‘Near Dark’ Lives Again: A24 Developing TV Series Based on Kathryn Bigelow’s Vampire Classic [Exclusive]

Dread Central has exclusively learned that A24 is developing a television series based on Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow’s gritty 1987 vampire classic.

The project is currently in development. We don’t have casting, a creative team, or a network or streaming home to share at this stage.

The news comes just weeks before A24’s Friday the 13th prequel series, Crystal Lake, premieres on Peacock. As we previously reported, all eight episodes arrive October 15.

To me, these projects signal an interesting new phase for A24’s horror identity.

The company helped turn films like Robert Eggers’ The Witch and Osgood Perkins’ The Blackcoat’s Daughter into defining examples of what became known as “elevated horror,” the term so many of us grew to hate. Slow-burn, prestige horror existed and found success long before A24, but the company helped give it a distinct modern identity and an audience that would seek out a horror movie because its logo was on it.

That era arguably peaked with Ari Aster’s Hereditary, which pushed horror into the Oscar conversation even though Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense) went unnominated. I think that wave helped pave the way for films like Sinners and Weapons to actually win Oscars. Hate the label all you want, but those movies earned their place, and I quite like a lot of them.

My feeling is that the enthusiasm eventually came with more pushback. What some viewers loved about that approach became exactly what others dreaded: the pacing, the ambiguity, the question of whether the payoff would justify the wait. I see A24’s move into established horror properties as part of its response to a changing audience, although that doesn’t mean it’s abandoning original films or that we know what drove this particular project.

Friday the 13th is an obvious title to build around. Near Dark is a more unusual choice.