Horror Industry News — Friday, August 14, 2026

Netflix shuts Night School Studio and Moonloot while narrowing its games business around kids, party and story-driven titles; the cull lands six weeks after interactive horror title Unhinged launched and follows prior cuts at Spry Fox, Boss Fight and Team Blue.

Grimmfest unveils its full 2026 Manchester lineup, with world, UK, and regional premieres across horror, folk-horror, and thriller lanes; Hammer's Ithaqua, Quarxx's The Ones Who Grieve, and a Spanish-language strand headline the slate, with Adrienne Barbeau set for a lifetime achievement honor.

Skeet Ulrich boards indie psychological horror Deify as a cult leader on trial for mass burnings; Neal McDonough also joins as the prosecuting attorney. Brothers Carmelo and Nicholas Chimera are mounting the Chicago shoot with Jordan Gianeschi, Jacob Rice and Mike Manning producing.

Seth Kearsley joins Marvel Zombies Season 2 as the animated horror team expands; the writer-director says the Disney+ run is aiming for “no holds barred martial arts and gore.”

Paramount Primal has picked up Tower Defense, a medieval supernatural spin on Assault on Precinct 13. The package leans on John Carpenter and Howard Hawks DNA as it moves into studio development.

Mitchell’s It Follows sequel gets a fresh production update; no casting, financing or distribution terms are disclosed.

Hammer Films has Ithaqua on deck as a new survival-horror title; the project is set for its world premiere at FrightFest London on Aug. 29, 2026.

Neon is pairing IT ENDS’ Aug. 21 NY/LA opening and Aug. 28 nationwide rollout with a 36-hour NYC theater endurance contest and indie-theater partner invite; the film also gets a Vancouver sneak screening with Kane Parsons Q&A.

Half Mermaid has tapped Brandon Cronenberg to co-write and co-develop Precognition, a live-action sci-fi horror FMV game now funded through Kinetic Publishing after the project’s earlier Blumhouse Games tie fell away. Spring 2028 launch is targeted for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC.

YouTube-born horror is forcing a reset on where the genre finds new voices, with Backrooms and Obsession feeding fresh development chatter. Funders still want “elevated horror,” but the money is not matching the pitch; Toronto and Venice are the next pressure tests for that pipeline.

Wrapped in Minnesota with Mark McKenna and Stephen Lang leading; the psychological thriller is targeting a 2027 festival-and-market launch, with sales attachment now in play.

Kino Lorber lands Darkroom on Blu-ray with 4K restorations of all seven episodes and new commentaries; the 1981 horror anthology gets a fresh catalog window.

Scott Z. Burns’ new American Psycho draft keeps the killing off the page until the final fifteen pages; Drew Starkey’s script read keeps Bateman casting chatter alive while Lionsgate still weighs Luca Guadagnino’s attachment.

A24’s 8-episode legal thriller Discretion is in production for Paramount+; Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Josh Lucas, Stephan James and Colton Ryan star, with Matt Shakman directing the first four episodes and a 2027 global launch set.

Hong Kong shoot confirms Henry Cavill’s 'Highlander' reboot is in production; neon-draped street builds and extras in period dress point to a 2040-set sequence.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is saluting John Carpenter with a Luminary Award this Halloween season while rolling out its immersive exhibit “The Horror Show.” Robert Rodriguez, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw are co-chairing the gala.

50 Canadian screen organizations are pressuring Ottawa to keep enforceable streamer contribution quotas under the Online Streaming Act, warning that discretionary funding won't replace the CRTC's 15% Canadian programming spend benchmark. The coalition says foreign platforms must keep reinvesting in Canadian and Indigenous content as the government revises policy direction.

Locarno Open Doors tapped Accept My Plea for Burial for an Open Doors Grant as the Somali thriller seeks a co-production partner and a home country to move into production; the project is set as a Djibouti-Somalia-Qatar co-production and is one of the platform’s two main winners.

Sunscreen Film Festival is launching Sunscreen Fantastic Fest as its first explicit genre offshoot, with the inaugural edition set for St. Petersburg on Nov. 28. The move widens another regional fest's lane into horror and sci-fi programming.

Supernatural horror film Passenger begins streaming on Paramount+ Aug. 20, followed by Blu-ray and DVD releases Sept. 8.

Netflix locks Nov. 19, 2026 for The Altruists, an 8-episode limited series on Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison; Julia Garner and Anthony Boyle star, with Graham Moore and Jacqueline Hoyt showrunning for Higher Ground.

Octavia Spencer fronts Investigation Discovery’s three-part Lost Women of Alaska as narrator and executive producer; the series frames the Brian Steven Smith killings as a systemic failure, not entertainment. Spencer says the mission is justice, visibility and accountability for missing Indigenous women.

Well Go USA sets an Aug. 14 theatrical 4K re-release for Train to Busan; Yeon Sang-ho ties the zombie breakout’s legacy to his next horror feature, Colony, which opens Aug. 28.

Kickstarter launches today for I Love Apocalyptic Zombie Misfits as Clover Press debuts The Fourth Leaf, using crowdfunding to seed a new creator-owned line.

Dark Sky Films and Fathom are rolling Texas Chain Saw Day back into theaters for a one-night national event on Aug. 18, while Dark Sky and Exurbia Films unveil the first look at the rotoscoped Texas Chain Saw Massacre, now in production for 2027. The package also adds a CREEPY podcast prologue and live Q&As in Los Angeles and Austin.

Cineplex books Mike P. Nelson's Beware Boiúna for Oct. 2 in Canada; the Amazon-set creature horror pairs Kiana Madeira, Jessica Rothe, and Logan Marshall-Green with a theatrical-first Canadian play.

Prime Video rolls out the first teaser for Mike Flanagan’s Carrie miniseries, which updates Stephen King’s prom-night carnage with a cyberbullying angle; Summer Howell stars with Samantha Sloyan, Matthew Lillard, Amber Midthunder, Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, and a full eight-episode launch on Oct. 7.