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Creepy New Look at XYZ’s Flesh-eating ‘The Dark’
Yesterday we told you that XYZ Films (Under the Shadow, The Raid, The Apostle, The Void) had acquired US sales rights to Justin P. Lange’s horror project The Dark after viewing 15 minutes of footage at the Cannes Marché.
Lange’s feature directorial debut is the story of a murderous, flesh-eating, undead girl who haunts the remote stretch of woods where she was killed. Years later she befriends a kidnapped blind boy who changes her life.
The Dark is based on Lange’s Columbia University thesis short film of the same name and shot in Northern Ontario, Canada, with the support of the Austrian Film Institute, the ORF Film/Television-Agreement and the NOHFC.
Nadia Alexander and Toby Nichols star alongside Austria’s Karl Markovics, the lead in Austria’s 2008 foreign-language Oscar winner The Counterfeiters who also starred in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Danny Krausz and Kurt Stocker of Vienna-based Dor Film are producing with Laura Perlmutter and Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith of Toronto-based First Love Films. Florian Krügel serves as executive producer. Klemens Hufnagl serves as cinematographer and co-director. ScreenDaily had first reported the news.
We have an exclusive first look at A Man in the Woods With an Axe, a blood-soaked, genre-twisting homage to 1980s slasher films.
Spanning four decades, A Man in the Woods With an Axe begins in the summer of 1987 before pushing into the modern era, weaving together timelines and perspectives in a way that builds both dread and intrigue.
Drawing inspiration from genre standouts like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Hatchet, and The Cabin in the Woods, the film blends visceral horror with moments of dark humor, creating a uniquely balanced experience that honors tradition while carving its own identity.
Writer-director Dillon Brown (Primal Darkness) aims to deliver everything fans crave from a slasher while boldly subverting expectations with a mid-film twist that redefines the story.
“This is an unapologetic love letter to the films that made me fall in love with horror,” Brown tells Bloody Disgusting. “But I didn’t just want to recreate that feeling; I wanted to challenge it. About halfway through, the film takes a turn that completely changes how you view not only this story, but the genre itself.”
Brown describes the vintage-inspired production as “far and away the bloodiest film I’ve ever made,” with practical effects helmed by Cody Ruch (The Mill, Pig Hill), an instructor at Tom Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects Program.
From Horror Dadz Productions, A Man in the Woods With an Axe is currently in production and targeting an early 2027 release.
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