‘Something Is Killing the Children’ Creator Gives Promising Update on Long-Awaited Blumhouse Movie

Here’s a tighter, more original GoreCulture-style rewrite that puts Tynion’s involvement and the Blumhouse update at the center:

The long-awaited adaptation of Something Is Killing the Children may finally be moving forward, with creator James Tynion IV offering an encouraging update on Blumhouse’s plans for the beloved horror comic.

Created by Tynion, Something Is Killing the Children has built a massive mythology around monsters, secret societies, and the mysterious monster hunter Erica Slaughter. That expansive lore has also made the series a challenging property to bring to the screen.

Blumhouse Takes Over

The comic was previously being developed at Netflix, with The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan attached to the project in 2021. However, development eventually stalled.

That gave Tynion more time to expand the mythology of the comics before Blumhouse entered the picture. The studio announced plans to develop Something Is Killing the Children across multiple formats, including a live-action feature film and an adult animated series.

According to Tynion, his involvement is now much more direct.

“What I can say about Blumhouse … is they are not afraid of stories that put children in peril,” Tynion told Entertainment Weekly. “This time around, I am much more directly involved in the development as it makes the jump into other media, in ways that I can’t fully say yet.”

Tynion also revealed that Jason Blum has been a major supporter of the comic and sees significant potential for Erica Slaughter beyond the pages of the series.

“I think Erica Slaughter is a character who has the potential to resonate with people all over the world,” Tynion said, noting that fans have already connected with the character through the comics.

Building the Slaughterverse

Blumhouse certainly has experience turning popular genre properties into major screen franchises, most recently with the Five Nights at Freddy’s movies.

However, the studio also knows what it’s like for long-gestating projects to remain stuck in development. Its planned live-action Spawn movie, for example, has spent years attempting to make its way to the screen.

For Something Is Killing the Children, Tynion suggests the adaptation is only one piece of a much larger plan.

“There’s so much more cooking in the Slaughterverse beyond all of that,” the creator teased.

Interestingly, the years spent waiting for the adaptation may have ultimately benefited the mythology of the franchise.

Tynion explained that the delays surrounding the original Netflix development gave him an opportunity to expand the world through a series of one-shot stories, including Book of Slaughter, Book of Butcher, and Book of Cutter.

At the time, Tynion was already involved in an early writers’ room for the adaptation and realized that some aspects of the mythology hadn’t been fully established yet. Rather than allowing an adaptation to determine those answers, he used the comics to flesh out the world himself.

That additional mythology could ultimately give Blumhouse an even deeper foundation to work with.

For now, there’s still no release date for the Something Is Killing the Children movie or animated series, but Tynion’s latest comments suggest the Slaughterverse is far from finished.

We’ll be watching for more updates as Erica Slaughter’s journey toward the screen continues.