Lionsgate Picks Up ‘Video Nasty’, Which Sounds Like ‘Last Action Hero’ for 1980s Slasher Fans

In Last Action Hero, a kid gets sucked into the world of his favorite action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. But what if you ended up trapped in a horror movie instead? That’s exactly what Lionsgate will ask with their acquisition of the original horror script Video Nasty.

Video Nasty will focus on three teens who rent a cursed VHS tape and they end up stuck in a 1980s slasher movie that threatens to trap them forever. That sounds awesome.

Variety has news on the Video Nasty movie that just got picked up by Lionsgate. The script comes from Chris Thomas Devlin, who only has one produced screenplay credit to his name: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot coming sometime next year. So hopefully that means Devlin knows how to handle the slasher genre.

Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies) is eyeing the project to direct and produce, along with his producing partner Gillian Bohrer, but there’s no deal in place for that yet. However, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are on board to executive produce through their Point Grey production banner along with Josh Fagen and James Weaver. Greg Silverman and Jon Berg are also producing for Stampede Ventures.

Levine is no stranger to horror, having directed the slasher film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. He also has a working relationship with Rogen and Goldberg, having teamed up with them for 50/50.

Though Rogen and Goldberg are known for delivering R-rated comedies like Blockers, Neighbors, Sausage Party, Good Boys, This Is The End, and Long Shot, they’ve been broadening their horizons significantly in recent years. Not only have they produced darkly comedic comic book adaptations like Preacher and The Boys, but they’re working on an animated reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures. And with Video Nasty, now they’re venturing into the horror genre.

For those curious about the title, “Video Nasty” refers to typically low-budget horror and exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, social commentators and various religious organizations. It was the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association (NVALA) in the UK who popularized the term, but it will probably become even more well known in the United States with this movie on the way.

Personally, I’m a sucker for movies where characters get stuck in movies, TV shows, video games or different time periods. This premise has been tackled fantastically before, albeit with a bit of a different approach, in Todd Strauss-Schulson’s The Final Girls, which is really worth seeking out if you haven’t seen it.

The artwork featured in this article is from a poster created by The Dude Designs, but it has nothing to do with the project in question. See it in full over here.

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