Keep the lights on: David F. Sandberg will direct Lionsgate horror Mommy’s Home

If you thought David F. Sandberg was parking his horror credentials after Shazam!, think again. The Swedish director is lining up another psychological creepfest called Mommy’s Home for Lionsgate, which promises to be both very strange and, let’s be honest, a slightly awkward watch for anyone with an overbearing mum.

Mommy’s Home has been in development for some time, with original writer James Morosini initially set to direct before Sandberg came on board.

The plot isn’t your usual haunted house fare. Written by James Morosini (who did the prize-winning I Love My Dad), the story follows a young dad facing domestic chaos when his mother is thawed out after being cryogenically stored. Not only does he have to deal with a parent moving back in, she’s still 24, frozen in time — which is bound to make for some deeply uncomfortable dinner table conversations. The official line is the family life ‘becomes terrifyingly unhinged’ when this questionable reunion takes place.

Morosini once described the project as carrying the ‘family tension of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle’, but dialled up with the big swings of Barbarian and M3GAN. He called it 'a really fun, scary, sexy genre blend', which is certainly a mouthful and makes you wonder what exactly is going to happen when ‘mum’ gets home. Honestly, the whole thing sounds like it might give Freud nightmares — and that's before the supernatural even kicks off.

Sandberg Back in the Dark

Now, Sandberg is no rookie when it comes to unsettling films. He got his break stretching his viral short into Lights Out back in 2016 — a film that pulled in around $150 million off a shoestring budget (peanuts by Hollywood standards). After that, he did Annabelle: Creation, which managed to be one of the better entries in that increasingly bonkers Conjuring Universe.

Then Hollywood did what it does: handed him a superhero franchise. Sandberg jumped genres to helm Shazam! and then the sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods. But rather than hanging around in capes-and-tights world, he went right back into horror with the Until Dawn film adaptation in 2025 — and now apparently plans to keep at it, with several more horror flicks in various stages of development.

Busy Schedule, Odd Scripts

If you thought Mommy's Home was a weird one, Sandberg’s other projects are all over the horror map. There’s A Little Slice of Hell for Paramount, which is about two underpaid supermarket workers who encounter, quite literally, a customer from hell. Then there’s his take on The Amityville Horror for Amazon MGM, which, in his own words, is going to be ‘supernatural, classic horror’ — so, presumably, fewer supermarket shenanigans and more old-school haunted house chills.

Worth noting: Mommy’s Home nearly never had Sandberg at all. Morosini initially wrote the script and planned to direct it after his run with I Love My Dad (that one snagged both Grand Jury and Audience Awards at SXSW, not too shabby). He also popped up in 2024’s Netflix horror-comedy It’s What’s Inside, so horror is clearly paying his rent at the moment.

• Casting: Nothing official yet, so it’s anyone’s guess who’ll be playing the frozen mother or her very traumatised son.
• Release date: Don’t hold your breath. No date announced, so it’s still early doors.
• Producers: Sandberg is producing alongside his usual creative partner (and wife), Lotta Losten, under their Mångata banner. Craig Flores, Dawn Olmstead, and Anonymous Content are also in, with Nathan Kahane, Morosini himself, David Levine, Garrett Kemble, and Ryan Schwartz executive producing.