Screen Gems nabs franchise hopeful Keep Watching, starring Bella Thorne

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

With her roles in the Scream TV series, McG's THE BABYSITTER, and the long-delayed AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING, former Disney Channel star Bella Thorne is becoming something of a genre regular. Screen Gems has now picked up the U.S. "and much of the world" distribution rights to another of Thorne's genre works, a film called KEEP WATCHING.

The feature directorial debut of Sean Carter, KEEP WATCHING was shot under the title "Home Invasion" and was written by first-time screenwriter Joseph Dembner from a story he crafted with producer Alex Heineman. That story

focuses on a family imprisoned in their own home by intruders who play a life-and-death game in which the mysterious rules become clear as the night unfolds.

Heineman produced the film with his Picture Company partner Andrew Rona and Nicholas Cartier and Craig J. Flores of Voltage Films.

Thorne plays "a disillusioned teenager intensely guarding a personal secret". Her co-stars include The Walking Dead's Chandler Riggs, Under the Dome's Natalie Martinez, Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Willig, and – speaking of genre regulars –  Leigh Whannell.

Whannell already has the SAW and INSIDIOUS franchises under his belt, and he may be adding another series to his filmography with KEEP WATCHING, as Flores refers to this movie as "the first film in the KEEP WATCHING franchise".

Home invasion is one of the most terrifying concepts there is, and there have been some great home invasion movies in the last ten years or so (YOU'RE NEXT, INSIDE, THE STRANGERS, THEM), so I'm always up for giving another entry in this particular sub-genre a try.

Natalie Martinez