The writing duo of Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant are best known for their work on comedies and family friendly projects: Reno 911!, Taxi (2004), The Pacifier, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Let’s Go to Prison, Balls of Fury, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Baywatch (2017), Night at the Museum, and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. But they’ve also written the horror comedy Hell Baby, and Garant has written the horror films The Veil and Jessabelle. So it’s not entirely off brand to hear that they wrote the initial screenplay for the upcoming horror film The Casket Girls, with Gabrielle Union (Breaking In) on board to star and executive produce.
Deadline reports that Justin G. Dyck will be directing The Casket Girls and has done script revisions with Keith Cooper (Anything for Jackson). Dyck has a lot of directing credits to his name, most of them being on romantic TV movies, many of them set on Christmas, but he has also worked on the Shudder TV series Creepshow and directed the horror film Anything for Jackson.
The Casket Girls is inspired by the true story of a group of young women sent from France to New Orleans to become brides to French colonists in the early 1700s. They arrived with small chests, or “caskets” of their belongings, hence the name given by locals. According to legend, upon the girls’ arrival, the homicide rate in New Orleans rose dramatically, with stories of men drained of their blood. The girls were blamed and feared to be demons or vampires, and for the city’s protection, they were imprisoned in the attic of the Vatican-controlled Ursuline Convent, which still stands today in the heart of the French Quarter, locked away behind an impenetrable door and windows bolted shut by nails blessed by the Pope himself. The film takes place in today’s world as Detective Shay Williams (Union) and her partner become trapped inside the Ursuline Convent with a group of tourists when the Casket Girls escape from their attic prison for the first time in over 300 years.
QC Entertainment’s Sean McKittrick and Raymond Mansfield are producing the film. Union executive produces alongside QC’s Edward H. Hamm Jr. and Lighthouse Pictures’ Jameson Parker. Despite the New Orleans setting, filming will take place in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Production is set to begin on October 15th.
Does The Casket Girls sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this Gabrielle Union horror project by leaving a comment below.