Hollywood loves to embrace a horror trend with already built-in fanbases, and the hugely successful box office runs for Backrooms and Obsession — still at #7 and #6 in the July 4 weekend box office, respectively — has made it clear that Internet-originated creators and content are ripe for plucking. Now, one of the most established creepy corners of the web, the SCP Foundation, is coming to live-action via producer Roy Lee and the V/H/S franchise.
Originating far earlier than Sirenhead and Momo, and even older than Slenderman, the SCP (Special Containment Procedures) Foundation’s fictionalized reports of disturbing anomalies and entities started up back in 2007, with the current Wikidot site created in 2008. In the nearly two decades since, users have created a rich and massively detailed mythology through both text and visual imagery, and it’d be impossible to curate a single narrative for any kind of film adaptation. Thankfully, V/H/S movies don’t do single narratives.
Roy Lee and Steven Schneider’s Spooky Pictures is teaming up with Image Nation Studios and producers Josh Boldbloom and Michael Schreiber for the next chapter of the horror anthology franchise, which will serve as the first feature-length adaptation of the source material. (Short films, web series, video games and other adaptations exist, though one should always question the authenticity of any SCP-related content that didn’t originate on the Wiki site.)
According to Variety, the film will present the standalone found-footage segments as “recovered field documentation” of evidence pertaining to the unexplainable elements that the clandestine Foundation is researching. Expect to see some of most popular SCP objects and incidents being incorporated into all of the presumably gory and death-filled video footage.
I Think V/H/S Is The Best Way To Bring SCP Lore To Live-Action (But Might Have Had DIfferent Thoughts Years Ago)
As mentioned earlier, it'd be bordering on insane for anyone to try and deliver the full breadth of SCP Foundation investigations into a single storyline, so there shouldn't be much confusion over why the anthology format is arguably the best option. But while it's possible any group of filmmakers could have come together to make this, I think it makes SO much sense for it to be a V/H/S entry.
And yeah, it's mainly the found-footage element that lends itself so well to the SCP Foundation's first-person accounts and other documentation. In fact, I'd be even more impressed if at least some of these segments were handled more like mini-documentaries with bodycam footage and high-def cameras, as opposed to the "scared teen running wild with a camcorder" that past installments have utilized more of. But if the latter is all we get, so be it.
I might not have been this optimistic about the SCP Foundation's first horror movie had the deal been made more than three years ago. At that point, the franchise seemed to be dead on the vine, with neither V/H/S/94 nor its V/H/S/99 follow-up doing much to keep fans hooked. But a created shift seemed to happen with V/H/S/85 that carried on with V/H/S/Beyond and 2025's V/H/S Halloween, which I adored for its darkly comedic batsh-ttery. Given the franchise's rise in quality across those three releases, I'm hopeful that the streak can continue with SCP manifestations in the spotlight.
No directors or writers have been announced yet, but maybe one day soon, a doorway will inexplicably appear outside your house that has all of the filmmakers' names written on a piece of paper taped to the other side. You just have to open it and walk through.
