Insidious Director Jacob Chase Is Having a Sleepover With Blumhouse
There are few childhood activities better suited to becoming a horror movie than a sleepover. Everyone is awake long after they should be, somebody inevitably decides to tell a frightening story, every unexplained noise suddenly sounds like an intruder and, at some point around three in the morning, the entire house begins to feel completely different. Blumhouse Atomic Monster is apparently ready to exploit all of that with Sleepover, a new original horror movie from director Jacob Chase.
Universal Pictures has already planted a flag in the calendar, setting Sleepover for a theatrical release on October 8, 2027. The studio had previously reserved that date for an unidentified Blumhouse Atomic Monster production, and we now know exactly what will be occupying that prime pre-Halloween slot. The news was reported on Bloody Disgusting.
Chase will direct the film and co-write the screenplay with Bryce McGuire, writer-director of 2024’s Night Swim. Their screenplay is based upon an original short story by McGuire, although anyone hoping to find out precisely what happens when the sleeping bags come out is going to have to wait. No actual story details have been released yet, with the project currently being described simply as the “quintessential sleepover nightmare.”
It’s a wonderfully simple description, and one that leaves the filmmakers with plenty of directions to explore. Sleepovers have always had their own miniature horror traditions, from ghost stories and urban legends to daring somebody to investigate the strange noise downstairs. Put a group of characters together in one house overnight, remove the reassuring presence of adults and introduce something genuinely dangerous, and much of the groundwork for a contained horror movie is already there. Whether Chase and McGuire are preparing something supernatural, a slasher, a creature feature or something else entirely hasn’t been revealed, so we’re not going to start inventing monsters hiding beneath sleeping bags just yet.
Jacob Chase Stays in the Blumhouse Family
The announcement arrives at a particularly good moment for Chase. He has just directed Insidious: Out of the Further, the sixth film in the long-running supernatural franchise, which opened in cinemas over the weekend and proved there is still plenty of life lurking inside The Further.
The new Insidious opened in second place at the North American box office with $25.3 million from 3,303 cinemas, behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Internationally it added another $35 million, giving the film an impressive $60.3 million worldwide opening weekend. The sixth instalment has also pushed the combined worldwide box office of the Insidious series beyond $800 million.
Insidious: Out of the Further gave Chase the considerable job of taking control of a franchise that began back in 2010 with James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s original Insidious. His film introduces Gemma, a young mother who discovers she can enter The Further and, even more dangerously, has the ability to bring entities from the supernatural realm back into our world. Lin Shaye also returns as Elise Rainier, maintaining an important connection to the previous films.
Before venturing into The Further, Chase was already familiar with turning compact horror concepts into feature films. He directed Come Play, released in 2020 and developed from his own short film Larry. The feature centred on a lonely child targeted by a creature that uses electronic devices to enter his world, giving Chase experience with precisely the kind of straightforward central hook that Blumhouse has repeatedly used as the foundation for theatrical horror.
Sleepover now gives him an opportunity to build another original horror property rather than immediately jumping into an established franchise.
Bryce McGuire Returns to High-Concept Horror
Co-writer Bryce McGuire has travelled a similar route. Night Swim originated with the 2014 short film McGuire made with Rod Blackhurst before being expanded into a feature produced by James Wan and Jason Blum. McGuire wrote and directed the feature version, which starred Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon and transformed the extremely ordinary idea of having a swimming pool in the back garden into something considerably less relaxing.
The connection between the two filmmakers therefore makes plenty of sense. Chase expanded Larry into Come Play, while McGuire expanded Night Swim from a short into a feature. Now they’re working together on another horror concept originating with McGuire, this time beginning with the familiar ritual of spending the night at somebody else’s house.
Exactly what that nightmare entails is being deliberately withheld, and at this early stage no cast has been announced. What has been confirmed is the main production team. Jason Blum will produce, while Chase, McGuire and Bea Sequeira are serving as executive producers. Lilly Tyson is overseeing Sleepover for Blumhouse Atomic Monster.
Another Original Horror Movie for October
The October 2027 release date is particularly encouraging. Rather than being developed without a clear destination, Sleepover already has a theatrical date positioned right in the heart of horror season. Universal giving the film that slot more than a year ahead of release suggests this is intended as a proper theatrical genre offering rather than something destined to quietly appear on streaming.
There also remains something refreshingly appealing about an original horror movie that can currently be summed up in a single word. We don’t need three previous films, a television spin-off and an online mythology guide to understand what a sleepover is. Most of us already remember what it felt like being awake in somebody else’s house at an hour when everything suddenly seemed a little strange.
For the moment, however, that’s about as far as we can safely go. Sleepover arrives in cinemas on October 8, 2027, Jacob Chase is directing, Bryce McGuire has supplied the original story and the pair are writing the screenplay together. Beyond the promise of a sleepover going very badly indeed, Blumhouse Atomic Monster is keeping the bedroom door firmly closed.
Given the people involved, we’ll definitely be listening for noises on the other side.
