Pop star horror, as I’m calling it, has yet to slow down. What began with Smile 2 and Trap has only continued with Opus and the recent Mother Mary, to name a few. Films centered around mega-famous musicians experiencing mega-horrific terror. While psycho-sexual horror film Replacer isn’t quite in the same bag, the film does involve musicians, and we’ve learned via Deadline this evening that pop star/actress Halsey has been tapped to star.
“Stranded in Montreal, Proxy (Halsey), a troubled DJ, meets an alluring artist and his group of friends who run an underground radio station. The station’s broadcast becomes warped by a mysterious signal hidden deep beneath the city’s subway system. Proxy must escape before the sound turns her, and her new friends, into something raw, primal, and unrecognizable.”
Singer/filmmaker Avan Jogia (Leon from Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City) co-wrote with Halsey and will direct the film.
Though Halsey is best known for her music, she has been making her way into acting over the last few years. Horror fans will certainly recognize her as a friend of Maxine in MaXXXine (pictured above with Mia Goth).
Executive producing Replacer is none other than Lily Wachowski (The Matrix franchise), alongside Anthony Li, Lawrence Mattis, Sarah Flores, Christopher Renteria, Emily McCann Lesser, and Clay Epstein of Film Mode Entertainment.
Other producers include Kyle Mann of Independent Edge, Isabelle Deluce of Soft Focus Films, Damiano Tucci of Getaway Entertainment, in association with Anarchists United, with Olivier Picard and David Pierrat of Parce Que Films co-producing.
Said Wachowski, “Avan and Halsey’s script is a surreal hyper-dive into a twitchy, conspiratorial genre mashing snarl of horror/thriller/comedy, set against the grit and grime of a rarely glimpsed Montreal subculture. This thing is packed! I have the sense that Avan’s eyeballs have gulped down a steady diet of the films I grew up on- David Cronenberg, Alex Cox, Tony Scott, John Carpenter. Anarchists United is beyond excited to join the Replacer team and bring this super cool story to the screen!”
Added Jogia, “Replacer is a bright and electric club horror mashed together with a vulnerable romantic story about belonging and community. Come together. Leave as one.”
Again, this may not technically be defined as “pop star horror”, but Replacer sounds like it has all the right ingredients.
Replacer launches at Cannes this week, with CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group handling North American rights and Film Mode Entertainment in charge of international sales.
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