Horror Novel Creepers, From First Blood Author David Morrell, To Get Feature Adaptation

A new David Morrell novel is getting the movie treatment — and this one doesn't feature any scheduled appearances by drifter John Rambo. Instead, it involves "Creepers," here defined as urban explorers who are ready to engage in the "highly illegal activity" of creeping through abandoned buildings, where other rival explorers and supernatural beings may lurk. 

Deadline reports that a film adaptation of Morrell's "Creepers" from Lionsgate and Suretone Pictures is going into production later this month. Casting is underway, with Marc Klasfeld set to direct in his feature film debut. Klasfeld has a long list of music video credits that reads like a who's who of pop artists. Among other things, he helmed the video for Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" featuring Charlie Puth, which was featured on the "Furious 7" soundtrack and which is currently YouTube's fifth most-viewed video with 5.5 billion views and counting. Klasfeld said he's "waited decades to find the right feature film project," and "Creepers" itself has been in development for a decade.

For his part, Morrell's 1972 debut novel, "First Blood," was the basis of the 1982 Sylvester Stallone film of the same name, and we know that Quentin Tarantino is a fan — of the book more than the movie. Last year, Tarantino spoke hypothetically about a new adaptation of "First Blood" that he would like to spearhead, with Adam Driver as Rambo and Kurt Russell as the sheriff who gives the PTSD-suffering Vietnam vet and former prisoner-of-war an increasingly hard time. Acclaimed for his own movie dialogue, Tarantino lavished praise on Morrell's "fantastic" book dialogue, and Stephen King has also praised "Creepers," calling it "chilling and hypnotically readable" in a blurb on the cover of the book.

I haven't read "Creepers" yet, but I'm the kind of Johnny-come-lately reader/listener who seeks out books or audiobooks like this when I hear that there are movie adaptations of them in development, and this one has earned my next Audible credit. "Creepers" has me intrigued, and it's a New York Times bestseller, so there are plenty more bibliophiles who have already consumed this novel.

Here's the official synopsis for the "Creepers" book from Morrell's website:

On a cold October night, five people gather in a run-down hotel on the Jersey shore and prepare to break into the Paragon Hotel. The once-magnificent structure is now boarded up and marked for demolition. They are "creepers": urban explorers with a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying secrets. Reporter Frank Balenger joins them to profile this highly illegal activity for the New York Times. But he isn't looking for just another story, and soon after they enter the rat-infested tunnel leading to the hotel, he gets more than he bargained for. Danger, fear, and death await the creepers in a place ravaged by time and redolent of evil. The darkest secrets live in places you're not supposed to be.

Lionsgate and Suretone's "Creepers" film adaptation, directed by Marc Klasfeld, reportedly begins shooting on July 25, 2022.