{"id":369490,"date":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369490\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","slug":"new-york-comic-con-2026-blumfest-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369490\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Comic Con 2026 BlumFest Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBlumFest revealed Craig Zobel<\/a> as the director for the adaptation of James Tynion IV and Werther Dell\u2019Edera\u2019s Something is Killing the Children, while also debuting the trailer for The Exorcist: Martyrs<\/a>, and teasing upcoming projects including Seasons, RoboCop, Molepeople, and more.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two-hour Friday night panel featured an A-List lineup, including Mike Flanagan, James Wan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Harbour<\/a>, LaKeith Stanfield, Curry Barker<\/a>, and Kristen Bell<\/a>. About halfway through the panel, the entire 2027 lineup was revealed, including River (Jan. 15), The Revenge of Llorona (Feb. 26), The Exorcist: Martyrs, Anything but Ghosts (May 7), Paranormal Activity (May 21), The Blair Witch Project (Sept. 24), and Sleepover and Seasons (Nov. 12). The list also included a currently untitled film set for August 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a panel, which served as a victory lap for Blumhouse<\/a> Atomic Monster<\/a>\u2019s box office hits Backrooms and Obsession, producer and Blumhouse co-founder Jason Blum<\/a> teased what is ahead for the studio.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible year, and what\u2019s so cool about the movies you listed is how different they all are. Everybody has a different idea about what\u2019s scary, and that is what I love about horror<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to work with filmmakers who never stop surprising you. And a year like we\u2019ve had, with the help of movies like Obsession, gives us more opportunity to take more chances, and you\u2019ll get a taste of those chances and risks and weird stuff tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the day, IDW Dark and Blumhouse announced they were teaming on a Happy Death Day comic series from Blumhouse and IDW Dark, with writer Tim Seeley (Hack\/Slash) attached to translate the time-loop slasher and expand its mystery ahead of a third movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tRead below for more on what was unveiled during BlumFest 2026 at New York Comic Con.<\/p>\n

\t\tAnything But Ghosts\t<\/p>\n

\n\tTowards the end of the panel, Barker and Cooper Tomlinson were brought out on stage, and briefly discussed how his life had changed in just a year. After reflecting on Obsession and the nature of their partnership, the duo teased Anything But Ghosts<\/a>, which follows ghost hunter con artists who \u201cget a huge job, a bigger one than they\u2019ve ever gotten before. But it\u2019s a real ghost, so they have to step up and be the thing that they promised.\u201d The film will see Barker co-star with Tomlinson.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI need him on camera with me. We wrote this together thinking this will be the movie that we starred in together, an homage to what we\u2019ve been doing online,\u201d Barker said. \u201cI didn\u2019t write Obsession with me necessarily in mind, but we knew we had to do these two characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBarker also expressed that the film will take a similar approach to their work on Obsession, trying to subvert horror film tropes and expectations. \u201cI think, just me as an audience member who\u2019s been watching horror movies my entire life, you can take the blueprint of a horror movie, and know what audiences are expecting. You can actually use that to your advantage to say, if I\u2019m an audience member and I\u2019m watching this and I know what\u2019s going to happen next, how can I subvert that? You can expect that same attitude as Anything But Ghosts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tAmanda the Adventurer\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the new partnerships announced at the panel was a deal with Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, the founder and former host of the \u201cTheory\u201d Channels on YouTube. Patrick will work with the studio to develop new films based on indie games and horror channels to bring those stories to the big screen. \u201cWe are giving them the spotlight they deserve,\u201d Patrick said during the panel.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first announced project is a feature film based on DreadXP\u2019s indie video game Amanda the Adventurer. A teaser at the panel also previewed footage of the online horror phenomenon, a series of clips that combines the animated children\u2019s show-esque story with unsettling interstitials. \u201cWe are currently in talks with writers and directors, so more is coming soon. We\u2019re moving really fast on that one,\u201d Patrick said.<\/p>\n

\t\tMolepeople & Seasons\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the newer projects is RoboCop, which Wan noted is currently being developed as a series for Amazon Prime with the original writer Edward Neumeier and Dan Stevens in the titular role. The second major project out of the studio is Rob Savage\u2019s next Blumhouse Atomic Monster<\/a> film Molepeople, starring Lakeith Stanfield<\/a>, his return to the studio following the game-changing Get Out. Described by Savage \u201cas a subterranean horror movie that\u2019s going to scare the living shit out of you,\u201d the film will be in the vein of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, with Savage noting the movie will begin filming very soon.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to the connections between Get Out and Molepeople, Stanfield shared that the 2018 Jordan Peele film \u201cwas fantastical on the outside, but there was some heart in it on the inside, and I think that\u2019s the kind of thing I like to replicate and continue to have in my career.\u201d He added, \u201cI found something that I think can be engaging, action-packed, cool, fun, and also a little bit of commentary, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWan also teased a new movie with Companion director Drew Hancock, Seasons, which is based on the \u201cNo Sleep\u201d subreddit story. \u201cIt\u2019s a horror movie that takes place over four seasons,\u201d the producer told the audience after a video featuring Hancock on set with Ron Perlman. Additional titles teased included The Blair Witch Project, with Dylan Clark set to helm, and a new Paranormal Activity entry from Undertones director Ian Tuason, with a video from the director hyping the entry.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cParanormal Activity is such an emotional movie for me because it\u2019s really how Blumhouse started, and it really gave birth to everything that we\u2019ve done,\u201d said Blum. \u201cI hate the idea that you keep making movies and then drive it into the ground, so we stopped making them for a long time. What got me excited is that my partner, who, in my humble opinion, has created three of the greatest horror franchises of all time, which no one else has ever done, came to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded the producer: \u201cFor me, it was enough to hear that, and that\u2019s really what made it happen. People ask me how do you choose what movies go to Blumhouse or Atomic Monster? It\u2019s a very simple answer. Whatever James doesn\u2019t want, we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWan also spoke about returning to the Saw universe, telling the NYCC crowd that going with director Mike P. Nelson was about \u201chis sensibility\u201d and how he \u201creally prioritizes surprises in his movies. I think the Saw movies are full of surprises, right? It\u2019s all twists and turns. It\u2019s not just about the traps. It\u2019s about the moral dilemma. It\u2019s about the visual style.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tSomething Is Killing the Children\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the final portion of the jam-packed panel, Something Is Killing the Children creator James Dickinson, as well as the newly announced director Noel, appeared on stage to tease their upcoming title. \u201cMy first conversation with Jason about this was really incredible. We have been building the world on Instagram for about seven years now, and we\u2019ve now reached over five million readers around the world. But we\u2019ve always known that this is a franchise that had the potential to reach a much, much bigger audience,\u201d Dickinson said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe duo was pretty mum on when production would start or any filming locations but they did briefly tease what they\u2019re excited about with the characters. While Dickinson confirmed fans can expect to see Octo \u2014 the story\u2019s stuffed Octopus with a monster trapped inside it \u2014 Noel is quite excited for how fans will experience the story\u2019s protagonist, Erica Slaughter. The director described her as \u201csuch a powerful badass\u201d and not only strong, but able to \u201clift axes and dismember 15-foot monsters,\u201d which the film will get to illustrate. \u201cWe also see how funny she can be and that Erica, in the midst of something killing the children, has this very bone-dry humor we\u2019ve really got to nail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDickinson also confirmed there would be children killed onscreen. \u201cThe first time that Jason and I talked about it, about 20 to 30 minutes into the conversation, I was like, \u2018You\u2019ve, like, read the copy? This would be intense,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt\u2019s called Something Is Killing the Children, and, you know, I promise you, there are kids who die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tViolent Night 2\t<\/p>\n

\n\tViolent Night stars David Harbour and Kristen Bell were also joined on stage by director Tommy Wirkola and producer Kelly McCormick. While discussing his return to an unusual role, Harbour shared that the sequel happened because there\u2019s \u201ca lot of really rabid, crazy fans out there, and they wanted to know more about Santa\u2019s backstory specifically, and how he got those tattoos and lots of different things. I would go to cons like this, and people would bring up all these questions, and I would video them, and I would send them to Kelly and Tommy. They wrote a script, and it\u2019s really exciting to bring you guys some more Santa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBell, who joins the sequel as Mrs. Klaus, shared she was \u201cso confused\u201d she got the call for the role, as she wasn\u2019t aware of a second film. But says her character, \u201cMrs. Klaus is substantially older than Mr. Klaus. Take that how you will, but if you\u2019re looking at the lore of who came first \u2014 and I know the first one, there were sort of moments where you saw his Viking mythology v you\u2019ll get a taste of what Mrs. Klaus\u2019 elven history is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe section featured several clips, including an intense multi-minute fight sequence where Harbour\u2019s Santa takes on some henchmen with the tools of a bakery, ending in someone getting cooked, literally. Another clip teased a few more sequences in a moment from the trailer, which sees Bell\u2019s Mrs. Klaus arrive to save the day. Speaking to how she prepared for the role, Bell shared that she had a stunt double, but also trained for five weeks ahead of filming.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was some of the most fun I had ever had at 87North working with stunt people who know exactly what they\u2019re doing and are teaching me about my body and how I can move. I had always known that the physicality of the character is really important, just as important as the words you\u2019re saying,\u201d she said. \u201cDo you take up space in a room, or do you sit back? Are you imposing? What you\u2019re doing with your body can really tell a story. I feel like a billion bucks having learned this choreo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s basically Miracle on 34th Street with an enormous bloody hammer,\u201d teased Harbour, later revealing, alongside the film\u2019s director, that the original film and its sequel are influenced by Home Alone and Die Hard, which will get its own vent nod in Violent Night 2.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Exorcist: Martyrs\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of a brief panel that revealed the first trailer for the film, out March 12, Flanagan and Ejiofor teased a movie that is \u201cso god damn scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI can feel it on set. It was freaking me out in my chair,\u201d Flanagan said. \u201cThis movie is unlike any other Exorcist movie that\u2019s ever been made, which was something that we were really determined, all of us, to do from the very beginning. It was to take this franchise in a completely different direction. One of the things that we all agreed on going in was that it had to be scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to expanding the larger Exorcist universe, Flannigan shared that, \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough or crazy enough in my career now several times to step into a franchise underneath a monolithic titan of the genre and have to carry that torch a little further.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cIt is really intimidating because The Exorcist is The Exorcist, and it\u2019s not just [William] Friedkin\u2019s masterpiece that we\u2019re stepping into the shadow of. It\u2019s an entire franchise that has struck out in different directions every time they come to bat. It\u2019s like, they\u2019re going this way, they\u2019re going that way. You\u2019re seeing all sorts of different expressions of this central idea \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t just The Exorcist. We talked an awful lot about The Exorcist III, for example. I think [it\u2019s] one of the most underrated, underappreciated films in the franchise. The hallway scene, iconic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Ejiofor, the terror is partly in the feeling. \u201cI think with these, with the way that it talks about that feeling, how do you describe it? That feeling that\u2019s sort of there that you feel can sometimes be a force, a malevolent force that\u2019s just around. Sometimes you can put a name to it. Sometimes you can\u2019t, but you can just sort of feel it around you. And with this, it really felt like it was entering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRiver\t<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing a video message from writer-director Joshua Giuliano, who introduced the film\u2019s trailer but wasn\u2019t present because he is currently prepping his next Blumhouse film Occupant in Vancouver, star of the film Jessica Rothe came to tease the river thriller. Also starring Jane Levy, Max Mattern, and Dane DiLiegro, the film is \u201cwild,\u201d but also a family drama, with \u201cheartfelt moments, terror, a psychotic six-foot-eight ripped, super hot but very scary man,\u201d according to the actress.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to the demands of filming a movie so heavily based in water, she told the NYCC crowd that 14 of the 22 shoot days were on the water. \u201cIt\u2019s such a gift as an actor to be able to be in the physical element that you\u2019re actually supposed to be in. Because the fear you see on my face when Dane, our incredible masked man, is swimming after me, that\u2019s real fear because I was like, that man is going to catch me. He is definitely faster than I am, and it just adds another element of reality and terror and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tHorror Short With Creator Heidi Wong\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBlumhouse Atomic Monster also announced a new short film development deal with multimedia horror storyteller and content creator Heidi Wong. Known as \u201cThe Horror Queen,\u201d Wong will create a new horror short film for Blumhouse Atomic Monster through her new development deal. Speaking to tapping creators, Blum noted that what \u201cKane [Pareons] did and what Curry did, original voices and a fresh point of view and a new take on something we haven\u2019t seen before, is more effective in the world than it\u2019s ever been, which is exciting. It\u2019s exciting for me. It\u2019s much more fun to do what I do. It\u2019s more fun to watch what we all watch, as a result of that. As we continue going forward, we\u2019re always trying to find new, different, original ways to scare all of you and all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile speaking about the deal on stage with Wong, Blum noted that they are looking to \u201cdevelop, and hopefully make [the short] into a future film.\u201d While Wong was pretty mum about the plot, she noted her butterfly dress and social media easter eggs hinted at the short\u2019s focus. \u201cIt\u2019s inspired by Eastern mythology and folklore,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cI grew up in Asia, so it\u2019s very close to me, and to have Blumhouse\u2019s support really means so much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BlumFest revealed Craig Zobel as the director for the adaptation of James Tynion IV and Werther Dell\u2019Edera\u2019s Something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[136421,136422,136423,136424,91630,13086,5922,129800,136425,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-369490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-atomic-monster","tag-blumhouse","tag-blumhouse-atomic-monster","tag-craig-zobel","tag-curry-barker","tag-david-harbour","tag-horror","tag-jason-blum","tag-kristen-bell","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}