Blood List 2019: Best Unmade Horror Scripts Include Olivia Wilde Thriller
By Matt Donnelly
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Blood List, an annual survey of Hollywood’s best unproduced horror scripts, has anointed a class of 2019 which includes an Olivia Wilde project, an extreme bodybuilding misadventure and a sinister trip to a luxury spa.
Now in its eleventh year, the list was created by Brillstein Partners manager and producer Kailey Marsh (Hulu’s “Light as a Feather”). Over 50 film and TV executives at the story editor level and above voted on this year’s crop of scripts, a mix of both features and pilots, in horror and subgenres like thriller, sci-fi and dark comedy. The report also offers a user-submitted list called “Fresh Blood,” which saw 513 entrants on site.
The most high profile of the projects is “Don’t Worry Darling,” set up at New Line with Wilde (“Booksmart”) taking the lead in front of and behind the camera. Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke wrote the psychological thriller set in the 1950s. She’ll play housewife “whose reality begins to crack, revealing a disturbing truth underneath.” Wilde, Katie Silberman and Vertigo Entertainment are producing.
Another interesting title that doubtlessly pleased the industry crowd was “Detox,” from writers Kevin Armento and Jaki Bradley. That follows a young woman who joins her best friend at wellness retreat in Arizona, and “begins to suspect that the revitalizing spa treatments, serums, and macrobiotic meals are part of something closer to a dangerous cult, run by the retreat’s charismatic leader.” Divide/Conquer and XYZ Films are producing.
Read on for the full list, which includes projects from “Avengers: Endgame” co-director joe Russo and more.
Title: “Shut In”
Writer: Melanie Toast
Genre: Thriller
Logline: A single mother must do everything she can to protect her children and survive when she is held captive by her violent ex, and her two young children are left at risk.
Status: Set up at New Line. Cinestate, Farah Films and Vertigo Entertainment are producing.
Title: “Apex”
Writer: Stephen Vitale
Genre: Psychological Thriller/ Horror
Logline: A mysterious loner heads to Muscle Beach in 1985 to pursue a career as a competitive bodybuilder. Struggling to transform his physique, he unleashes a darker side of himself as he descends into madness.
Status: Stephen Vitale is attached to direct. Keep Your Head Productions, Free Will and Wild Bunch are producing.
Title: “Deep Water”
Writer: Tracee Beebe
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Logline: Trapped on a sinking boat in shark infested waters, two young women must work together to survive a threat worse than the predators lurking beneath the waves…
Status: Vincent Newman Entertainment and Joe Russo are producing.
Title: “The Traveler”
Writer: Austin Everett
Genre: Sci-Fi
Logline: At the same time every morning, Scott Treder has started jumping forward in time. First a day, then two, four, eight, etc. He struggles to keep his family together and find a cure, all as his secret spreads throughout the world.
Status: Set up at MGM.
Title: “Don’t Worry Darling”
Writers: Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Logline: A psychological thriller about a 1950s housewife whose reality begins to crack, revealing a disturbing truth underneath.
Status: Set up at New Line. Olivia Wilde attached to direct and star. Vertigo Entertainment, Olivia Wilde & Katie Silberman are producing.
Title: “10/31”
Writers: Based on a story by Laurie Ashbourne, Screen Story by Kathy Charles, Screenplay by Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble.
Genre: Horror
Logline: The story follows a young woman who takes her niece and nephew trick or treating and discovers a note inside a candy wrapper that says there’s a killer loose on her block.
Status: Set up at Orion. Arts District Entertainment and Bellevue Productions are producing.
Title: “First Harvest”
Writer: Kevin McMullin
Genre: Supernatural Horror
Logline: A goat farmer discovers a newborn baby among the bodies of a cult’s mass suicide. In nurturing the baby, the farmer’s cancer-ridden wife starts getting better. But there’s something dark about the child’s power.
Status: Available. Kevin McMullin is attached to direct.
Title: “Detox”
Writers: Kevin Armento & Jaki Bradley
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Logline:When an overstressed young woman joins her best friend at a wellness retreat in the Arizona desert, she begins to suspect that the revitalizing spa treatments, serums, and macrobiotic meals are part of something closer to a dangerous cult, run by the retreat’s charismatic leader.
Status: Divide/Conquer and XYZ Films are producing.
Title: “No Good Deed”
Writer: Christina Pamies
Genre: Supernatural Horror
Logline: A woman with a troubled past takes in her moody teenage niece to live in the family’s isolated farmhouse but the two are soon tempted and tormented by a sinister creature that can take their pain away for a price.
Status: Available.
Title: “Scars”
Writer: Marco Mannone
Genre: Supernatural Horror
Logline: “Scars” is a contemporary horror story about an engineer who moves her family to Detroit for a dream job at a major auto plant only to find herself in the middle of a company-wide cover up, which has summoned a vicious demon to destroy the souls of those responsible.
Status: Matt Baer Films is producing.
