‘Smile’ Producers Team with Sam Evenson for Supernatural Horror ‘Ignore It’ Based on Viral Short

The viral horror short-to-feature-film adaptation pipeline continues to churn, as Variety reports that Temple Hill Entertainment and Anton (the producers of Smile) have teamed with YouTube star Sam Evenson to adapt his supernatural short, Ignore It.

Ignore It “follows a family who fights to survive living with a terrifying entity known only as ‘The Woman,’ who will kill you if you acknowledge her. Their one rule for survival: ignore it.”

Something tells me “The Woman” isn’t having that.

Lily Collias (Cape Fear series) is set to star.

Evenson will write and direct. The film marks his feature directorial debut.

Via the outlet, Ignore It was first released on YouTube in 2021. It’s based on the viral r/NoSleep Reddit story, You’re Going to Notice a Woman in Your Home, You Must Ignore Her by Jeff Speziale.

The short gained over 12 million views on YouTube. Pretty solid!

Producers on the feature are Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, John Fischer, Hal Sadoff, and Ben Levine of Temple Hill Entertainment. Executive producers are Anton’s Sébastien Raybaud and Kathy Stocker.

Said Temple Hill Entertainment, “Sam is a generational talent whose viral horror shorts have delighted and terrified millions. We couldn’t be more thrilled to help bring his first feature to life, which will push the envelope on how cinematic language can be used to create an immersive horror experience. With Sam at the helm and Lily Collias as Becca, we can’t wait to bring this spine-chilling, emotional thrill ride of a movie to audiences around the world.”

Following in the footsteps of another YouTube filmmaker, Curry Barker, Evenson’s channel Grimoire Horror has acquired over 199,000 subscribers. He’s also developing another feature based on his short Mora for Neon, but, as Variety notes, Ignore It will go into production first.

Ever since and smashed the box office, Hollywood has been obsessed with finding the next Barker and Kane Parsons. Add Evenson to that list as the industry scrambles to dig up every viral horror short possible.