British director Christopher Smith returns to his horror roots with Spider Island – here are the first, eight-legged details.
Christopher Smith has made an eclectic range of films, from the tube tunnel terror of Creep to the mind bending time loop thriller Triangle, the historical horror of Black Death to the family fun of Get Santa (an opportune moment to point out that Get Santa is a hugely underappreciated British festive movie).
He returned to horror with 2020’s The Banishing, and it looks as if his next film will strike a similar balance of comedy and horror to his 2006 hit, Severance.
Vertigo Films is producing Spider Island, which will follow “a group of social media influencers going to the launch party of a new luxury resort on a beautiful island – one that is infested with deadly spiders”. How’s that for a concept? We’re wagering a few of you have started thinking about pre-ordering your tickets for the film already.
Smith will direct from a screenplay by Christopher Jolley and Veep writer David Quantick. Production is set to begin in early 2024 in Mauritius, and we’d imagine we’re looking towards a release at the end of 2024, or early on in 2025.
It will be a big year for anybody who is excited about the very specific subgenre of spider-based horror films directed by men called Christopher, as Christopher Landon (he of the Happy Death Day films) is directing a remake of Arachnophobia too. No idea if there are going to be social media influencers in peril in that particular production, but obviously we’ll be keeping you up to date on these key matters.
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