Horror Industry News — Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Sony locked worldwide rights to Skeletons at the European Film Market; the Phillip Fracassi short-story adaptation now counts John Goodman, Brie Larson, Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald among its cast.

Backrooms has climbed to approximately $357 million worldwide on a reported $10 million budget, making it A24’s top-grossing release and notching standout holds across China, France, Taiwan, Russia/CIS, Poland and Thailand.

Focus Features sets David Lowery to direct The Fisherman, adapting John Langan’s Bram Stoker Award-winning horror novel. The move puts another prestige horror literary IP into active feature development.

Backrooms has cleared $357 million worldwide and Obsession is over $400 million, giving A24 two viral horror breakouts with serious global legs. The piece also notes Backrooms: Everything Must Go Edition added 15 minutes of new footage to the theatrical run.

A24’s Backrooms and Obsession are locking in the internet-horror pipeline as a real theatrical engine; Backrooms is now being cited at more than $212 million worldwide, underscoring how YouTube-born scare IP can scale to studio box office.

Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s Obsession has crossed $403 million worldwide, with the $750,000 horror breakout now the most profitable pick-up in Focus Features’ history. The run is reinforcing a new theatrical thesis: Gen Z audiences are still turning out for original horror when the hook is sharp.

David Lowery and Michael Bay board a film adaptation of John Langan’s The Fisherman, a cosmic- and folk-horror novel centered on an isolated fishing spot with a supernatural lure. The project has no release window yet; it marks a high-profile horror package pairing an auteur with a franchise producer.

John Goodman boards Sony's J.J. Abrams horror thriller Skeletons alongside Brie Larson; JT Mollner is writing, turning the cast into a cleaner package.

20th Century Studios lands Nue, an original sci-fi feature from Takashi Yamazaki, with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free producing. The package keeps the project in development with Yamazaki, Scott, and Michael Pruss attached and plot details sealed.

Lionsgate retitles Titan to Beware Boiúna and sets the R-rated survival horror pic for theaters Oct. 2, 2026; Mike P. Nelson directs the Brazil-set creature feature starring Kiana Madeira and Jessica Rothe, with Constantin Film and JB Pictures producing.

Dark Sky Films sets Camp for VOD July 10 after a Fantastic Fest world premiere and Brooklyn Horror wins; Avalon Fast’s queer summer camp horror follows a counselor pulled back toward the woods by a whispering force.

MOTELX’s 20th edition rolls out its first four titles, including TIFF-premiered Fuck My Son!, Geoff Barrow’s Game, Yusuke Iwasaki’s JHorror, and Marion Le Corroller’s French body-horror debut Species (Sanguine). The Lisbon horror fest is signaling another year of heavy genre programming, with trailers already live and more titles to follow.

Bleecker Street takes U.S. rights to Audrey Ellis Fox’s psychological thriller NDA, with Rachel Zegler, Penn Badgley and Amy Ryan leading the New York production now underway.

Well Go USA has North American rights to Joko Anwar’s haunted-prison horror Ghost in the Cell; the film premiered at Berlin and already sold into 86 territories, with a U.S. release still pending.

BIFAN’s NAFF Project Market closes with 32 genre projects from 29 countries and 676 business meetings, then hands out cash, post-production, and in-kind support to a slate led by AGAPE, Strange Root, Whistler, My Missing Half, Dawn Chorus, and SLAUGHTERGROUND. Sitges FanPitch, Ventana Sur Fantastic!, and TCCF awards extend the market’s international reach as the selected projects move toward financing and production.

North American June hit $1.07B as Toy Story 5 led the month on $318.9M; horror titles also punched above weight, with Paramount’s Scary Movie reboot taking in $104.5M, A24’s Backrooms reaching $190.5M domestic and Focus’ Obsession climbing to $245M.

2026 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards Best Director nominees are in, putting the horror awards race in motion ahead of the ceremony.

Obsession has topped $25 million across Australia and New Zealand, another international notch in the film’s continuing theatrical run. The regional gross extends the low-budget horror hit’s global momentum after Focus Features’ TIFF pickup.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma lands Jane Schoenbrun’s next feature in Queer Palm territory at Cannes; the postmodern slasher reframes an old franchise IP as queer meta-horror ahead of an August release.

Fantasia’s 2026 program leans hard into horror, creature features, body horror and sci-fi, with world premieres led by The Last Temptation of Becky and Freaks Part II plus Canadian/North American premieres for new Kurosawa, Schoenbrun and Bergholm titles.

Midsummer Scream expands its Hall of Shadows for 2026 with a bigger haunt lineup and a Scream anniversary weekend in Long Beach.

A $350,000 Kickstarter is being used to fund the first two episodes of 'Dinosaurs of the Wild West'; Luke Sparke already has season one and follow-on seasons mapped, with a full pitch bible built around a dinosaur western universe. The campaign is designed to bypass the traditional network and streamer pitch cycle.

Aura Entertainment puts Black Box on VOD today; the supernatural-flight thriller leans into inhuman terror as the launch clip tees up the digital drop.

Maboroshi Artworks opens a closed playtest for SOMBRAS: negative frames ahead of its later-2026 release, using player feedback to fine-tune the psychological horror title. The first-person narrative adventure is now in adjustment mode before launch.

David Chase has Project: MKUltra in development at HBO under his Riverain Pictures first-look; he has optioned John Lisle’s book and is writing the adaptation as both a limited series and a feature, with the film still seeking a distributor.

Jon Erwin leans into AI through his Innovative Dreams company, framing the tech as a jobs-preserving collaboration tool as he mounts House of David and a new Moses series. The interview positions AI adoption as a workflow issue, not a creative threat.

Lee Amir-Cohen’s contemporary S. Ansky adaptation has wrapped in Los Angeles; Steve Guttenberg, Beth Grant and Craig Bierko star alongside writer-producer Ashley Bua.

Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert said the “Evil Dead” revival has leaned on younger directors, hiring Fede Alvarez for 2013’s Evil Dead, Lee Cronin for 2023’s Evil Dead Rise and Sébastien Vaniček for Evil Dead Burn. The new film opens in Thursday previews before going wide Friday.

Sam Raimi’s 1981 debut The Evil Dead, shot in winter 1980 on a tiny budget and later championed by Stephen King after a Cannes screening, is getting a major new upgrade 45 years later.

Universal pulls Soulm8te from the theatrical calendar and lines up an August 1 straight-to-digital release via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment; Kate Dolan’s erotic AI-thriller keeps the M3GAN franchise in play with James Wan and Jason Blum producing.