‘Play House’ Release Date Set for April 2, 2027
A horror movie made for just over $100,000 has a theatrical release date. Play House, the first feature from writer-director Nicolas Curcio, opens April 2, 2027, from Focus Features and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.
The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in September, and the two companies bought it for seven figures out of the festival. Universal Pictures International handles it abroad.
Mr. Morton’s Monster Alley
Will Harrison plays a man renovating a decaying house to win back his ex, who finds VHS tapes of an unaired children’s show called Mr. Morton’s Monster Alley inside it. The further he gets into the tapes, the further the show’s world pushes into his. Jessica Sula, Jordan Gonzalez and James Urbaniak co-star, with Urbaniak as the host. Curcio wrote the script with Kirby Gladstein, his wife and producing partner.
Where the $100,000 Came From
Curcio won the first Fantastic Pitches, the micro-budget competition Fantastic Fest runs with Chroma, and the prize was $100,000 in production financing. The finished film cost a little more than that. Divide/Conquer and Chroma are on the production, and Jason Blum is among the executive producers.
Focus Keeps Buying Horror
Curry Barker’s Anything But Ghosts follows from Focus on May 7, 2027, five weeks after Play House, and Robert Eggers’ Werwulf arrives from the studio this Christmas Day ahead of both.
The dread in these images lives in the furniture: a CRT in a dark room, a snowstorm of static, a party hat on a brightly painted set. Holding that across a feature is the harder job, and April 2027 is when we find out.
