DEAD MALL Movie Adaptation Brings Cosmic Horror to the Big Screen
Fans of twisted horror stories have a new film project to look forward to. Adam Cesare’s comic series Dead Mall is officially heading to theaters, and it sounds like it’s going to turn a familiar suburban hangout into something deeply unsettling.
The four-issue Dark Horse Comics series, created by Adam Cesare and artist David Stoll, has been picked up by production company Not the Funeral Home for a feature film adaptation.
According to reports, the screenplay will be written by Michael Varrati, whose credits include The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula and the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. Varrati won’t just be pulling from the comics either, as he’ll also incorporate Cesare’s original story notes, including material that hasn’t been seen before.
At the center of Dead Mall is a setup that feels nostalgic at first, then quickly spirals into chaos. The story follows five teens who sneak into their local mall for one last visit before it gets demolished.
Instead of a quiet, abandoned space, they find something far more disturbing lurking inside. The mall becomes a shifting, unpredictable nightmare, housing a massive cosmic horror that reshapes everything around it. What should be a simple farewell turns into a fight to survive inside a place that no longer follows the rules of reality.
The concept leans hard into blending everyday locations with mind-bending terror, and the creative team isn’t shying away from those influences.
Matt Manjourides, co-founder of Not the Funeral Home alongside Justin Martell, summed up the vibe perfectly, saying: “Dead Mall is like Event Horizon and Hellraiser in a mall — we are excited to work with Adam on this project.”
That comparison paints a pretty intense picture. Mixing the cosmic dread of Event Horizon with the visceral nightmare fuel of Hellraiser inside a decaying shopping mall is a wild combination that could make for a seriously memorable horror film.
Not the Funeral Home has built a solid reputation in the genre space. The company is behind The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs and has produced a range of horror titles including Street Trash, Black Eyed Susan, and several Shudder originals like The Puppetman, Eight Eyes, Castle Freak, and Night of the Reaper.
Cesare has already seen success with his work crossing into film. His novel Clown in a Cornfield was adapted into a movie directed by Eli Craig in 2025, helping cement his place as a rising voice in modern horror storytelling.
With Dead Mall, the idea of a dying retail space becoming home to something ancient and incomprehensible taps into a weirdly perfect fear.
Source: Variety