One night a year… they come.

Back in 2013, James DeMonaco’s The Purge offered a brilliant and highly original premise: one night every year, all crime (including murder) is completely and totally legal. But two years before that, we almost found ourselves in a world where something just as terrifying happened once a year. In Grim Night, literal grim reapers were to overtake the world one night every year.

Way back in 2011 it was announced that Universal had won an auction for the rights to make Grim Night, a thriller penned by Brandon Bestenheider & Allen Bey and to be produced by Bryan Bertino and his Unbroken Films. At the time, the Bertino-directed The Strangers had only a few years prior terrified audiences, which no doubt played a role in Universal jumping on board.

But Grim Night wasn’t just a concept or a script. In order to generate interest in the project, Bertino and his team put together a nearly two-minute teaser trailer for the film, which debuted on horror sites (including this one) in the summer of 2011. The trailer got fans talking and compelled Universal to action; it was so good that they dropped nearly seven figures to scoop it up.

The full premise was as follows:

Every year during a single night, strange creatures known as “Grims” attack people from all over the globe and kills thousands. The story centers on a family in a small American town that gets attacked and has to defend themselves.

It’s now been six years since we first saw the evocative teaser trailer for Grim Night, and it’s one that I have thought about fairly often over the years. I remember being incredibly excited about the film based on the teaser alone, and I still feel that it’s a concept that could totally be the next big horror franchise. It may not be as fresh in the wake of The Purge, but it’s different enough.

So what happened? Well, Grim Night basically dropped off the face of the Earth shortly after Universal acquired it. Dennis Gansel (We Are the Night) was at the time slated to direct the film, but production never began and nothing ever came of it. It simply vanished without a trace, and at this point, it seems likely that we’ll never hear from it again. Hollywood sure is a fickle business.

Do you remember this creepy teaser?