What scares you the most?
What are the quiet reasons that lead you into the unknown corners of a basement? There is a reason the hairs on the nape of our necks rise when we refuse to turn away from the unknown.
Fear is rarely about danger. It is about curiosity that refuses to turn away. At Kinogo Pictures, we are drawn to that space between fascination and fear, where the two become indistinguishable.
This is the Kinogo Unease, the first issue of our monthly dispatch from Kinogo Pictures.
THE UNEASY OBSERVER
Thoughts on horror, filmmaking, and the stories shaping the genre.
What excites us most about horror today isn’t a monster, a franchise, or a specific studio. It’s where many of the most exciting filmmakers are coming from.
For decades, platforms like YouTube, sketch comedy, and online content creation were viewed as stepping stones rather than legitimate training grounds. Horror continues to challenge that idea.
Backrooms and Obsession represent the latest examples. Both films showcase bold creative voices willing to take risks, trusting that audiences will follow them into strange places. They continue a growing trend of creators who built their audiences outside the studio system and have gone on to deliver some of this generation’s most exciting genre hits.
Mark Fischbach, better known to millions online as Markiplier, recently made the jump with Iron Lung, an adaptation of the indie game of the same name that proved compelling storytelling doesn’t require a massive budget.
Zach Cregger’s journey from sketch comedy to Barbarian and Weapons is another reminder that great horror often comes from unexpected places. What makes this trend particularly encouraging is that audiences are showing up.
At a time when studios continue to lean heavily on established franchises, horror fans have repeatedly embraced fresh ideas and distinctive voices.
The next great horror filmmaker may not be sitting in a studio office, film school classroom, or agency conference room. They may be uploading a video from their bedroom right now.
As horror fans, we’re thrilled to see new voices finding success. It’s a philosophy we carry with us at Kinogo Pictures as we continue developing and championing original storytellers.
THE HALLS OF KINOGO
Updates from Kinogo Pictures, projects in development, and what’s coming next/
GLASS COFFIN
A new Kinogo project is in development. Government infrastructure, blood myths, and surveillance gaps. That is all that can be confirmed for now.
DARK HOLLOW
Directed by Daniel Byers (Eradication), is scheduled for release later this year.
When her husband vanishes in a mine, a young mother is pitted against a coal company to save her family home. But down that mountain hollow lurks a horror as old as greed itself - and it's about to get out.
SEND A SCARE
Directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle), wrapped principal photography last year and is currently in post-production. The film stars Victoria Justice and Robbie Amell.
When a dysfunctional divorced couple demos their struggling immersive startup for a volatile investor, an overworked assistant is pulled into a nightmare as the presentation spirals wildly out of control and reality begins to unravel.
That's all we can share for now. More details on these projects will emerge in future issues.
WHAT’S LURKING
Upcoming horror releases and films creeping towards theaters and screens.
Evil Dead Burn
The next chapter in one of horror’s most enduring franchises arrives this summer. Blood and chaos are guaranteed.
Insidious: Out of the Further
Wouldn’t be summer without another trip into the Insidious world. The latest chapter in the franchise arrives later this year.
Ice Cream Man
Eli Roth knows how to deliver a blood filled slasher romp and what better way to ease into summer than with a killer ice cream man.
Leviticus
Following its Sundance premiere, this supernatural horror story blends romance and terror when it arrives later this summer.
KINOGO’S VIEWING RITUALS:
The summer horrors films we return to year after year.
Summer is supposed to be carefree. Long days. Warm Nights. Open roads. Yet those long days only make the shadows more inviting as we venture further into those empty roads.
Jaws
The Film that convinced an entire generation that it wasn’t safe to go into the water. Nearly 50 years later, Spielberg’s masterpiece remains our favorite summer watch.
The Descent
Often overlooked as a summer horror film but the spelunking vacation horror film does to caves what Jaws did to the ocean.
Sleepaway Camp & The Burning
No summer horror marathon can be complete without a summer camp serial killer. These cult classics are some of our favorites in the subgenre to feature killers not named Voorhees.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Along with Jaws this is a favorite fourth of July viewing here at Kinogo Pictures. Frequent collaborators Justin Powell and David Charbonier count it among their summer essentials, and it’s not hard to see why.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Forgotten horror worth rediscovering
Race with the Devil
Two couples vacationing in an RV from Texas to Colorado find themselves hunted after witnessing a murder during a satanic ritual.
As summer vacations begin, we recommend this '70s gem. What we love most is the paranoia. The farther the protagonists travel, the less certain they become about who they can trust. Every gas station, police officer, and roadside stop feels dangerous, creating a tension that remains remarkably effective nearly fifty years later.
TALES OF UNEASE
This month’s nightmare
Horror has always thrived on imagination. Before the jump scare, the special effects, and even before we know what the monster looks like, there is a story.
With each issue, we'll spotlight an original short story from a filmmaker, writer, or collaborator within the Kinogo community. Today's story comes from producer Ryan Scaringe of Kinogo Pictures, and we hope it evokes the kind of fear that leaves you checking your backseat before driving home tonight.
Turn down the lights, settle in, and enjoy this month's nightmare.
PARALYSIS
By Ryan Scaringe
Eyes flick rapidly beneath closed eyelids as Henry sleeps in his small apartment.
Only one week earlier, Henry’s friend Elizabeth had run into him outside the Night Owl pub. Elizabeth had clambered onto him, spewing nonsense about something moving in the dark alley. Sadly, Henry had become used to these sorts of outbursts from Elizabeth, especially outside the bars within town, but it had been months since they last talked after the failed intervention where she threw everyone out.
Henry didn’t think much of the story at the time, but something she told him certainly struck a chord because he had woken up drenched in sweat three out of the five past nights. Elizabeth had spouted on and on about tales of creatures that find ways to extract fear from you and lead you down a panic spiral. It really was sad how the disease had taken hold of her before she was gone.
Henry’s eyes move faster beneath his eyelids. The AC blows in the room, creating a rhythmic buzz of airflow that almost goes counter to the man lying in his own pool of sweat.
The only light that illuminates the room comes through the sheer blinds cast by the marquee across the street. The subtle sound of traffic and sirens fades in the distance as Henry’s breathing slowly accelerates.
As Henry lies in bed with slowly more erratic breathing, we hear a laugh – a cackle – coming from the dark corner of the room. A shadow slowly rises along Henry’s sleeping body and a rail-thin arm, shaking and peppered with needle marks, extends upward from his feet toward his face.
Henry shivers violently despite the sweat soaking his body. The cackle deepens, causing Henry’s eyes to shoot open. Henry’s dilated pupils dart back and forth, unable to move - trapped in sleep paralysis. His breath catches in his throat, becoming more sporadic.
Henry struggles to breathe as his eyes continue to dart desperately around the room, locking on the figure in the corner. The final words he heard from Elizabeth mix in with the nightmarish reality he’s in as his breathing becomes more and more labored.
The figure moves about the room as an eerie cackling and coughing emanates just outside of Henry’s peripherals. A tear slowly slips down his cheek as he braces for the unforeseen fate that awaits him. The sound twists - no longer just cackling, but a wet, choking laugh that fills the room.
Suddenly, a police siren rises in the air as the lights flash by through the window and drive away. Henry blinks and slowly realizes he’s out of this torturous state of paralysis but does he dare look in the corner? Henry slowly turns his head toward the dreaded corner inch by inch as his neck strains to turn.
To his relief nothing sits in the corner. Henry releases a slow sigh as he rolls over on his side only to find Elizabeth’s decrepit strung-out body on the bed, twisted slightly toward him, breathing in broken, involuntary gasps.
Henry stumbles out of bed as a scream escapes his shivering lips. He remains on the floor breathing erratically as he slowly forces himself to look back over the bed. To his relief, the bed is empty as is the room, which now appears shockingly normal. Henry’s labored breathing slowly subsides as he returns to the bed and begins to tear up.
A notification on his phone pops up reminding him of a funeral procession for Elizabeth that afternoon. Henry sits back down on his sweat-drenched bed and slowly starts to cry, distraught with guilt that he wasn’t there when everything fell apart for her.
ABOUT THE WRITER:
Ryan Scaringe is the founder of Kinogo Pictures and a producer based in North Hollywood. A graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory, Ryan founded Kinogo shortly after completing his MFA in Film Production.
Summer has a way of making us feel safe. Perhaps that’s why horror feels so at home there.
Until next month, keep the lights on… and don’t look in the corner. Sleep well.
– Kinogo Pictures