Get excited, horror fans! One of our favorite modern Scream Queens is back. Emma Roberts (American Horror Story, Scream 4) is officially set to star in a brand-new, nightmarish folklore thriller titled A Body in the Woods. Manifest Pictures co-CEOs Yvette Zhuang and Zach Glueck just dropped the news today, and honestly? We’re already in.
A Waking Nightmare
Set at the turn of the century, the film stars Roberts as Alice Lincoln. She’s a woman living deep in the Marshall Woods—a place legendary for its stories of a menacing witch.
The plot sounds like a total pressure cooker: Alice is left alone in a remote cabin to watch over the body of an unidentified mine worker. But as the sun goes down, things get weird. Between unsettling noises in the house and a silent woman appearing at the edge of the woods, Alice realizes the corpse she’s guarding might not be as “dead” as she thought. She’s trapped between a growing evil inside her home and a nameless terror waiting outside.
The Dream Team
This isn’t just any horror flick; it’s got some serious muscle behind it. Stephen Cognetti, the mastermind behind the cult-favorite Hell House LLC franchise, wrote the script and is directing. He is aiming for a “high-concept horror” that tests the limits of fear. He wants you to leave the theater feeling like you just survived something.
Dave Caplan (C2 Motion Picture Group), who is on an absolute heater lately. He’s the producer behind the massive indie hit Longlegs, and The Monkey, and is producing A Body in the Woods.
Emma Roberts has horror in her DNA. Whether she’s playing the ultimate “mean girl” or a terrified survivor, she brings a specific kind of intelligence to the genre. Producer Dave Caplan called the combination of Cognetti’s scares and Roberts’ acting an “undeniable package.”
When is it coming?
It doesn’t have a release date yet; however, we know production kicks off this September. This makes a 2027 release likely. Then it will head to the European Film Market. But we’ll keep you posted.
