Screen Media, a Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (Nasdaq: CSSE) company, has announced the acquisition of all North American rights to the upcoming horror movie The Accursed starring Mena Suvari (American Beauty), Sarah Grey (Power Rangers), Meg Foster (They Live), and Alexis Knapp (Pitch Perfect). Screen Media plans to release the film as a day and date release in Fall 2022.
Directed by Kevin Lewis (Willy’s Wonderland), The Accursed follows a young woman who is forced to return home following the death of her mother. Consumed by guilt and desperate to escape the haunting visions playing out in her head, she takes a temporary caregiver position for a comatose old lady living alone in the woods. It does not take long before she realizes that not all is as it seems and that the old lady harbors a demonic secret; an evil secret that the old lady’s daughter is intent on passing on.
The film is currently in post-production. GFM Film Sales is handling worldwide sales for the title and will be showing first footage for international distributors during the European Film Market.
Head Gear Films and TPC provided production financing, with the latter also providing brokerage and post accounting services. The film is produced by Marcus Englefield and George Lee for Blood Red Films. Executive producers are Norman Harbert, Merritt Harbert, Scott Harbert, Jeremy Ross, Robyn Klein, Fred Hedman, Michael Ryan, Phil Hunt, Viviana Zarragoitia, David Gendron, Nate Robinson, Rob Kennedy, Edward Kennedy and Oliver Yi. Ntropic Films additionally produced the film on top of handling VFX and post production.
Fred Hedman, GFM Film Sales’ director and executive producer of the film on behalf of Evolution Pictures, commented “We’re thrilled to be working with Screen Media to bring ‘The Accursed’ to US audiences. This is classic horror storytelling at its very finest, brought to life by a world-class creative team led by Kevin Lewis.”
“Hot off the success of Willy’s Wonderland, Screen Media is thrilled to work with director Kevin Lewis on another highly original horror film,” said Screen Media in a statement. “The Accursed is a haunting, twist-filled story that we can’t wait to share with our audiences.”
Seth Needle, EVP of Global Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Screen Media, negotiated the deal with Hedman on behalf of the production.
GFM Film Sales will be attending this year’s EFM virtually with a slate that includes thriller Damaged from director Howard J Ford; completed action thriller No Mercy; and forthcoming heist thriller Severance to be directed by Andy Morahan.
Screen Media recently acquired Fast Charlie starring Pierce Brosnan and directed by Philip Noyce, and is set to release Gold starring Zac Efron in March of 2022. Recent releases include Manny Perez’s La Soga Salvation out of the Toronto International Film Festival, Casey Tebo’s Black Friday starring Devon Sawa and Bruce Campbell, James Nunne’s One Shot starring Scott Adkins and Ryan Phillippe, and Brent Wilson’s documentary Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, which was recently shortlisted for Best Original Song by the Academy Awards.
