Howdy, folks! It’s Sunday, which means it’s time for the horror haul, our regular round-up and one-stop-shop for all things horror. This week in horror news, Annabelle: Creation blasts Warner Bros. and New Line's growing The Conjuring universe past $1 Billion at the box office, Anya Taylor-Joy reunites with her The Witch director Robert Eggers for his upcoming Nosferatu remake, the Lovecraft-inspired open-world investigative video game The Sinking City lands a publisher, and Rob Zombie signs on to head up HDNET's 13 Nights of Halloween.

Elsewhere, we've got a big haul of new horror trailers this week, including an English Language trailer for the Inside remake, the TIFF contender Pyewacket, the FrightFest slasher Ruin Me, and more. In the realm of TV, we've also got new looks at Channel Zero: No-End House and Jordskott Season 2.

For all the horror news we’ve already covered on the site this week, you can click through the links below. Then, check out other genre highlights from the week and finish it all up with a rundown of the week in horror movie trailers. For more, be sure to hit up Collider Nightmares, our round-up of the best horror movies on Netflix, the best horror movies on Amazon Prime, and our regularly updated Horror Movie Release Dates Calendar. Thanks for tuning in, and sound off in the comments with your thoughts, questions, and other horror musings.

'The Conjuring' Universe Joins the $1 Billion Box Office Club

annabelle-2-doll
Image via New Line

Nothing says franchise success like a billion dollars at the box office, which means Warner Bros. and New Line's The Conjuring universe is officially a big bread-winning success. The box office benchmark comes on the heels of a major opening weekend for Annabelle: Creation, David F. Sandberg's spin-off prequel about the origin of the demonic doll introduced in James Wan's The Conjuring. Since Wan's critical and commercial success dropped in 2013, the world of The Conjuring has rapidly grown to include franchise spinoffs for Annabelle, The Nun, and The Crooked Man -- the latter two of which were introduced in Wan's 2016 sequel The Conjuring 2. And of course, The Conjuring 3 is also in the works, though Wan is not expected to return as director.

Wan has a pretty phenomenal track record as a horror box office booster after spawning the Saw and Insidious franchises, but The Conjuring-verse is proving to be a next level success. It's also a great demonstration of how you effectively build a shared universe -- which is to say, slowly. The Conjuring never forced its characters down our throats as future spin-offs potentials. Instead, the ghouls and demons had a role to play in the story at hand and their individual franchises grew out from that solid base. It's a display of both creative and business acumen, and it will be interesting to see if they can creatively sustain the needs of a shared universe in terms of overlapping mythology and world-building.

In a press release, Warner Bros. President and Chief Content Officer, Toby Emmerich said, “This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of New Line, and without question, the horror genre has always been an integral and important part of the company’s DNA. While the genre has certainly evolved over the decades, watching the critical and commercial success of the ‘Conjuring’ universe has been truly spectacular and I am incredibly proud of all the talented people involved in making this happen.”

Lovecraft-Inspired Open-World Game 'The Sinking City' Lands a Publisher

Fellow HP Lovecraft fans, it's time to get very excited. You may have heard of The Sinking City, an open-world video game inspired by the Lovecraft mythos (I mean, holy shit yes), and this week brings further good news. The developers at Frogwares (the folks behind a number of Sherlock Holmes investigative games) have teamed with Bigben International, who will publish the game. The Sinking City is currently in production with

The Sinking City is currently in production and aiming for a 2018 release for PC and consoles. Per the press release, the horror adventure will take players to the 1920s, where they'll find the fictional city of Oakmont, Massachusetts, "a wide open-world overflowing with insanity, is being taken over by an unfathomable supernatural force," where players will investigate what is driving the city mad.

“The Sinking City is our biggest project to date and is a natural evolution of our game design style that we’ve been polishing since our first Sherlock Holmes game. We’ve received both commercial and critical success with our Sherlock Holmes series," said Frogwares CEO Wael Amr. "The Sinking City takes that heritage to an even grander and ambitious level. We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with Bigben and joining forces again.”

Benoit Clerc, Bigben's Director of Video Games, said, “We are proud to be continuing our collaboration with Frogwares on a project as rich and innovative as The Sinking City. Lovecraft’s imagination has been a source of fantastical inspiration and the studio’s vision for The Sinking City is breathtaking. All of this experienced team’s talent will come together to develop an open world blending investigation, action and adventure in a town where horror merges into madness.”

Here's the official game description from the Frogwares website:

The Sinking City is a game of investigation and mystery taking place in a fictional open world inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

 

The player steps into the shoes of a 1920s private investigator who finds himself in the city of Oakmont Massachusetts, New England. A city suffering from unprecedented floods  of clearly supernatural origins. A city trembling on the brink of madness.

 

Can you survive this beleaguered town and untangle the mysteries responsible for its tragic situation or will you be driven beyond madness yourself?

Anya Taylor-Joy Reteaming with 'The Witch' Director for 'Nosferatu' Remake

the-witch-anya-taylor-joy
Image via A24

Anya Taylor-Joy is reuniting with The Witch director Robert Eggers for his remake of the classic vampire tale, Nosferatu. The Witch proved to be the breakout film for both parties, establishing Eggers as a filmmaker to watch after he delivered such a knockout first film and putting Taylor-Joy on the map before Split earned her full-on industry attention. Indeed, Taylor-Joy has kept busy since The Witch with a series of independent films and her profile is set to skyrocket even further with her starring roles in the X-Men spin-off New Mutants and the Split and Unbreakable sequel Glass.

Eggers has spoken openly about the fact that he didn't intend to make Nosferatu as his first follow-up to The Witch. "“It feels ugly and blasphemous and egomaniacal and disgusting for a filmmaker in my place to do Nosferatu next," he said last year. "I was really planning on waiting a while, but that’s how fate shook out.” While it's easy to see his point considering Nosferatu is one of the most revered films of all time (and Werner Herzog's 1979 remake is also an exceptional piece), but after the style and command he displayed with The Witch, it's also very easy to get excited about what he might do with the material. Per Variety, Taylor-Joy is in negotiations to star in the Studio 8 remake and Eggers had her in mind for the film from the beginning.

Rob Zombie to Host 13 Days of Halloween on HDNet

Praise be, folks, for we are merely weeks away from the all-horror, all the time programming lineup that comes with the Halloween season. You'll have plenty of options, but HDNet has lined up a new host that may give them a bit of an edge. Rob Zombie will hose the network's holiday movie event, Rob Zombie's 13 Nights of Halloween, from October 19 to 31 for which the rockstar and horror helmer will introduce and showcase a new film each night. The full schedule is still to come but you can check out more details on what to expect in the press release below.

"A musician, filmmaker, and author, Rob Zombie has directed seven feature films, including the recent 31, which premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and The Lords Of Salem, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival. His other directing credits include the cult favorite House Of 1000 Corpses and its companion, The Devil’s Rejects, along with the 2007 re-imagining of John Carpenter’s Halloween, plus its sequel, Halloween 2. Rob Zombie also developed his own comic book series into an R-rated animated feature, The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto.

 

Films featured during the 13-night event range from horror classics such as The Last House On The Left (1972) and The Blob (1958) to modern favorites including The Devil Inside (2012) and Case 39 (2009). The full schedule and list of films for ROB ZOMBIE’S 13 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN is forthcoming.

Trailer Trash: 'Inside' Remake; 'Chanel Zero: No-End House'

Inside https://www.youtube.com/embed/4oqQ6sg_DUw

Pregnant and depressed, a young widow tries to rebuild her life following the fateful car accident where she lost her husband and partially lost her hearing. Now, about to go into labor, she’s living in a remote house in the suburbs when, one Christmas night, she receives an unexpected visit from another woman with a devastating objective: to rip the child she’s carrying from inside her. But a mother’s fury when it comes to protecting her child should never be underestimated.

Pyewacket https://www.youtube.com/embed/vMGprsXtlSY

A frustrated girl attempts an occult ritual in order to kill her mother, but awakens something sinister in the woods instead, in the latest from director Adam MacDonald (Backcountry).

Channel Zero: No-End House https://www.youtube.com/embed/LW7zWck0VAQ

Your memories will eat you alive. Enter the No-End House at your own peril.

Ruin Me

Six strangers sign up for a slasher movie re-enactment game in which they are dropped into the woods and pursued by a knife-wielding maniac. But when the body count becomes real, Alexandra (Dwyer), the only participant who has never seen a horror film, must unravel the mystery of who is responsible if she wants to survive the ordeal.

Tokyo Ghoul https://www.youtube.com/embed/MCBBTdSQsvo

Ghouls live among us, the same as normal people in every way – except their craving for human flesh. Shy Ken Kaneki is thrilled to go on a date with the beautiful Rize. But it turns out that she’s only interested in his body – eating it, that is. When a morally questionable rescue transforms him into the first half-human half-Ghoul hybrid, Ken is drawn into the dark and violent world of Ghouls, which exists alongside our own.

The Atoning https://www.youtube.com/embed/P8ZH6iHTNLc

Vera, Ray, and Sam, a seemingly normal family, are haunted by more than mere ghosts. The lingering horror of their past threatens their ability to function as a loving family until they become enlightened by a mystical encounter. From that moment on, they’re thrust into a horror worse than anything they’ve ever experienced. Personal demons manifest and tear the family apart from the inside out as they come to terms with their past.

Jordskott Season 2 https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZmIqa5Jdkj4