Sam Raimi scares up new horror label

Films will be distributed by Lionsgate

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 4/11/2008

APRIL 11 | Spider-Man filmmaker Sam Raimi is swinging into the direct-to-DVD market with new label Ghost House Underground.

Set to be distributed by Lionsgate, the label is a production partnership between Raimi’s horror company Ghost House Pictures, best known for producing Sarah Michelle Gellar franchise The Grudge,and made-for-DVD distributor Grindstone Entertainment Group.

The plan calls for 12 to 20 horror films streeting from the label each year.

Ghost House Underground will kick-off in October with eight titles, including Dark Floors, about a father and daughter trapped in a hospital. Other titles in the label’s initial fall slate are Room 205, The Substitute, Trackman, Last House in the Woods and The Brotherhood of Blood.

Rob Tapert and Mandate Pictures’ president Nathan Kahane, Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures partners, also will be involved in the new made-for-DVD label.

“Ghost House Pictures has had the great pleasure of bringing many popular horror films to the big screen,” said Raimi, whose company recently released 30 Days of Night. “We hope Ghost House Underground will give life to terrifying films that fans would otherwise never have an opportunity to see.”

Raimi plans to help market Ghost House Underground titles through his production company Web site, www.ghosthousepictures.com.

Grindhouse president Barry Brooker added, “Ghost House Underground will have a distinctly independent and entrepreneurial flavor, while, at the same time, being aligned with the resources and genre marketing and distribution savvy of Lionsgate’s home entertainment infrastructure.”