The major film festivals like Sundance and the current SXSW are an auction of sorts where all the major studios vie to see which distributor will be the highest bidder on many of these films. Today comes word that IFC Midnight has picked up the rights to Haunter at SXSW.
According to Deadline, Vincenzo Natali’s ghost tale Haunter marks the second deal to go down during SXSW 2013, with IFC Midnight snagging all U.S. rights. Abigail Breslin stars in the Midnighters selection as a 16-year-old specter trapped in limbo who is “haunted” by the very much alive girl whose family now lives in her house.
Vincenzo Natali (Splice) directed from a screenplay by Brian King, with Steven Hoban and Mark Smith producing. John Raymonds and Wild Bunch’s Vincent Miraval executive produced.
Haunter stars Abigail Breslin, Stephen McHattie, Peter Outerbridge, Michelle Nolden, and David Hewlett.
Plot Synopsis
Lisa Johnson (Breslin) is one day shy of her sixteenth birthday. And she will be forever. She and her family are dead and doomed to repeat that fateful last day before they were all killed in 1985. Only Lisa has “woken up” and realizes what is going on. She starts to feel as if she is being haunted, but the “ghost” turns out to be Olivia, a very much alive girl who lives in the house in the present day with her own family. With her help, Lisa discovers that the house once belonged to a serial killer who kidnapped teenage girls and burned their remains in a hidden furnace room. When he died, he became a Haunter – a powerful, evil spirit able to possess the living.
