Amazon, Blue Finch Films & Hulu

Blumhouse lands an option on Puppet Master, with Charles Band saying the pact covers a feature reboot and possible series while he keeps the existing films and merch.

Focus Features’ $15M Obsession acquisition returns to Midnight Madness as a special screening; Neon also slots Na Hong-jin’s Korean sci-fi title Hope, with 10 late-night screenings and six world premieres in the section.

Sony Screen Gems wins Mime from Amazon and Searchlight; Nikyatu Jusu directs, John David Washington stars and produces, and Scott Derrickson is in via Crooked Highway. The supernatural horror package is in active development with a spring shoot targeted.

Blue Finch has taken worldwide sales rights on Kick On, excluding Australia and New Zealand, with Umbrella Entertainment locking ANZ distribution ahead of the Midnight Madness world premiere. The action-horror feature from Nick Kozakis and Fableist Films gets Toronto launchpad exposure as buyers line up at the market.

Black Ribbon Productions launches in Los Angeles with a 2026 horror/sci-fi slate built for digital-first release; first wave includes The Veil anthology, sci-fi shorts Emergence and Thin Air, plus the digital horror campaign Dark Ages.

Bloodline is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival; no cast, filmmaker, release date, or additional production details were provided.

Excel Entertainment and AA Films are set to present and distribute HALF in Hindi across North India as the vampire action thriller gears up for a TIFF Midnight Madness world premiere; the Malayalam title stars Ranjith Sajeev, Aiswarya Raj, Abbas and Amala Paul.

Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas board sci-fi action-thriller Bluefly; Highland Film Group launches worldwide sales at TIFF Market and sets a Gold Coast shoot for later this year. Nimród Antal directs from a script by David Frigerio, William Eubank and Carlyle Eubank, with the package already positioned for buyers.

GDH’s Inherit lands a TIFF world premiere; Banjong Pisanthanakun’s demonic psychological horror adapts Thep Chumsai Na Ayutthaya’s 1991 novel, with Davika Hoorne starring and Barunson E&A handling sales.

Brett and Jason Butler’s satirical horror-thriller STARSUCKERS sets its world premiere at FrightFest 2026; the Canadian indie duo rolls in under Substance Production and Tiny Cabin Pictures.

Blue Finch Films has taken international sales rights on Drag outside North America, with Briarcliff already holding U.S. theatrical distribution. The SXSW-premiered heist thriller comedy is heading to the TIFF market after festival stops at BiFan, Fantasia and FrightFest London.

Netflix is no longer moving forward with “Heckler,” David Fincher’s long-developing English-language “Squid Game” spinoff, according to sources; a familiar cinematographer is joining reshoots for Fincher’s “Cliff Booth.

Apple TV+ and Rutgers University are taking Widow's Bay's final three episodes into AMC Theatres for a free one-night run, a rare theatrical stunt for an Emmy-nominated streaming series.

Giorgia Whigham boards Amazon MGM horror thriller Summoner opposite Kevin Bacon, with Jeremy Slater directing and Andy Muschietti producing. The production is eyeing a fall shoot in Ireland and Amazon MGM is planning a theatrical release.

David Bertolino headlines a Midsummer Scream conversation on how haunted attractions became a multibillion-dollar business; the Spookyworld founder also has a new book, Behind the Screams at Spookyworld, on the table. The panel spotlights the professionalized haunt sector behind seasonal horror entertainment.

Streaming has flattened horror’s discovery funnel, giving older libraries, indies and international titles a direct path to receptive audiences that theatrical and physical-media windows rarely provided.

Locarno’s Alliance 4 Development slate leans into genre crossover, with Jessica Puppo’s “Reign of Silures” pitched as ecological body horror and Claudia Rorarius’ “Humanoid” as grief-driven sci-fi; Bruce LaBruce’s “Third Take” is also in the mix.

Netflix has already deployed AI across roughly 300 productions and is scaling its Interpositive pickup-shot tool with Ben Affleck; Ted Sarandos is drawing a hard line between AI-assisted workflows and fully AI-generated storytelling after a Chinese micro-drama pivot saw engagement drop 70%.

Brainstorm Media sets Big Baby for VOD Aug. 7; Spider One and Krsy Fox’s meta slasher leans hard into bloody horror-comedy territory and keeps Cher, Chaz Bono and Barbara Crampton in the producer orbit.

Paramount Primal and Warner Bros. are locked in a split-rights Freddy fight as each develops its own Nightmare on Elm Street take; Lee Cronin is linked to Warner’s version while J.D. Lifshitz, Raphael Margules and the Craven family are backing Paramount’s play. Disney is also dropping a restored R-rated cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe on Hulu and Disney+ Aug. 14, while George A. Romero’s rejected Resident Evil draft resurfaces.

VIZ Media and The Gotham Group team up to develop film and TV adaptations from VIZ Originals and RWBY; Volume 10 is already in production. The pact gives Gotham first crack at packaging a global IP brand that has topped 350 million views and expanded into games, publishing and merch.

Studiocanal rolls Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man into 409 UK and Ireland venues; the slasher’s generative-AI use is part of the hook, with Radiance also reissuing Nadja in two locations.

Ryan Murphy says he’s built ‘The Shards’ around his own AIDS-era memories and is already mapping a multi-season arc for the FX thriller. The project is adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, with Murphy saying he acquired the rights and sees Seasons 2 and 3 pushing deeper into the serial-killer and epidemic fallout.

Paramount sets Ti West’s Ebenezer for theatrical release on Nov. 13, 2026; Johnny Depp stars as Scrooge with Andrea Riseborough, Ian McKellen, Rupert Grint and Daisy Ridley in the ensemble. Nathaniel Halpern scripts the Dickens ghost-story take, with West bringing a straight horror lens to the adaptation.

8-episode Carrie limited series lands on Prime Video in October; Summer H. Howell leads a cast that includes Samantha Sloyan, Amber Midthunder, Siena Agudong and Matthew Lillard. Mike Flanagan says he auditioned more than 1,000 actresses and is taking the Stephen King classic in a new direction.

Louis Leterrier says The Last House was his hardest shoot yet, built around a fully practical house set with real rain, animals and recycled water to keep the production eco-sensitive. He cites Spielberg, Poltergeist and E.T. as tonal north stars for the Netflix sci-fi horror film.

Hulu drops the trailer for the R-rated director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe ahead of an Aug. 14 Hulu/Disney+ premiere; Chris Carter restores the film to the darker, more horror-driven version he says was cut for theatrical release. The rollout also keeps the franchise hot while Ryan Coogler’s separate reboot remains in development.

James Ross II’s supernatural horror PARASOMNIA lands on Shudder September 4 after a trailer drop; the debut follows a young woman whose night terrors cross into reality.

Korean-UK co-production from February Films and Story Robot lines up its world premiere as the opening film of Tubi FrightFest 2026; Abner Pastoll's Nervous stars Sarah Bolger, Ko Asung and Sungsoo Yune. The psychological horror set around a silence-playing vinyl record rolls into Leicester Square on 27 August.

Studio Dome sets Shivaan Makker’s psychological serial-killer thriller HATE THYSELF for U.S. and Canada digital release on September 1; the cast includes Oscar Torre and Tony Todd.