Horror Short Centering ‘Animal Crossing’ Getting Feature Film Treatment

During SXSW Online this past March, the event featured the world premiere of Julian Terry’s short film Don’t Peak, a horror story centered around a disgruntled poltergeist trying to escape a young woman’s game of Animal Crossing on her Nintendo Switch. Now, according to Deadline, Terry’s short is set to be adapted into a full-length feature film.

It’s been reported that Don’t Peak will be produced by Majd Nassif under Bekmambetov’s production banner Bazelevs.  Pavel Bozhkov will also be overseeing the project. Terry originally released Don’t Peak on YouTube in October, 2020 before it was picked up by SXSW. 

Starring only actress Katie C’etta with no dialogue, the only sounds in Don’t Peak come from Animal Crossing. Terry plays with his audience’s nerves throughout the short by creating a suspenseful atmosphere all within six minutes. The creature in the film tricks C’etta into freeing it from the game, leading to a finale’s jump-scare. Don’t Peak is the follow-up to another short film, They Hear It, which would be picked up by Legendary.

There’s no word yet if C’etta will reprise her role or if the full-length feature will retain all of the aspects of its six-minute short source material. Watch the original short film Don’t Peak by Julian Terry above.