Screamfest has picked its 2026 opening night selection, and it comes with a pedigree horror fans will recognize: The Night Driver, a road thriller executive produced by Sean S. Cunningham, the producer and director who put Camp Crystal Lake on the map with the original Friday the 13th. The film gets its world premiere on October 6 at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre, opening the festival’s run through October 15.
Directed by Jeremy Weiss in his feature debut, from a screenplay by John Cork, The Night Driver follows Hurdis Jones (Josh Lucas), a travelling pharmaceutical salesman whose life comes apart after he strikes a stranger with his car on a dark stretch of highway and offers to drive him to the hospital. The passenger turns violent, attacks Hurdis, and disappears, only to resurface as his shadow, framing him for a string of killings and stalking him across the country. Back home, his wife Cheryl (Alyssa Milano) turns to Detective Hank Granger (David Arquette) for help, even as the FBI closes in on Hurdis as its prime suspect.
It is the sort of wrong man on the run premise built for maximum white knuckle tension, and Cunningham’s involvement gives the project an extra layer of genre credibility. He is credited as an executive producer alongside Rene Besson, Matthew Helderman, Grady Craig and several others, with Andre Relis, Jib Polhemus and Jessica Russo producing. Weiss has reportedly called Cunningham’s participation a dream come true for a first time feature director. The Night Driver wrapped production in Las Cruces, New Mexico last September, and arrives at Screamfest through sales company VMI, with financing from Bondit Media Capital. No distributor or release date has been announced, so wider audiences will have to wait to find out whether Hurdis makes it home.
