By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s a very promising postapocalyptic scare saga.
Variety reports that the ORPHAN films’ Isabelle Fuhrman (pictured), Ben Hardy and Scoot McNairy (SPEAK NO EVIL) will star in DIE BY NIGHT, a forthcoming dystopian horror feature written and directed by Rod Blackhurst. The trade describes it as being based on the prequel screenplay THE CHOSEN FEW by Blackhurst and J. Hunter Richardson, though it’s unclear if this is connected to Blackhurst’s previous similar movie, the award-winning zombie drama HERE ALONE. Creature design is being overseen by Emmy-wining concept artist Vincent Proce, whose credits include IT: CHAPTER TWO and the SMILE films.
The storyline is described thusly: “Set in a post-apocalyptic world where long stretches of ‘Night’ plunge the world into chaos, the story sees creatures known as The Horde hunt in the dark. Runaway Lucia [Fuhrman] must find her way to The Wall where safety awaits, while an injured but determined Barry [Hardy] promises to get them there. But The Horde are not the only threat out there. The Clans–tribes of people whose survival and prosperity depends on selling and trading humans to gain strength in numbers–also stand in their way. As per the film’s description: ‘In this propulsive thriller playing out over the course of one night, the only way to survive the to see a new day is to trust each other and stay in the light until they make it to The Wall.’ ”
“This film was born from the fears and anxieties that came with becoming a father for the first time,” Blackhurst says, “the overwhelming desire to somehow protect my daughter from the dark forces that exist in the world–from the dangerous ideologies that fuel the self-righteous, and of the impossible choices we must make in the face of chaos. We’re pleased as punch to be partnering with Protagonist Pictures, whose taste and prestige precedes them; they make the kinds of films I love and immediately understood the duality of DIE BY NIGHT as both a mad genre film and a story about us and the times we’re living in but depicted in the most fantastical ways.”
“DIE BY NIGHT promises to be a nail-biting, action-packed thriller with non-stop jump scares,” says Protagonist’s Dave Bishop, who’s executive-producing with George Hamilton. “Rod’s vision of a dark, dystopian, post-apocalyptic new world, combined with the terrifying hordes of creatures conceived by the industry’s top designers, will reach out and grab the audience, not letting go until the credits roll.”
“DIE BY NIGHT is the type of film we wished we could have seen at our neighborhood theater when we were kids, begging our older brothers to sneak us in somehow–visceral, hardcore, relentless, and scary,” add the producers, Witchcraft Motion Picture Company’s Noah Lang and Story in the Sky’s Ben Shields Catlin. “The sort of film that we can’t show our kids just yet, but can’t wait until they are old enough that we can.”
