Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick's Family Slasher 'Family Movie' Gets April 2027 Release
The Bacon family slasher film Family Movie will open in North American cinemas on 23 April 2027 via Variance Films, Deadline reported on 19 August 2026.
The film is a genuine family affair. Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick direct, produce and star, with their two children — Travis Bacon and Sosie Bacon — also in front of the camera and credited as producers. The screenplay comes from Dan Beers. Dan Beers, whose previous credits include the comedy Premature (2014). The cast rounds out with Liza Koshy, John Carroll Lynch, Jackie Earle Haley, Andrea Savage, Austin Amelio and Scoot McNairy. Additional producers are Vince Jolivette, Casey Durant, Greg Lauritano and Russell Wayne Groves. (Deadline)
The story follows the Smiths, a family of independent film-makers shooting a low-budget horror picture — until a dead body appears on set and their fiction turns into a real-life slasher. The premise carries an obvious wink for anyone who knows the Bacons' own decades in the business, but the film is played for genre scares, not a meta-comedy.
Family Movie has already had a healthy festival run. It world-premiered at SXSW in Austin, Texas, in March 2026, emerging with a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes — a strong critical reception for an independent horror title. In June it opened the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, with Bacon and Sedgwick attending as director-producers alongside Travis and Sosie. (Deadline) (Deadline)
Variance is committing to a full theatrical window, meaning the film will play exclusively in cinemas for the traditional period before moving to streaming or home video — an increasingly notable choice for an independent distributor in a market where many titles are pushed to digital platforms quickly. The distribution deal was brokered by Jessica Lacy of the Gersh agency and Dylan Marchetti of Variance Films. Gersh, Range Select and CAA are handling downstream rights for the film's future windows, and Neon International is repping foreign sales — meaning the film will be sold to distributors territory by territory outside North America. (Deadline)
For Bacon, the release adds to a busy horror slate. He was set in June 2026 to star in Summoner, an Amazon MGM horror film. (Deadline)
The 23 April 2027 slot places Family Movie in a late-spring corridor that has served independent genre releases well in recent years — quiet enough to avoid blockbuster traffic, close enough to summer to catch audiences looking for something new.
