Jeff The Killer Movie In Development As Film Industry Chases 'Backrooms'’ Success

Published Aug 11, 2026, 2:33 PM EDT

The movie is being produced by filmmaker Savanah Moss and Tongal, a content-creation platform that links businesses with writers, directors, and production companies. Jeff the Killer is a creepypasta from 2008 about a 13-year-old serial killer who starts to murder after bullies disfigure his face. The character is often associated with an edited image of a man with a pale visage and unsettling smile.

Savanah Moss is a TikTok creator and filmmaker known for “fever dream” horror comedy videos. Her latest post is a good example of her work, featuring lots of jump cuts and Lynchian strangeness. She released her first short film, “Funny Bunny,” in 2025. She currently has 11.4 million followers on TikTok.

“What I’ve always loved about Jeff is how much of the character was built by the internet,” Moss said to TheWrap. “Jeff stuck with people and became an internet icon. Now, there are so many different versions of his story from people adding to it and reimagining it throughout the years. We have this unique opportunity to take the character everyone knows and loves and create a truly terrifying, grounded horror film, while still staying true to Jeff’s origin. I don’t just want to recreate the creepypasta — I want to make Jeff feel terrifyingly real.” Moss is producing the film alongside Mark Korshak (Peppermint, The Age of Adaline) and Michael McKay (Peppermint, The Age of Adaline).

The success of hit horror films like Backrooms and Obsession has driven studios to sign younger creators with a background in social media. Backrooms, which adapts a viral creepypasta, has made almost $395 million worldwide on a $10 million budget, while Obsession turned a 900K budget into $488 million. Both films were led by young creators, Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, respectively, who got their start making horror videos on YouTube. Parsons is currently in negotiations with A24 for a seemingly massive contract. Barker is very busy: he's been working on Anything but Ghosts for Focus Features and Universal Pictures; has been tapped for a Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot; and is working on another original horror movie for Universal. He's also said he wants to make a new Freddy Krueger movie.

As for other upcoming horror films based on internet properties, earlier this year, Steven Spielberg, United Artists' Scott Stuber, and Amazon MGM Studios won a bidding war for the rights to the YouTube series The Mandela Catalogue. The movie will be directed by the series' original creator, Alex Kister. Other upcoming projects include Siren Head (which is getting a screenplay from Zach Cregger), Trevor Henderson’s Cartoon Cat, and an SCP Foundation tie-in with the V/H/S series.