Horror Industry News — Saturday, August 29, 2026

US originals are on track for $8.25 billion worldwide in 2026, with 43% coming from international markets. Universal Pictures International says non-franchise films are regaining global muscle as social-first audiences and cross-border appeal widen the lane.

Scott has gone back into the next Alien screenplay and is rewriting it himself, signaling a major course-correction for the franchise after Romulus. The sequel path is now being steered around Scott’s unfinished Covenant-era storyline.

Starboard Entertainment and Stonecutter Media line up an Oct. 6 PVOD launch for Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence after its Aug. 7 theatrical bow; the fifth franchise entry pairs the cult IP with Atomic Toybox Entertainment.

Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games set Hellraiser: Revival for Nintendo Switch 2 on Oct. 8, 2026; Clive Barker signed off on the adaptation and the dev team says it keeps the franchise's depraved violence and sexual content intact.

Summer indie theatrical results separate the winners from the losers, with Backrooms and Obsession among the standouts while I Want Your Sex lands on the weaker side of the ledger; the report tracks the current ceiling for specialty horror and thriller releases.

Etch and Lilly Wachowski’s Anarchists United Studios will premiere a comedic occult docuseries on YouTube September 16; Netflix and Wheelhouse are also preparing a maternity-ward documentary series.

Tubi FrightFest gives The Death of Us a genre-launch platform as Marta Svetek adds another horror title to her on-screen slate.

Rebekah Herzberg is packaging BATTU as a Lovecraftian, PMDD-centered horror feature; Donny Avery, Heather Beck and Jon Hearn are set, with a Texas shoot targeted for 2027.

Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery bid would start with roughly $82 billion in debt; Los Angeles County models 10,360 job-years at risk and $4.06 billion in lost output as $6 billion in annual synergies drive consolidation.

Netflix launches The Whisper Man today; Alex North adaptation stars Robert De Niro, Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan as a father tracks an abducted son tied to a decades-old serial killer.

Netflix quietly optioned 25+ books and comics for future film and TV development; the slate leans on proven IP, with thriller and prestige titles like Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders, Harlan Coben’s Drop Shot, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

Danny Ramirez joins Joseph Kosinski's Miami Vice '85 reboot at Universal; the film already has Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler set to lead and is slated for Aug. 6, 2027.

Wachowski had optioned Aubrey Wood’s cyberpunk novel Bang Bang Bodhisattva for a feature after publication, but the project stalled after the rights deal. She is now producing Cassie Workman Is Witchy AF, an eight-part occult docuseries for YouTube.

Quarxx’s The Ones Who Grieve will make its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Sept. 17–24, 2026. The 19th-century French period horror stars Thierry Frémont and Zélie Rixhon and is seeking U.S. distribution.

Sundance-premiered thriller doc 'Hanging By A Wire' lands in theaters via Abramorama; Mohammed Ali Naqvi spotlights the 2023 Battagram cable-car rescue story.

Hammer’s 1957 fantasy horror The Abominable Snowman receives a new 4K restoration making its world premiere at FrightFest 2026; Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker and Maureen Connell star in Nigel Kneale’s adaptation of his 1955 BBC play The Creature.

Hulu locked a second season for ‘Furious’ after week-over-week gains; the streamer cited 40% episode-7 growth versus the premiere and a 100% launch-day Rotten Tomatoes score, signaling continued appetite for serial-killer prestige thrillers.

Jacob Tremblay plays young Ted Kaczynski in Netflix’s two-timeline true-crime film; Shailene Woodley and Russell Crowe co-star, with Janus Metz directing from a Sam Chalsen/Nelson Greaves script. Netflix sets a September 25 launch.

Filmin sets Sept. 1 exclusive premiere for George Kay’s Gone; David Morrissey and Eve Myles lead the book-inspired mystery-thriller, with tension-first marketing around the central disappearance case.

Kane Parsons and It Ends director Alex Ullom frame liminal horror as the genre answer to a surreal moment; the piece spotlights a Gen-Z audience shift toward dread-heavy, internet-native horror without any deal or production announcement.

North Carolina’s new year-to-year grant rule pushed Lionsgate’s The Hunting Wives to relocate; the state’s film-incentive rewrite just weakened multi-year production packages.

Anathema has taken the Storyline Production Award at New Nordic Films, giving the project market cachet and added production momentum.

Hot Spot spent four years in development around a near-future AI dystopia; Agnieszka Smoczyńska kept AI out of production and Focus Features is rolling it out stateside.

Bleecker Street will release Anton Corbijn’s literary thriller A Talent for Murder in October after its world premiere at TIFF, starring Helen Mirren as Patricia Highsmith opposite Alden Ehrenreich.

Locarno-premiered Bloody Tennis lands on Shudder Sept. 25; Nikias Chryssos' tennis-academy horror turns elite competition into a sinister pressure-cooker.