Horror Industry News — Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Tubi turns Terror on Tubi into a permanent horror hub, with 13,000+ hours of genre programming and 53 million monthly horror viewing hours driving the move; fall Tubi Originals include Buzzkill and R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2, and the hub expands across Canada, the U.K., Australia, Mexico and Latin America.

Fantastic Fest packs 35 world premieres, 21 international/North American premieres, and 14 U.S. premieres into its 2026 slate; Fantastic Pitches returns with a $100,000 financing, distribution, and sales prize as Lionsgate’s Beware Boiúna opens and Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil anchors opening night.

Drew Hancock’s Seasons sets Jack Reynor opposite Lily James at Amazon MGM; the film adapts Matt & Harrison Query’s viral Reddit horror story/novel about an alive ranch and ancient spirits. 21 Laps, Blumhouse Atomic Monster and 12:01 Films are producing, with Hancock directing from his own script.

Blue Finch has boarded worldwide sales on Rocko Zevenbergen’s sci-fi horror comedy ahead of its Fantastic Fest world premiere; the title came through Sitges FanPitch and will launch to buyers at Toronto’s new industry market.

Bruce Campbell is done playing Ash Williams in any format, including voice work; Evil Dead Burn and the upcoming Evil Dead Wrath move forward without him on-screen. Campbell is redirecting his time to his own directing projects, including Ernie and Emma, while staying attached to the franchise behind the scenes.

Shudder and Independent Film Company picked up River ahead of its TIFF Midnight Madness world premiere; the Joshua Giuliano feature debut is also lined up for Fantastic Fest and will roll out as a Shudder Original.

Zero Gravity Management signs Mexican indie horror filmmaker Alex Kahuam via David Romero; House of Holloway wrapped and is in post, with next projects Stay With Me and an untitled sci-fi horror pic queued up.

Tubi folds R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead 2 into the new Terror on Tubi hub for Halloween; the rollout pairs franchise IP with the streamer’s permanent horror shelf.

Amanda Warren and Evan Jonigkeit board sci-fi horror Door; Sara and Wil Magness are shooting their directorial debut in Portland with a family-unravels-through-dimensional-gateway hook.

Ex Machina Studios locks a North American theatrical distribution pact with Mayfair Media Group for AI-assisted features Paradise Lost and Heaven, both heading for wide 2027 releases on 1,500-plus screens. Heaven carries an $80 million to $100 million budget range, while the rollout is being pitched as a test case for legitimizing AI filmmaking in theaters.

Cineverse has picked up Deathwoods for Screambox; Scott Conner’s ’80s-style slasher is also set for Prime Video TVOD, giving the indie horror a wider digital rollout.

82 features across five screens at London’s Tubi FrightFest; 24 world premieres, 16 countries represented, and The Glorious Dead lands a Sunday 1:20pm main-screen slot.

D-War 2 is finished, with Shim Hyung-rae teasing a simultaneous worldwide release and a companion game while the original D-War spikes back into Netflix's regional Top 10.

Netflix orders Sid & Zoey straight to series; Jon Kasdan and John Shiban co-showrun the supernatural YA project with Bad Robot and Blumhouse Atomic Monster producing. J.J. Abrams, Jason Blum and James Wan are on the EP slate as the streamer continues to stack young-adult genre programming.

Oct. 2 rollout set for Fremantle and Steel Springs Pictures’ eight-episode adaptation of Nick Harkaway’s novel; Prime Video carries the series across multiple international territories while AMC+ takes U.S. rights.

Fantastic Fest gets Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Pathetic Fallacy next month; Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi, Jessica Rothe, Travis Fimmel, and Natasha Lyonne headline the psychedelic horror feature.

Hulu lands first U.S. buyer rights to Banijay Rights’ true-crime doc The Promise: Finding My Mother’s Killer and also picks up Australian series Invisible Boys; the package widens Hulu’s nonfiction and imported drama slate for the Disney bundle.

Production is underway in London on Cast Me!; Marcus Anthony Thomas’s psychological thriller stars Iniki Mariano, Samuel Adewunmi, Stella Gonet, Dean-Charles Chapman and Clare Holman, with 2020Films making its first feature.

Laszlo Illes’ blood-soaked fairy-tale mashup is set for a September theatrical bow, with the campaign pitching Ever After as an award-winning horror-fantasy crossover.

Shudder sets PARASOMNIA for a Sept. 4 streaming bow, with Chicago and NYC showcase screenings ahead of release; James Ross II wrote and directed the 85-minute horror pic starring Jasmine Mathews, RJ Brown and Stephen Barrington.

Mariano Cattaneo’s retro horror-thriller is now live on North American digital platforms; the release follows the filmmaker’s Disney+ Latin America breakout with The Weirdest Girl in the World.

Seán McLoughlin and Alanah Pearce are self-financing Godmother, with Pearce scripting and John Veron directing; the creator-led feature keeps the project in the indie horror lane as internet creators keep moving into genre production.

Uncork’d Entertainment sets a Sept. 1 digital and on-demand rollout for Kurt Martin’s creature feature The Room Below; the indie stars Alyssa Sutherland and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Clive Barker launches Library of the Dead as a three-book horror anthology on Kickstarter for Aug. 18, 2026, with Fear Eternal, Pyres of Bedlam and Dark Descents plus remastered Books of Blood editions and limited collectibles.