A few months ago, The Hollywood Reporter informally surveyed agents, managers and producers about who could be the next Curry Barker or Kane Parsons. Spencer Lackey was one of the names that kept coming up.
Now, Lackey is making the jump from social media (where he has 7 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube) to feature filmmaking.
Neon, Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Spooky Pictures are teaming up on Lust, a movie Lackey wrote and will direct. He’ll have steady horror hands guiding him, with Paranormal Activity veteran Steven Schneider producing for Spooky Pictures, and Jason Blum and James Wan producing for Blumhouse Atomic Monster. The logline is being kept under wraps, with Neon and Blumhouse Atomic Monster co-financing the project.
The move comes after Lackey built an audience with short-form horror and the Mike Flanagan-produced liminal-space short You Are Here on the festival circuit last year.
Online, Lackey has starred in much of his content and is known for embracing absurd premises, such as a monster watching him do laundry.
Lackey told Dread Central last year, “Industry folks are starting to take digital creators more seriously. Sure, there’s a difference between making a TikTok and making a feature, but a lot of the same creative muscles are being exercised.”
Indeed, Barker’s Obsession and Parsons’ Backrooms became the dominant box office story of the summer, showing that a new generation of filmmakers can attract audiences to theaters.
Lackey is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, WME and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis.
