Social-media horror creator Spencer Lackey lands feature debut with 'Lust', backed by Blumhouse, Neon and Spooky Pictures
A horror creator with 7 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube is making the jump to feature films. Spencer Lackey will write and direct Lust, his first full-length movie, with three of the genre's biggest production companies lining up behind him (The Hollywood Reporter).
Neon, Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Spooky Pictures are teaming up to produce the film, with Neon and Blumhouse Atomic Monster co-financing. Jason Blum and James Wan — the names behind the Insidious, The Conjuring and Five Nights at Freddy's franchises — are producing for Blumhouse Atomic Monster. Steven Schneider, a producer on the Paranormal Activity series, is producing for Spooky Pictures (The Hollywood Reporter).
The logline is being kept under wraps. No plot details have been released.
Lackey's path to a feature deal runs through short-form video. His official TikTok account has 3.1 million followers and 98.7 million likes (TikTok). His Instagram following sits at roughly 3 million (Instagram), and his YouTube channel counts about 668,000 subscribers across roughly 1,100 videos (YouTube).
He has said his goal is to use social media as a pathway into directing full-length horror films (Mashable). That shift was already underway in 2025, when his short film You Are Here — a liminal-space piece produced by Mike Flanagan, the film-maker behind The Haunting of Hill House — played the festival circuit (The Hollywood Reporter).
Lackey is a 2017 graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he earned a BFA in Acting (University of Cincinnati News). In fall 2025, he returned to work with current CCM students, creating vertical short-form horror videos in the school's Acting for the Camera class (University of Cincinnati News).
The Hollywood Reporter previously surveyed agents, managers and producers about who could be the next Curry Barker or Kane Parsons — social-media creators who crossed into features. Lackey was one of the names that kept coming up (The Hollywood Reporter).
He is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment, WME and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis (The Hollywood Reporter).
No release date or production start has been announced for Lust.
