Room 418 plots phone-first horror app with vertical Living Dead remake
A Los Angeles start-up called Room 418 is building a horror-only streaming app made for phones, and it wants a vertical remake of Night of the Living Dead to help launch it.
Room 418 is a newly established microdrama business, meaning it specialises in ultra-short episodes shot upright to fill a phone screen. The company is led by co-founder and chief executive Dylen Postnikoff, a former executive at Blink49 Studios, CBC and Shaftesbury, according to Deadline. The idea is a dedicated destination for horror fans, rather than a general service with a horror section.
The rollout starts small. Room 418 plans an invite-only beta launch in fall 2026, meaning a test version open to selected users first, ahead of a full commercial launch. The app will open with licensed horror content. Original productions made for the service will follow.
Ten original and adapted projects have already been optioned, meaning the company has secured the rights to develop them. That is a full pipeline for a service that has yet to go live.
The headline project is a vertical reimagining of George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The original film has been in the public domain since its release because of an error by its original distributor. That status makes new versions simpler to make from a rights point of view.
Room 418 is also developing a screen adaptation of When the Black-Eyed Children Knock by Ben Sobieck, a story that became popular on Wattpad, the online platform where writers publish serial fiction. A separate original project is being co-produced with Slash Management and digital horror creator Monse Gutierrez. Another original, inspired by Filipino folklore, is being developed with REELi Studios, with production planned in the Philippines.
The company has been teasing the plan since February. On 25 February 2026 it posted “Horror. Built for vertical. Streaming soon.” on Instagram, where it operates as @room418horror.
For fans, this means short scares built for the commute, not the cinema. Ten projects in development does not guarantee ten finished series. It does give the app somewhere to go once the licensed titles run out.
