Shudder Buys Post-Apocalyptic Halloween Thriller ‘Hallowarrior,’ Starring Milly Shapiro, Ahead of Tribeca Debut (EXCLUSIVE)

Shudder has acquired “Hallowarrior,” a post-apocalyptic thriller that marks the feature debut of writer and director Ben Sottak.

The Halloween-set film stars Milly Shapiro (“Hereditary”), Ajani Russell (“Skate Kitchen”), AJ Bowen (“You’re Next”) and Shannyn Sossamon (“A Knight’s Tale”). The deal includes rights in North America, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. “Hallowarrior” will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 10 and will debut on Shudder this fall.

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“Hallowarrior” follows Pumpkin (Shapiro), the last girl on earth and sole survivor of a humanity-ending plague, scavenging the wasteland for supplies on the eve of Halloween. Pumpkin’s lonely holiday ritual is interrupted by the arrival of a savage gang of raiders at her doorstep led by Thalia (Sossamon). Outnumbered and armed with candy, wit and weapons, Pumpkin must ferociously fight back to survive the night.

Sottak is a NYC-based filmmaker. His commercial work includes directing for Warheads, Sweethearts and PGATour. His narrative shorts have screened at Fantasia, FrightFest, Telluride Horror Show and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. “Hallowarrior” is his feature debut as a writer-director.

“’Hallowarrior’ is a love letter to horror and Halloween, and I am thrilled that the film has found its home with a distributor whose brand is synonymous with both,” said Sottak. “It’s an honor to have ‘Hallowarrior’ join the Shudder family, and a treat to introduce their audience to this fun, scary, gory film along with its badass lead, Pumpkin, played by the incredible Milly Shapiro.”

“From the moment we saw ‘Hallowarrior,’ we knew this was a natural fit for Shudder. The film fully understands what genre fans come to the platform for — strong scares, spooky atmosphere and a wild ride. It’s the kind of horror that plays directly to our audience and reinforces why the service is such a trusted home for bold, crowd-pleasing genre filmmaking, especially around the Halloween season,” said IFC Entertainment Group director of acquisitions and productions Adam Koehler.

“Hallowarrior” is produced by Emmajane Hoffman and Sottak for Strange Aeons, Gabriel Rosenstein for The Spitting Image, Danielle Benedict and Jake Casey for The Dazey Phase, and executive produced by Alec Ring and Shannyn Sossamon. The deal was negotiated by Koehler for Shudder with Isadora Johnson for Cinetic on behalf of the filmmakers.