Mike Flanagan to Produce Body Horror Thriller ‘Rot’ With Cooper Koch, Amber Midthunder and Matthew Lillard
Mike Flanagan is continuing to expand his slate of genre projects, producing Rot, a psychological thriller and body horror film that will mark the feature directorial debut of Red Room Pictures executive Alexandra Magistro.
Cooper Koch, Amber Midthunder and Matthew Lillard are set to star in the project, which is based on a screenplay by Geo Bradley that appeared on the 2024 Black List, according to Deadline.
Magistro currently serves as vice president of creative at Flanagan’s Red Room Pictures and has worked alongside the filmmaker for eight years. She will make her feature directing debut with Rot after serving as an executive producer on Flanagan’s upcoming The Exorcist: Martyrs and as a writer and producer on Prime Video’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie.
While an official logline for Rot has not been released, the Black List synopsis centers on an antisocial man struggling with obsessive compulsions and the death of his hoarder mother. Hoping to confront his past, he begins working as a trauma cleaner, only for the job to increasingly infect his surroundings and destabilize his mental state.
Bradley has described the screenplay as “Repulsion by way of Cronenberg,” suggesting a combination of psychological deterioration and body horror.
Flanagan will produce through Red Room Pictures alongside Molly C. Quinn, Matthew M. Welty and Elan Gale of QWGmire. Production is currently scheduled to begin in Vancouver in November.
The project also extends the relationship between Red Room and QWGmire. The companies previously collaborated on Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck, while Gale has worked with Flanagan across several projects, including The Fall of the House of Usher, The Midnight Club and Midnight Mass.
Koch comes to Rot following his Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated performance as Erik Menendez in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. He will next appear in Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, which is scheduled to premiere at the New York Film Festival before a Christmas Day theatrical release from Neon.
Midthunder and Lillard will both reunite with members of Flanagan’s creative circle after appearing in his upcoming Carrie series for Prime Video.
Midthunder, who led Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey, has also appeared in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Novocaine. Her upcoming projects include Carrie, which premieres Oct. 7, and the action film Painter opposite Walton Goggins.
Lillard’s recent credits include Daredevil: Born Again, Cross, Scream 7 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. He previously worked with Flanagan on The Life of Chuck and will also appear in Carrie. His upcoming slate includes Man of Tomorrow and Searchlight’s Behemoth! opposite Pedro Pascal.
Magistro’s move into feature directing comes as Red Room Pictures continues building a sizable genre slate around Flanagan. In addition to Carrie and The Exorcist: Martyrs, the company is developing adaptations of Stephen King’s The Mist for Warner Bros. and Warhammer for Amazon.
With its trauma-cleaning premise and combination of psychological and body horror, Rot marks another original genre project for the company while giving Magistro her first opportunity behind the camera on a feature.
Production on Rot is expected to begin in Vancouver in November. A release date has not yet been announced.
Comments