Vera Farmiga spent more than a decade as Lorraine Warren, so it’s good to see where she goes next in horror. Inferno looks very different from The Conjuring. It’s an occult detective story built around a former cop and a killer, so it plays more like a procedural than a haunted-house film. Meanwhile, the film is already being pitched to buyers. In addition, the people behind it compare it to some of horror’s most intense crime-meets-supernatural stories.
The Story
Variety reports that Farmiga will star in and executive produce the supernatural horror film Inferno. She plays a former detective whose pursuit of a killer forces her back into the “Black Branch,” a rumored special division of Scotland Yard that investigates the occult. Her investigation brings her face to face with the paranormal terror she thought she had escaped. The Black Branch is a rumor rather than a matter of record, and the film takes that rumor seriously.
The Team
Bryan Hill, known for the series Titans, writes and directs. Hill says great horror films challenge what we believe about the world and calls Farmiga the right person to lead audiences into that darkness. Manifest Pictures co-CEO Zach Glueck says the script has the procedural tension of Manhunter and the emotional, performance-driven horror of The Exorcist and Longlegs. Co-CEO Yvette Zhuang calls it a supernatural thriller that combines a serial-killer procedural with possession horror. Ara Keshishian and Petr Jákl’s ZQ Entertainment produce, along with Adrian Askarieh’s Prime Universe Films.
Farmiga’s Horror History
It’s Farmiga’s return to supernatural horror since The Conjuring: Last Rites, which grossed $499.3 million worldwide. Her other horror credits include Orphan, Joshua, and Bates Motel. She earned an Oscar nomination for Up in the Air and an Emmy nomination for playing Norma Bates.
What’s Next
Manifest Pictures handles international sales and is presenting the film to buyers at the American Film Market, while CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group co-represent domestic rights. Production is set to begin in late spring. No release date has been announced. Dario Argento also made a film called Inferno in 1980, the middle part of his Three Mothers trilogy, so don’t confuse the two.
