The family that slays together stays together in co-directors Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick‘s meta horror comedy Family Movie, which Deadline reports has landed a theatrical release.
Variance will release Family Movie in theaters on April 23, 2027.
Written by Dan Beers (Premature), the story follows a filmmaking family whose low-budget horror movie turns into a real-life slasher when a dead body shows up on set.
Jack Smith (Kevin) is a washed-up indie filmmaker in the horror scene, and Ellen (Kyra) is his supportive wife and longtime leading lady. Their daughter, Ula (Sosie), is also an actor who, unbeknownst to her dad, plans to exit his latest slasher in favor of a role she’s landed on a TV series. Her brother, Trent (Travis), is a musician and boom operator with dreams of becoming an MMA fighter.
Despite some major financial concerns, the family comes together to help Jack make what might be his last movie, but the production goes off the rails when they learn that Ellen has more in common with the psycho killers from their films than anyone realized.
Liza Koshy (Boo! A Madea Halloween), John Carroll Lynch (“American Horror Story”), Jackie Earle Haley (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010), Andrea Savage (“Tulsa King”), Austin Amelio (“The Walking Dead”), and Scoot McNairy (Monsters) also star in the horror comedy.
Said Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, “The entire process of making Family Movie has been a true labor of love, and after seeing the audience reactions at multiple film festivals around the world, we knew this movie had to be experienced in the theater. While we considered traditional distribution options, we decided to put our faith in our film, the audience, and the evolving landscape of independent film and go straight to the theaters with this fun crowd pleaser.”
Family Movie made its premiere earlier this year at SXSW. I wrote in my review, “Corn syrup and retractable movie knife props run amok alongside rehearsed dance numbers and actual Bacon home video clips in Family Movie. It’s not a love letter to the genre, though the Bacons wear their affinity for it on their sleeves here. Instead, it’s an infectiously charming excuse to forge new family memories with an earnest reminder to never lose focus on what matters most, especially when life gets bloody.“
