Video Nasty: Seth Rogen Producing Meta-Slasher Movie for Lionsgate

Seth Rogen is diving head first into the realm of slasher movies as a new report reveals he’s set to produce the upcoming horror movie Video Nasty. Variety reports that Lionsgate has picked up the horror spec script from writer Chris Thomas Devlin (writer of the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot) with Rogen’s Point Grey and Greg Silverman’s Stampede Ventures lined up to produce. With a title that’s a call back to extreme horror movies of the era, the script reportedly follows “three teens who rent a cursed VHS and are pulled into an ’80s slasher movie that threatens to trap them forever.” In addition to Rogen, his Point Grey partners Evan Goldberg, Josh Fagen and James Weaver will also co-produce.

Though not confirmed, the trade reports that director Jonathan Levine, who has collaborated with Rogen on 50/50, Long Shot, and The Night Before, is eyeing the film as his next directorial project. Levine has ventured into the horror genre before as well, directing the long-stuck-on-the-shelf All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and the zombie-comedy Warm Bodies.

Despite being best known for comedies, Rogen has dabbled in the horror genre in some ways previously. His directorial debut was the horror-comedy This is The End, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Evan Goldberg and even starred in the apocalyptic feature as a version of himself. Rogen was also part of the creative team behind AMC’s Preacher which dabbled in horror and gore multiple times, including the episodes directed by the Canadian.

Horror fans may think that the logline for Video Nasty sounds familiar, and movies where characters get sucked into/trapped inside of another horror movie has been done a few times before. In 2008 the horror film Midnight Movie sees a screening of an old horror film turn deadly as the killer makes his way through the patrons in the theater, trapping them inside the movie after he kills them.

The concept was explored again in the 2015 feature The Final Girls, starring Taissa Farmiga, Malin Åkerman, Alia Shawkat, Adam Devine, Nina Dobrev, and Thomas Middleditch. That film saw Farmiga’s character go watch an old slasher movie that starred her now deceased mother, only to get sucked into the film and become part of its cast, offering her a chance at closure with her mom but also forcing her to run and hide from a slasher killer.

Given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic it’s unclear when Video Nasty will go in front of cameras or be released, but stay tuned for more updates on the film as we learn them.