As first reported by Deadline, Sony Pictures has acquired the film rights to “Ankle Snatcher,” a 2023 short story by Grady Hendrix. The story originally appeared in the Creature Feature Collection by Amazon Original Stories.

As of now, no cast or director has been announced for the adaptation, which is being produced by Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Tony Shaw for Escape Artists, together with Adam Goldworm for Aperture Entertainment.

According to the official synopsis, “The story follows Marcus, who grew up believing his father killed his mother — then blamed it on the boogeyman under the bed. ‘Always leave the lights on,’ his father warned, ‘or the boogeyman will get you.’ Marcus still heeds the superstition, especially when he invites his new girlfriend over. Is Marcus haunted by a creature or has he just inherited his father’s murderous delusions? The night will tell.”

Hendrix, whose books have sold 1.5 million copies worldwide, is best known for writing many novels in the horror genre, several of which have attracted the attention of film studios. Film adaptations of Horrorstör and How to Sell a Haunted House are now being developed by New Republic and Legendary, respectively. His novel The Final Girl Support Group, to be directed by Andy Muschietti, is in development at Max, while The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is in development at HBO.

In self-deprecating fashion, Grady Hendrix describes himself on his website as someone who “used to be a journalist, which means that he was completely irrelevant and could be killed and turned into food at any time. He is one of the founders of the New York Asian Film Festival, but he is not responsible for the bad parts of it. He is also not Asian. For years he was a regular film critic for the New York Sun but then it went out of business. He has written for Playboy Magazine, Slate, The Village Voice, the New York Post, Film Comment, and Variety. He has a hard time making up his mind.”

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