After the success of Backrooms earlier this year, which brought an internet wiki-style creepypasta thing (I’m 42) to the big screen, A24 wants to see if they can do it again. Will another huge, fan-built horror fandom equal large dollars? The studio is hoping so, and that the SCP Foundation will be the thing to do it. A24, along with Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Studios, will bring the internet phenom to the big screen in 2027, as an extension of the V/H/S series. Intriguing.
The SCP Foundation (which stands for “Secure. Contain. Protect.” began in 2008 as a kind of creature-focused X-Files-type thing. If you’ve played Remedy’s Control, that’s a kind of riff on the SCP. From the project’s press release, the SCP Foundation “evolved into a sprawling, collaborative mythology created and expanded by thousands of contributors around the world. Its universe encompasses an enormous library of anomalous objects, entities, phenomena and stories, and has inspired games, short films, web series and a deeply engaged global fan community.”
A24 will hold worldwide rights to the project and co-produce Roy Lee and Steven Schneider for Spooky Pictures, alongside Josh Goldbloom, who has produced several V/H/S features including V/H/S/94, V/H/S/99 and V/H/S/Halloween, and Michael Schreiber, who has also worked across V/H/S titles including V/H/S/94 and V/H/S/Beyond. That series had found at home with Shudder over the past several years. At one point, the SCP movie was going to just be another direct-to-Shudder V/H/S before A24 swooped in.
Image Nation Studios’ CEO Ben Ross and Spooky Pictures Co-Founders Roy Lee and Steven Schneider said:
“Internet lore is quickly rising as a compelling source of new stories for the horror genre, bringing with it built-in, highly devoted audiences. As fans increasingly seek out fresh scares, we’re focused on tapping into the most compelling online worlds in which talent already live, such as the vast SCP universe, and helping them make the leap to the big screen. With A24’s expertise in nurturing and elevating internet-born phenomena like Backrooms into major theatrical success, they’re the ideal partner for V/H/S: SCP and we can’t wait to expand the franchise with new, spine-chilling stories together.”
Variety is one of the best things about both the V/H/S series and the SCP Foundation. If the creators of the film plan to dramatize some of the fandom’s most popular SCPs in the movie, I think it’ll make people very happy. Unlike Kane Parsons with Backrooms, the SCP Foundation doesn’t have a particular creator who has risen to the top of the heap. It will be cool to give an array of creative people an opportunity to bring their own spin to the horrifying world.