Children’s TV shows-turned-horror appear to be becoming a new subgenre, and after Sundance’s Buddy was a festival hit, Chroma is backing Nicolas Curcio‘s micro-budget horror movie Play House.
Deadline reports that Play House stars Will Harrison (Daisy Jones & The Six), Jessica Sula (Split), Jordan Gonzalez (The Long Walk), and James Urbaniak (Oppenheimer).
“Play House follows Elliot, a man who buys a dilapidated house in an attempt to prove to his ex that he can finally be a serious adult. While renovating the property, he uncovers VHS tapes of an unaired children’s television show hidden in the basement. What initially appears to be a disturbing DIY kids’ program soon pulls him into obsessive madness, revealing that the tapes, and the house itself, may have a far more sinister backstory.“
Currently in production in Los Angeles, Blumhouse regulars Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath of Divide/Conquer, the genre production company behind the M3GAN films, Heart Eyes, and more, are set to executive produce Play House.
Play House was the inaugural winner of Fantastic Pitches, a micro-budget genre initiative spearheaded by Fantastic Fest and Chroma, which awarded the team $100,000 in production financing. The project was selected by a jury that included filmmaker Matt Johnson (Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie), genre icon Barbara Crampton (Brea Grant’s upcoming Grind, Suitable Flesh), and filmmaker Toby Poser (Hellbender, Mother of Flies).
Curcio is directing from a script written with Kirby Gladstein. Ben Gojer, Jack Forbes and Derek Tramont are producing, with Nina Millin (Grey’s Anatomy) and Kevin Keppy (Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities) rounding out the cast.
