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Siren Head Movie Moving Forward at Warner Bros. With Zach Cregger and Brian Duffield

The viral horror creature created by Trevor Henderson is officially heading to the big screen following a major studio bidding war.

By FirstDrop TeamJul 12, 20264 min read

One of the internet’s most recognizable monsters is finally heading to the big screen.

Warner Bros. has acquired the movie rights to Siren Head, the towering horror creature created by Canadian artist Trevor Henderson. The studio secured the project after competing against several other major companies interested in turning the viral character into a feature film.

Brian Duffield is attached to direct the movie and will write the screenplay alongside Zach Cregger. Duffield previously directed No One Will Save You and Spontaneous, while Cregger became one of the biggest names in modern horror following Barbarian and Weapons.

The project attracted five studios before ultimately landing at Warner Bros. According to The Wall Street Journal, Henderson sold the movie rights for more than $1 million while keeping certain publishing and gaming rights connected to the character. The studio reportedly agreed to pay additional millions to the filmmakers developing the adaptation.

Henderson will serve as an executive producer on the movie. Cregger and Duffield are also producing alongside Roy Lee, Andrew Childs, and Scott Glassgold.

For anyone who somehow missed Siren Head during its years of internet dominance, the creature is exactly as unsettling as its name suggests.

Siren Head is an extremely tall and thin humanoid figure with two large emergency sirens where its head should be. The creature is often shown hiding among trees, power lines, and abandoned areas, using the speakers attached to its body to broadcast distorted music, emergency alerts, conversations, and the voices of its victims.

Henderson created Siren Head in 2018 and shared images of the creature online as if they were photographs captured during a real sighting. The original artwork helped the monster spread across social media, where fans began creating their own stories, short films, animations, games, and theories about where it came from.

Its lack of a single official storyline may actually give the filmmakers more freedom.

Unlike a traditional movie property, Siren Head does not come with an established group of heroes, a required setting, or one specific origin story. The filmmakers can build a new story around the creature while keeping the appearance, sounds, and atmosphere that made it frightening in the first place.

Cregger and Duffield reportedly developed a story idea together before the project was offered to studios. Their concept helped turn the movie into a competitive bidding war, although no plot details have been made public.

That secrecy leaves plenty of questions.

The movie could follow a group of people trapped in an isolated forest, a town attempting to understand a series of strange emergency broadcasts, or investigators searching for the source of disappearances connected to the creature. For now, Warner Bros. has not announced any characters, cast members, filming dates, or release plans.

The deal arrives during a growing rush to bring internet horror to theaters.

Studios are increasingly looking at characters, short films, YouTube series, games, and online urban legends as possible sources for future horror franchises. The Wall Street Journal described the Siren Head sale as part of a larger search for the next major internet created horror success.

Siren Head is especially suited for that movement because the character already has years of fan recognition without having appeared in an official theatrical movie. People may not know every piece of its fictional history, but the image of a giant creature using sirens to imitate human voices is immediately easy to understand.

The involvement of Cregger and Duffield also gives the project more weight than a typical adaptation of a viral character.

Cregger has shown a willingness to take strange horror concepts in unexpected directions, while Duffield has experience building stories around people facing creatures and unexplained threats. Their biggest challenge will be finding enough story and character development to support a full movie without losing the simplicity that made Siren Head effective online.

No official poster, footage, release date, or casting information has been revealed. The project remains in development at Warner Bros.

Photo Credit: moustachebanana
Photo Credit: moustachebanana

For Trevor Henderson, the movie also marks a major change after watching Siren Head spread online for years through unofficial videos, merchandise, and games. Henderson told The Wall Street Journal that he had accepted the possibility that he might never financially benefit from the character before the Warner Bros. deal finally came together.

Siren Head may have started as one disturbing image online, but it is now on its way toward becoming a full theatrical horror movie.

/ More from FirstDrop