Danica Davidson
August 1, 2024 
Through the Lens Entertainment (TTLE) and FANGORIA are teaming up to adapt Junji Ito short stories into films. News first broke last year when FANGORIA revealed it would be adapting “Bloodsucking Darkness.” Now it adds the short stories “Haunted House Part 1” and “Part 2” to this list.
All three of these stories can be found in Ito’s story collection Smashed, but the second two have slightly different titles there: “The Mystery of the Haunted House” and “The Mystery of the Haunted House: Soichi’s Version.”
Aditya Chand, owner and filmmaker at Through The Lens Entertainment, remarked, “Having been born in Kobe, Japan, my love for manga and anime runs deep and has a huge significance for me during my upbringing. Working with a visionary manga creator like Junji, alongside a cornerstone platform of horror culture with FANGORIA, pushes the boundaries of what east-west collaboration can achieve in the modern age.”
Meanwhile, SVP of FANGORIA Studios Armen Aghaeian commented, “It’s important to recognize the universal appeal of horror stories; there’s no better way to commence our partnership with Through the Lens Entertainment than with the legendary horror author and artist Junji Ito’s stories. After all, everyone screams in the same language.”
It was previously revealed that Jeff Howard had been tapped to write “Bloodsucking Darkness.”
This comes shortly after the news that Uzumaki, the anime adaptation of Junji Ito’s manga of the same name, is debuting on Adult Swim on September 28.
VIZ Media publishes Smashed by Junji Ito in English and gave this description for it:
Smashed Plot
Try not to be noticed when you eat the secret nectar, otherwise you’ll get smashed… What horrific events happened to create the earthbound—people tied to a certain place for the rest of their short lives? Then, a strange haunted house comes to town, but no one expects it to lead to a real hell… Welcome to Junji Ito’s world, a world with no escape from endless nightmares.
Source: Press release
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
