Since horror is so big this year, Blumhouse Atomic wants to continue the momentum by snatching up all the IP it can. Its latest acquisition? Exquisite Corpses, an Image graphic novel from writer James Tynion IV, co-writer/artist Michael Walsh, and colorist Jordie Bellaire.
Blumhouse and Tynion’s Tiny Onion Studios are adapting the comic into a multimedia franchise. According to the Hollywood Reporter, this is part of a first-look deal between the two, something Tynion praised in a statement to press. “Every person in [the Blumhouse offices] and every filmmaker on their roster is dedicated to making great horror, and I’m thrilled to stand by their side and help bring these terrifying stories to life,” he said.
First released in 2025, Exquisite Corpses sounds like The Purge meets Ready or Not: every five years on Halloween, the country’s wealthiest families come together for a macabre game. They gather a dozen of the world’s deadliest killers in a small town and have them go up against each other until there’s one left, all while the locals try to survive. After the first 13-issue book ended, three of its killers were earmarked for individual spinoffs. A sequel story, set in a new town and with different killers, is due in 2027.
Even before now, Tynion and Blumhouse were already tight-knit. The horror studio is already giving Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera’s Something Is Killing the Children the same multimedia treatment, with a movie from director Craig Zobel, plus an adult animated series.
Blumhouse Atomic CEO and co-founder Jason Blun praised Tynion’s “great storytelling instincts with a passion for the horror genre” in the press release; he also said their successful work together on Something Is Killing the Children is “why we wanted to expand our relationship.”
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