Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, has taken international distribution rights to Demian Rugna’s “When Evil Lurks,” the fifth feature of from the Argentine genre director behind 2018 Austin Fantastic Fest winning “Terrified.”
Fernando Díaz’s Machaco Films and Roxana Ramos’s Aramos Cine in Argentina and Agustina Chiarino and Fernando Epstein at Uruguay’s Mutante will co-produce the film. It will be the first production by new label La Puerta Roja, a joint venture partnership between Machaco and Aramos.
“We are delighted to continue our relationship with the team that brought ‘Terrified’ to Shudder audiences,” said Emily Gotto, VP of acquisitions & co-productions at Shudder.
She added: “’When Evil Lurks’ has an incredible script and one we are excited to be partners on from this early stage as a Shudder Original Production.”
Revolving on timeless horror concepts and adding contemporary twists, “When Evil Lurks” unspools in a remote village where two brothers find a demon-infected man just about to give birth to evil itself. In a time when exorcism look to be of little use to ward off evil, after warning the neighbors in town, they decide to get rid of the man but merely succeed in helping him to deliver the inferno.
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“’When Evil Lurks’ will be a double challenge for me and the viewer –complex to stage and also very stark for anyone who watches it,” Rugna told Variety. He continued: “I needed to leave the scheme of a contained production to break with everything. This movie will be my relief, a release of disturbing images that have been accumulating in my head over the years like a pressure cooker.”
“When Evil Lurks” won the Runner Up Prize at the Sitges Pitchbox.
“We’re trying to tell a macabre story with an extremely oppressive and realistic atmosphere, but with a frantic rhythm, without abandoning a strong narrative. A genuine universe that re-signifies the tales of evil and curses; a rural environment on a monotonous plain, interrupted by a series of images and extremely lurid sequences,” Fernando Díaz at Machaco told Variety.
Shooting is scheduled to begin in March next year; the feature would be ready for delivery by November.
An English-language remake of Rugna’s “Terrified” was announced in pre-pandemic times when it was set to be produced by Guillermo del Toro for Fox Searchlight Studios, with Sacha Gervasi announced as writing the script.
Rugna is repped by Robert Newman at WMA.