The Dead Thing Acquired by Shudder

Shudder has announced today that they have acquired the North American, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand rights to Elric Kane’s solo feature debut, The Dead Thing, ahead of its U.S. premiere at the 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.

The erotic thriller world premiered at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival and will debut on Shudder on February 14, 2025. 

The Dead Thing follows “a young woman lost in a series of meaningless connections, who falls in love with a charismatic and sensitive man, who hides a dark secret that turns her affair into a dangerous obsession.”

Blu Hunt (The New Mutants), Ben Smith-Petersen (Mad Max: Fury Road), John Karna (Lady Bird), and Katherine Hughes (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) star in the film.

Elric Kane wrote the script with Webb Wilcoxen (The Frontier).

“I’ve been a Shudder subscriber since almost day one and preaching about it on podcasts for just as long, so it’s a thrill to know our film is in such great hands,” said director Elric Kane. “Shudder continues to expand the scope of what Horror can be by including films that push the boundaries of the genre. I consider our film to be one of these, and even our scrappy production was inspired by many of the independent films they’ve released over the years.”

“With the perceptive and eerie The Dead Thing, Elric Kane, who has dedicated so much to the genre already, makes a terrific leap into horror filmmaking. We’re thrilled to be its home,“ said Shudder’s VP of Programming, Samuel Zimmerman.

Joe Lipsett wrote in his review out of Fantasia that Kane’s film is “a bold, stylish film and audiences willing to invest in a toxic relationship between two actors with great sexual chemistry and tinged with ghostly phenomena will find plenty to appreciate.“

Expect a trailer to follow soon.