It’s a match made in horror heaven. Brian Duffield, the director behind one of 2023’s best horror movies, has signed on to direct an adaptation of 2023’s best horror novel: Whalefall.
Duffield wrote and directed the 2023 sci-fi horror survival thriller No One Will Save You, starring Kaitlyn Dever as an ostracized woman who wakes up in the night to discover that aliens have invaded her home. It’s streaming on Hulu, and it rules. Per Deadline, Duffield has signed on to direct an adaptation of last year’s best horror novel, Whalefall. Duffield will co-write the screenplay with Whalefall author Daniel Kraus, who previously collaborated with Guillermo del Toro on the Trollhunters novel.
20th Century Studios, which also handled No One Will Save You, won the rights to distribute Whalefall following a bidding war among multiple studios. If you’ve read Kraus’ novel, this is not surprising—Whalefall has all the ingredients to become a hit genre film. The novel follows Jay, a teenager who goes diving in the Pacific Ocean to look for the remains of his estranged father, an expert scuba diver who recently died. Almost immediately, Jay is swallowed by a massive 60-ton sperm whale. Nearly the entire novel takes place in the belly of the whale, as Jay—who only has about an hour of oxygen left—contemplates the fraught relationship with his father while trying to find his way out.
Whalefall is deeply visceral in terms of both the body horror (whale guts are gross!) and Jay’s emotional journey through grief and despair. I can’t remember the last time I wanted to barf and cry at the same time.
(featured image: MTV Books)
