909,209 Wattpad reads, 2.7 million TikTok followers and a 1968 film: the horror slate of Room418

<p>On 2 October, <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/10/room418-microdrama-app-night-of-the-living-dead-1237145205/">Deadline reported</a> that a new Los Angeles company, Room418, has ten horror projects "optioned and in development". An option is a paid right to adapt a work for a set period. Room418 calls itself a studio and a platform, with "vertical-first originals at the center of a dedicated destination for horror fans". A vertical drama, or microdrama, is a series of short episodes filmed upright for a phone.</p> <p>Room418 has not opened to the public. On 27 October, <a href="https://room418.com">room418.com</a> showed "Streaming Soon", a waiting-list form and a second form for writers to pitch horror projects. The pitch form asks for a signed submissions agreement before anyone at Room418 reads a project. I found no Room418 app on the US App Store or on Google Play that day. Deadline wrote that an invite-only beta would open "later this fall", with licensed horror shows first and originals after. A commercial launch follows the beta. No date is given for either.</p> <p>Deadline tied the announcement to a year in which horror from new creators did well in film and television, naming Curry Barker's <em>Obsession</em> and Kane Parsons' <em>Backrooms</em>.</p> <p>Room418 has named four of the ten projects, and three of them adapt something that already had an audience before the app.</p> <h2><em>Night of the Living Dead</em>, in the public domain</h2> <p>The headline project is a vertical version of <em>Night of the Living Dead</em>, the 1968 zombie film by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001681/">George A. Romero</a>. Deadline writes that the film "has been in the public domain since its original release due to an error by its original distributor". Public domain means no one holds the copyright, so anyone may copy or adapt the work. Room418 has not named a writer or a director for its version. The episode count is not public either.</p> <p>The film's original production company still sells rights around it. <a href="https://www.image-ten.com/info">Image Ten</a> describes itself as "the official license holder" and offers licences for the title, the logo, photographs and the characters and story. A reader comment under the Deadline piece asked whether Room418 works with Image Ten. Neither company has said so publicly.</p> <p>LoveHit, another Los Angeles vertical studio, made a similar choice. On 7 September, <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/09/lovehit-microdrama-literary-classic-originals-1237069378/">Deadline reported</a> its launch with adaptations of public-domain novels such as <em>Wuthering Heights</em> and <em>Pride and Prejudice</em>. Each title is shot twice. One version is a vertical series of about 50 episodes, the other a 90-minute horizontal film.</p> <h2>A Wattpad story from 2015</h2> <p>The second project adapts <em>When the Black-Eyed Children Knock</em> by Ben Sobieck. Deadline calls it "popular on Wattpad", the reading platform where writers post stories chapter by chapter. On 27 October its <a href="https://www.wattpad.com/story/47726161-when-the-black-eyed-children-knock-other-stories">Wattpad page</a> showed 909,209 reads and 25,249 votes. The story was completed on 16 October 2015. The page lists its highest rank as number 2 in Horror.</p> <p>The read count covers a collection, where the title story sits alongside five other short horror stories in 17 parts. In the page's summary, a young father who cannot sleep hears children with black eyes knocking at his door.</p> <p>Deadline wrote that Room418 plans "on working with creatives who've found success on Wattpad and digital platforms". The 909,209 reads were counted eleven years after the story was completed.</p> <h2>Monse Gutierrez, on TikTok</h2> <p>The third project is an original series co-produced with Slash Management, the management company of Monse Gutierrez. She posts as <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@cvnela">@cvnela</a>. On 27 October her TikTok profile showed 2.7 million followers and 109.9 million likes, with the line "I like horror and movies :)".</p> <p>Her videos discuss other people's horror films. <a href="https://variety.com/lists/horror-list-best-directors-actors-2026/">Variety</a> listed her in its Horror Impact Report in October, for video essays and interviews with actors and directors. Her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@cvnela">YouTube channel</a> carries set interviews for <em>Resident Evil</em>, with Zach Cregger and Austin Abrams, and for <em>Obsession</em>. Room418 has not given the project a title. It has not said whether she writes it, appears in it or produces it.</p> <h2>"The mythology is local"</h2> <p>The fourth project is a horror series inspired by Filipino folklore, made with REELi Studios, a Los Angeles company, with production planned in the Philippines. Room418 has not named the folklore, the title or the director. I found no source on REELi Studios beyond the Room418 announcement, carried by Deadline and <a href="https://www.c21media.net/news/ex-cbc-blink49-exec-dylen-postnikoff-enters-room418-with-new-microseries-outfit">C21Media</a>.</p> <p>The project fits the line Room418's co-founder and chief executive used to explain the company. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11007011/">Dylen Postnikoff</a> worked in marketing at Blink49 Studios, Shaftesbury and the Canadian broadcaster CBC. Deadline credits her with brand and franchise strategy on <em>Murdoch Mysteries</em> and <em>Kim's Convenience</em>, and with the international profiles of <em>Schitt's Creek</em> and <em>Anne With an E</em>. Deadline wrote that she hopes to apply her experience in studio positioning and audience growth to Room418. "What makes horror so interesting globally is that fear is universal, but the mythology is local," she told Deadline. "Every market has its own stories, folklore and voices, and horror audiences are unusually willing to cross borders to discover them."</p> <p>Māori Television released <em>Kiri</em>, a supernatural series of ten three-minute episodes, as I noted in <a href="https://www.verticaldrama.tv/news/vertical-drama-any-community-can-make-it/">an earlier piece</a>.</p> <p>The app itself is built by <a href="https://www.kino.studio/">KINO</a>, a film technology company. Deadline reports that KINO works on Room418's product and technical infrastructure. Members of KINO's founding team were executive producers on A24's horror film <em>Undertone</em>, according to Deadline. On its own site, KINO presents tools for secure screenings and white-label streaming services. Its film arm, KINO Studios, describes itself as an independent film fund.</p> <h2>Horror was already in the chart</h2> <p>Horror already sells inside the general apps, mixed with romance. <em>HORROR GAME: SEDUCE MY GHOST TEACHER OR DIE</em>, a <a href="/apps/netshort/">NetShort</a> series, ranked in the top 10 of the verticaldrama.tv chart in five of the six weeks from 14 September to <a href="https://www.verticaldrama.tv/top/2026-10-19/">19 October</a>. In March, Charles Band, who has produced independent horror films since 1977, launched FMA Productions for vertical horror, <a href="https://www.streaming-radar.com/p/streaming-radar-33-canal-choisit">Streaming Radar reported</a>. One of his horror films, <em>Models vs. Werewolves</em>, was cut into episodes for ReelShort, according to <a href="https://www.duanju.news/post/acteurs-connus-duanju-romance">duanju.news</a>. Other studios have moved into thrillers, a faith comedy and a murder mystery, as <a href="https://www.verticaldrama.tv/news/vertical-drama-dark-tropes-paywall/">I wrote in September</a>.</p> <p>Room418 announces horror on its own. Its first catalogue will be licensed shows, and none has been named.</p> <h2>What the slate does not say</h2> <p>My view: three of the four named projects come with an audience built elsewhere, in the 1968 film, the Wattpad story and the TikTok account. The folklore series has no such record in the announcement. Postnikoff describes the reverse path too. A microseries, she told Deadline, can "prove an audience for an idea and become the first expression of IP that grows into film, television and beyond". IP stands for intellectual property, a story the company can exploit in other formats.</p> <p>Deadline adds that, if the originals work, the company is "eyeing expansions into film, television, adaptations and experiences". None of these has a date.</p> <p>Six of the ten projects are unnamed and the beta has no public date. Room418 has given no price, no word on whether episodes will be free, no cast and no episode length.</p> <p>"Vertical changes more than the frame," Postnikoff said. "It changes the rhythm of the storytelling, how quickly you establish a world, where you build tension and how you earn the next episode."</p>