EXCLUSIVE: Made By Us, the studio arm of creator management firm Made By All, has partnered with frequent horror collaborators Image Nation Studios and Spooky Pictures to launch Made By Spooky, a new creator-first horror label.
Made By Spooky will house and produce original short form, vertical serialized and longform IP revolving around digital native horror talent. The first projects under the label will debut next year.
The news comes as the creator economy’s footprint in Hollywood keeps expanding, with huge buzz around creator-driven horror, in particular. That’s in the wake of Obsession and Backrooms, the breakout horror phenomenons launching the feature careers of young talents Curry Barker and Kane Parsons. (NB: Spooky Pictures is already at work with Barker on his next film, the Focus Features horror comedy Anything but Ghosts.)
Made By Spooky and its projects will form part of Image Nation Studios and Spooky Pictures’ slate of projects under their co-production partnership – with recent projects including V/H/S/Mixtape, a music-themed anthology which premiered at Beyond Fest and on Shudder this month; V/H/S: SCP, the upcoming film with A24 inspired by viral digital phenomenon SCP Foundation; a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre television series and film with A24; Anything But Ghosts, directed by and starring Barker; and Casey Affleck’s gothic mystery Company, which premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
In a joint statement, Image Nation Studios’ Ben Ross and Spooky Pictures’ Schneider told us: “Backing new voices within the horror genre has always been central to what we do, and we’re committed to finding creative ways to champion fresh talent. There’s no denying that content creators are where some of the most interesting genre instincts are being developed right now – as Obsession and Backrooms have proven, audiences are hungry for this kind of storytelling. Made By Spooky is the next step in this journey and, together with Made By Us Studios, we’re creating a direct, scalable path for creators to connect with global audiences.”
A film and television studio with UAE roots, Image Nation has been in business with Schneider & Roy Lee’s Spooky Pictures since 2020; Watcher, the horror thriller directed by Chloe Okuno, was the first title emerging from a multi-picture slate deal. Other recent collaborations for the companies include Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ critically-acclaimed Late Night with the Devil, Damian McCarthy’s supernatural Neon horror Hokum, and Charlie Polinger’s debut feature The Plague.
Made By Us was founded by Leanne Perice, with Tanya Cohen, a former Range partner and WME agent, joining as Co-CEO in May. Their roster includes names like Adam W, Hannah Stocking, Josh Peck and Devon Rodriguez.
Cohen told us, “At Made By Us, we see some of horror’s most original voices emerging on YouTube, TikTok and Meta. Made By Spooky gives them the backing and genre expertise to turn bold ideas into stories that travel.”
Earlier this year, Made By Us entered an exclusive, multi-year partnership with Dentsu Entertainment for the development, production and distribution of original, creator-led entertainment. Made By Us Studios, meanwhile, inked a partnership with TikTok to co-produce a slate of premium, creator-led vertical micro-series. Among the first projects emerging from that partnership is The Knock, a genre micro-series created and directed by R.H. Stavis, and exec produced by Spooky Pictures in collaboration with Moby’s Little Walnut Productions.