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Vietnamese found-footage horror film “Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion” is opening in North American theaters on Sept. 4, with Mockingbird Pictures placing the title across AMC, Regal and Cinemark circuits.
Directed
by Hùng Trần, the film became Vietnam’s first theatrical found-footage horror release and turned into a breakout hit after its June debut. It topped the local box office, drew more than one million admissions and crossed VND78 billion ($3 million) in cumulative grosses.
The story pulls from a well-known Vietnamese urban legend: a band of young streamers force their way into the notoriously haunted Hứa family estate, hoping the stunt will bring them fame and money. Instead their broadcast captures a dormant, malevolent force stirring back to life, pulling them into the century-old tale of the “Ghost of the Hứa Family.” The entire film was shot in found-footage style.
“Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion” was produced by Runup Vietnam alongside South Korea’s Hive Media Corp, marking the Korean company’s first production investment outside its home market. Hive has backed several of Korea’s biggest recent releases, including “12.12: The Day,” “Inside Men,” “The Man Standing Next” and “Harbin,” along with the found-footage horror title “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum,” which drew more than 2.6 million admissions in South Korea.
“Found footage has the power to make audiences feel as though they are experiencing the horror themselves,” said producer Lee Jin Sung. “Working with Hive Media Corp allowed us to bring that experience to a uniquely Vietnamese legend while preserving the identity and atmosphere that make the story distinctive.”
Mockingbird Pictures is overseeing the North American theatrical rollout as part of its broader effort to bring Vietnamese commercial films to international audiences.
“‘Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion’ delivers one of the most intense Vietnamese horror experiences in recent years,” said Phong Duong, business director of Mockingbird Pictures and one of the executive producers at sister company Bluebells Studios. “We believe this is a film that can travel, and we want audiences around the world to experience that fear for themselves.”
Mockingbird Pictures’ distribution footprint spans more than 60 new theatrical releases a year in Vietnam and upwards of 100 titles across post-theatrical platforms, reflecting the company’s growing focus on bringing Southeast Asian films to international audiences.
