Film based on Grady Hendrix’s novel Horrorstor in the works

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

This is news we have reported before: there's an adaptation of author / SATANIC PANIC screenwriter Grady Hendrix's 2013 novel HORRORSTÖR in development. Things are different this time around, though. When we previously reported on an adaptation in 2014 and 2015, HORRORSTÖR was going to become a television series written by Josh Schwartz and Michael Vukadinovich. The show was set up at Fox, then moved to AMC, but never made it into production. So now New Republic Pictures has been able to acquire the rights to HORRORSTÖR, and they're planning to turn the story into a feature film.

Hendrix will be writing the screenplay for the film himself. His novel is set at 

the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. One morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift with plans to patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

HORRORSTÖR will be produced by Brad Fischer and Brian Oliver of New Republic Pictures, along with Adam Goldworm of Aperture Entertainment. Hendrix will serve as an executive producer alongside Brett Cohen of Quirk Books.

Cohen described the story as "a fun and inventive blend of satire with a contemporary haunted house story". Hendrix had this to say about the adaptation: 

I wrote Horrorstör to be simultaneously funny and scary, while paying tribute to the retail warriors who staff our big box stores. Having the opportunity to adapt my novel into a movie is a dream come true. I couldn’t be more excited about taking an audience and trapping them overnight with me in the flatpack hell that is Orsk — the ultimate haunted house, full of Infinite aisles, murderous ghosts, and incomprehensible faux-Scandinavian names."

We'll keep you updated on HORRORSTÖR as the project moves forward. Copies of the novel can be purchased at THIS LINK.