Night of the Ghoul director Rob Savage has opened up about the upcoming horror film, which is based on the comic book series of the same name by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla.
“I’m a huge film buff, and I love the era of movies that [Snyder is] harkening back to — the classic Universal monster movies,” Savage said in an interview with ComingSoon. “But I’ve always been looking for a curse movie — something that’s in the vein of The Ring. Something where you get a sense of something having been passed onto you like It Follows, and there’s a great sense of claustrophobia and mounting dread that’s in the comic book that comes from such an unusual place.”
The director continued, “The idea of combining The Ring with this dark chapter of Hollywood history … it’s such a great way into that type of horror that I’ve never seen before. We’ve got a great — I don’t know if it’s been announced who’s writing that yet — but we’ve got a great writer who’s already turned in a fantastic draft on that. So I’m excited, hopefully, to be shooting that one soon when a deal’s made on the strike front.”
20th Century Studios tapped Savage to direct a film adaptation of Night of the Ghoul last October. (The British filmmaker recently helmed the studio’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Boogeyman.) Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy is attached to produce Night of the Ghoul alongside Dan Levine and Dan Cohen. Snyder and Francavilla are attached as executive producers.
What is Night of the Ghoul about?
Written by Snyder and illustrated by Francavilla, Night of the Ghoul launched as a digital-only Comixology original in October 2021. The series began a print run at Dark Horse Comics in October 2022. In fact, issue #1 hit shelves a mere day after the film adaptation was announced.
“Shot in 1936, Night of the Ghoul by writer/director T.F. Merritt was meant to sit beside Frankenstein and Dracula as an instant classic … But the legendary film never made it to the silver screen,” the comic’s official synopsis reads. “Just before editing was finished, a mysterious studio fire destroyed the footage and killed the cast and crew celebrating at the wrap party. Forest Inman is a horror film obsessive who digitizes old films for the famed Aurora movie studio. When Forest stumbles across a seemingly forgotten canister of footage, he just might have discovered the remnants of the lost classic Night of the Ghoul. This discovery sends Forest on a dark odyssey, where he is warned by a mysterious old man that the film’s ghoul is far more than a work of fiction: it’s a very real monster who plans to kill him.”
The film adaptation of Night of the Ghoul does not have a release date.
