Abigail Breslin's Haunter Is The Second Horror Bought At SXSW

In sticking with its prominent position in the campaign of keeping Austin weird, the film side of South by Southwest has always been a lot friendlier to horror films than almost any film festival that isn’t singularly geared towards a genre. Instead of being relegated to time-filling slots, films like Adam Wingard’s You’re Next, Rob Zombie’s Lords of Salem and Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead remake are as anticipated as any other films being shown, and E.L. Katz’s Cheap Thrills was the first sale of the festival.

The second SXSW sale went to Haunter, the latest film from director Vincenzo Natali, who last gave audiences the polarizing sci-fi Splice and first broke into the business with 1997’s cult classic Cube. Deadline reports the Midnighter selection’s U.S. rights were appropriately acquired by IFC Midnight. The screenplay was written by Brian King, who wrote and directed 2009’s decent Night Train and worked with Natali on 2002’s sci-fi mystery Cypher.

Haunter gives 16-year-old Abigail Breslin her first leading role as Lisa, a girl whose family was killed in 1986 and are now stuck inside of the house where they died, though only Lisa realizes it. When a new family moves into the house, their teenage daughter Olivia (Skins’ Eleanor Sichy) becomes Lisa’s link to the real world, which Lisa must use to stop Olivia’s family from meeting the same fate. Hopefully Haunter’s original premise isn’t wasted on the limited scope and ghostly time travel that’s supposed to occur throughout. It’s hard enough for indie horror without introducing time travel into it.

It also stars Stephen McHattie (XIII: The Series) as the antagonist The Pale Man, as well as David Hewlett, Peter Outerbridge, Michelle Noldon and Sarah Manninen. No release dates have been planned for Haunted just yet, but that news should be forthcoming now that someone is paying to distribute it.

Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.