s adaptation of Liz Moore’s bestseller; the Sony Pictures Television series is filming in the Hudson River Valley and Adirondacks with Kerry Condon, Maya Hawke and Damon Gupton aboard.

Disney+ greenlights two Canadian originals, including the three-part true-crime docuseries I'm Not Coming Back on the 2019 Northern British Columbia homicides.

Ben Young boards Stephen King's "Mister Yummy" as a feature adaptation; Young co-writes with Troy Abruzzise, with Intrinsic Value Films and Handsome Watson producing.

Netflix is turning Glen Powell’s high-scoring thriller into a spin-off series, extending the movie IP into TV as the streamer keeps mining franchise value.

20th Century is pushing Whalefall as a theatrical spectacle after CinemaCon reaction turned the whale-trap sequence into one of the event’s breakout moments. Brian Duffield says the Daniel Kraus adaptation leans into claustrophobic survival, emotional stakes, and visceral stunt work from Austin Abrams.

Dead by Daylight has topped 70 million players, grown Behaviour Interactive from a 35-person team into a 1,260-worker studio and is now moving toward a film shoot. The Montreal-born horror franchise is also widening beyond the game with graphic novels and new transmedia spins.

Mexico's first feature-length stop-motion pic comes from Cinema Fantasma and the Ambriz brothers; Netflix debuts the fantasy-horror adventure June 12.

BIFAN is launching the world’s first AI competition section as Shin Cheol says the old theatrical model is breaking; the Bucheon training center logged 2,901 graduates and 485 AI shorts last year.

Production wrapped on Netflix’s Argentina-set political thriller Villaflor after a three-month shoot; Camille Cottin, Soledad Villamil and Valeria Lois board the cast ahead of a 2027 launch. Santiago Mitre directs and co-wrote with Mariano Llinás, with La Unión de los Ríos and Maneki Films producing.

Aristotle Athari, Zac Oyama, James A. Janisse, Chelsea Rebecca and Lynley Eilers join the cast as the horror-comedy heads to Tribeca’s Creator Market and Works In Progress slot; the film centers on a toxic-positivity bachelorette reunion gone supernatural.

MGM-side windowing keeps Project Hail Mary on MGM+ first; Prime Video is a later pay-one destination because Amazon greenlit and monetizes MGM titles under a different internal model.

Disney+ and NPO will launch Dutch Werewolves adaptation Wolven: Het Spel Van List En Bedrog on Aug. 29, airing weekly on BNNVARA/NPO 1 and streaming on NPO Start and Disney+; Pieter Derks and Soundos El Ahmadi host.

Pete Ohs' Warsaw-shot microbudget Erupcja lands a TIFF-to-One Two Special distribution deal; the release playbook leans on Q&As, theatrical touring, VOD timing, and fan-edit-friendly marketing, all under a $100,000 budget.

IFC has taken U.S. and Canadian rights to Georgia Bernstein's Night Nurse after its Sundance premiere; the psychosexual thriller is headed to theaters July 10 with Cemre Paksoy, Bruce McKenzie and Mimi Rogers.

AMC Global Media, DreadXP and PHL Games lock Creepshow’s first official videogame adaptation for an August PC/Steam launch; the anthology brand is being translated into self-contained playable horror stories with Brian Clarke steering creative direction.