Nick Cutter, the pen name of Canadian writer Craig Davidson, has written some of the most unnerving horror novels of this century with The Troop and The Deep. The former, especially, is a punishing, gore-laden masterpiece, its story of a Boy Scout troop, a deserted island, and an otherworldly disease mining some serious pathos from a gut-churning premise. It’s overdue for a film adaptation, and now one is coming from Conjuring director James Wan’s Atomic Monster banner.
Atomic Monster will produce the adaptation, which will be helmed by horror director E.L. Katz. Katz, who had a hand in SyFy’s dearly departed Channel Zero, displayed a deft, exploitive approach to gore with 2013's Cheap Thrills. He also worked on the gone-too-soon Swamp Thing, which we praised for “having some of the grossest body horror ever put on TV.” That’s good news, considering The Troop needs exactly that. Consider us cautiously optimistic.
[via Variety]