EXCLUSIVE: The genre maestros at BoulderLight Pictures (Barbarian) and Divide/Conquer (Heart Eyes) are teaming on Amityville, a radical new spin on the famed haunted house story for a new generation, sources tell Deadline.
Joseph and Vanessa Winter, the married writer-director duo behind the excellent SXSW found footage horror movie Deadstream, are set to direct from their own script. Plot details are under wraps. But Raphael Margules & J.D. Lifshitz will produce for BoulderLight, alongside Adam Hendricks & Greg Gilreath for Divide/Conquer.
Given that BoulderLight has been under a first-look deal with New Line since 2023, that will be the filmmakers’ first stop with the material, though it’s not yet been exposed to studios. Producers are looking to fast-track the film, with Q4 2025 being targeted for production.
While you’re probably familiar with the Amityville Horror film franchise, going back to the the late ’70s, and 1977’s instant bestseller of a book from Jay Anson, this film has nothing to do with any of that IP. Its roots are instead in the famed real-life paranormal story behind those stories, with the film offering a fresh look at the notorious Amityville house itself on 112 Ocean Avenue itself, and a legend situated in the public domain.
That tale begins in 1974, when Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his parents and four siblings in their home at 112 Ocean in Amityville, New York. A year or so after the horrific crime, George and Kathy Lutz, along with their three children, moved into the house, unaware of its dark past. And shortly after settling in, they claimed to experience a series of unsettling paranormal phenomena — among them, unexplained noises, cold spots, foul odors, and sightings of strange apparitions. After just 28 days, the family fled the house, unable to endure the alleged supernatural occurrences any longer.
We’re told that neither the DeFeo murders nor the Lutz story factor into the story here.
Stuart Rosenberg directed the original Amityville Horror movie, starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder, which grossed over $86 million against a modest budget and has spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs over the course of decades, making for one of horror’s most recognizable franchises.
Joseph and Vanessa Winter are coming off their feature debut with Deadstream, which premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW in 2022, with Joseph also starring, and was released by Shudder. They are also known for their segment “To Hell and Back” for V/H/S/99, which had its world premiere at TIFF the same year. The pair produce their films under their banner, Winterspectre Entertainment, and are repped by WME and TFC Management.
Soon to see the Warner Bros release of Zach Cregger’s sophomore feature, Weapons — the mysterious New Line pic that’s one of the most anticipated of the year in the genre space — BoulderLight Pictures previously teamed with Cregger on his breakout horror hit Barbarian. Repped by Range, they’re also known for their work on titles like Drew Hancock’s sci-fi thriller Companion, The Vigil, Becky, Anna Kendrick’s Netflix thriller Woman of the Hour, and Andrew DeYoung’s hit A24 comedy Friendship, among others.
Established in 2013, Divide/Conquer has produced more than 30 features — most of them, in the genre space — most notably Universal/Blumhouse’s M3GAN And M3GAN 2.0, Spyglass/Screen Gems’ Heart Eyes, Focus Features’ Vengeance, Magnolia’s Lucky starring Harry Dean Stanton, Netflix’s Cam, Universal Pictures’ Freaky, as well as Amazon’s The Voyeurs and Totally Killer. They have several films to be released within the year including Legendary’s Faces of Death and The Black Phone 2.
