Twelve of the deadliest people in the world get dropped into one small town, and the last killer standing wins. That is the game in Exquisite Corpses, the Image Comics series from James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh, and it is now headed for the screen at Blumhouse Atomic.
Blumhouse Atomic has signed a first-look deal with Tiny Onion, Tynion’s production company, covering film, television and animation. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news on Friday. Under the deal, Tiny Onion, Blumhouse and Lyrical Media will develop Exquisite Corpses as a feature and as an animated project.
“James has been a valued partner on Something Is Killing The Children, which is why we wanted to expand our relationship,” Blumhouse founder Jason Blum said in the announcement.
Twelve Killers, One Town, Every Five Years
The comic arrived in May 2025 as a thirteen-issue event, written by Tynion with art by Walsh and colors by Jordie Bellaire. The setup is a closed loop: every five years on Halloween, the wealthiest families in America stage a competition, and this round drops its twelve contestants into Oak Valley, Maine, where the people who live there have to get through the night. It has sold more than a million copies in its first eighteen months, and the killers have proved popular enough to spin off on their own. The Fox Mask Killer, Rascal Randy and Lone Gunman all have their own miniseries, and a Book of the Dead anthology covering the rest of the field arrives January 13, 2027.
Blumhouse and Tynion Have Done This Before
The two sides already have Something Is Killing the Children in motion. Craig Zobel is directing the feature, which is slated to start production next year, and Blumhouse is developing an adult animated series that Tynion is leading himself. Stephen Christy, Tynion and Blum produce, with Jon Watts, Shaun S. Sutton, Ryan Turek, Adam Yoelin and Mette Norkjaer executive producing and Werther Dell’Edera co-producing.
“From the moment I first stepped into the Blumhouse offices, it felt like coming home,” Tynion said in the same announcement.
Tiny Onion launched in early 2024 with backing from Lyrical Media, and an Exquisite Corpses feature was already on its slate in January, alongside a film based on Tynion’s one-shot Room Service. A second season of Exquisite Corpses, set in a new town with a new field of killers, follows in 2027.