Netflix Looking To Expand Horror Catalog

Netflix may have an expansive and ever-growing catalog of content, but there is one area subscribers have long felt has been neglected: horror. Although the streamer in recent years has found success in the genre via its now-defunct deal with director Mike Flanagan, putting out everything from The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor to The Fall of the House of Usher, Netflix’s horror offerings have been lacking, something that Scott Stuber, Head of Netflix Film, hopes to change.

“I think I think there are two complexities to it; one, it’s an event right now in theaters, right? It’s a communal event that really is working theatrically, and so for us to be able to get the right stories, I think it’s imperative, and to be a little more aggressive in that space,” Stuber explained to Collider before going on to reveal hopes for Netflix, which in 2022 released its own Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, to create its own “iconic horror character.”

“If you look at its history, which I love horror, I’d like us to find our own Freddy Krueger, our own Jason [Voorhees], our own kind of iconic horror character, and we haven’t really honed in on that yet. So the team is working hard on that because I think there’s a real opportunity there. You know, you’ve got so many great characters,” he said. “Every Halloween, basically, I look and go, ‘Okay, there’s 20 great characters to pick from. We should be making those movies.’”

Among the entries to help expand Netflix’s horror content will be the revival of one of the streamer’s most successful horror titles. Speaking with Collider, Stuber confirmed that more than two years after the original trilogy was released, a fourth Fear Street film is in the works. Although details about the project are uncertain at this time, Stuber revealed “there’s one stand-alone that we’re working on right now that we’re once again trying to get the script right… I feel like if we can get that script right there would be a great kind of extension of that franchise.”

Based on R.L. Stine’s Fear Street book series, the Fear Street trilogy – Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part 2: 1978, and Fear Street Part 3: 1666 – released over a period of three weeks in summer 2021. The films were set in Shadyside, Ohio, a town haunted by mysterious murders that are connected to the its sinister history. The film trilogy, directed by Leigh Janiak, was a massive hit, with the Fear Street movies often topping lists of Netflix’s best horror offerings. Currently, there is no word on what the fourth movie could be about or a possible release window.