Sydney Sweeney Steps Into The Caretaker, The Next Horror From Hellraiser Director David Bruckner

If you thought Sydney Sweeney was sticking to breezy rom-com territory after the massive success of ‘Anyone But You,’ think again. Sweeney, who’s pretty much been everywhere thanks to ‘Euphoria’ and ‘The White Lotus,’ is not just amassing quirky indie points and steamy mainstream credits—she’s still got her sights set on twisted thrillers and full-blown horror. And now, she’s lining up another project that’s got some real nightmare fuel potential.

Sweeney Signs on for ‘The Caretaker’—Before the Book Even Drops

So here’s the scoop. The Hollywood Reporter says Sweeney just signed up to star in ‘The Caretaker,’ a movie adaptation of a novel that, just to make things more mysterious, hasn’t even come out yet. The book is by Marcus Kliewer, and this whole deal is one of those option the rights before the public’s even cracked the spine situations. Very ‘hot property’ in publishing and Hollywood land. You can practically hear the industry folks buzzing.

Plot-wise, the premise is classic horror setup: A young woman (Sweeney) hard up for cash takes what’s supposed to be a straightforward three-day gig as a caretaker out in the Oregon wilderness. Naturally, the side job gets very weird, very fast. As the publisher describes it:

'What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property — and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it, and the rest of humanity.'

Yeah, that escalated quickly. The book isn’t out, but if the adaptation sticks close, it’s fair to expect more straight-up horror than the ‘erotic thriller’ shades of Sweeney’s last buzzy project, ‘The Housemaid.’

Director With Serious Horror Chops

Notably, ‘The Caretaker’ is set to be helmed by David Bruckner. He’s the guy behind the better-than-you’d-expect reboot of ‘Hellraiser’ (2022) and ‘The Night House’—legit atmospheric horror, not just cheap jump scares and fake blood. So this one could actually go hard on the terror angle, not just dance around it.

Sweeney: No Stranger to Scare Tactics

If you only know Sweeney from the recent run of soapy drama and sexy farce, you might be surprised to learn her horror cred goes further back than you think. Way before the whole HBO fame machine, she did her time in low-budget schlock like ‘ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction’ and ‘Spiders 3D.’ And, in a fun bit of genre trivia, she even had a tiny role in ‘The Ward’ back in 2010—the last movie John Carpenter directed (which is a title it’s still weirdly holding 16 years later).

The pandemic put the kibosh on box office for a couple of her thrillers—2020’s ‘Nocturne’ (released quietly on Prime Video) basically disappeared, even though she played a haunted music student. A year later, she was part of the voyeuristic couple in (wait for it) ‘The Voyeurs,’ also on Prime, which tried to do a Gen Z riff on ‘Rear Window.’ That movie barely made a blip at launch, but has since built up an online following—likely because people just keep discovering Sweeney in unexpected places these days.

Sydney Sweeney: Recent (and Future) Movies in This Lane

• ‘Nocturne’ (2020, Prime): Sweeney as an intense music student in a Blumhouse psychological thriller
• ‘The Voyeurs’ (2021, Prime): Erotic thriller, Alfred Hitchcock homage, weirdly sticky afterlife online
• ‘The Housemaid’ (2023): The surprise hit that had everyone talking last year—she’ll be back for the sequel, ‘The Housemaid's Secret’
• ‘Immaculate’ (2024): Re-teamed with Michael Mohan, playing a nun pulled into some deeply unsettling convent business
• Up Next: ‘The Caretaker’—forests, evil, and apparently, an apocalyptic edge

In other words, if you’re keeping score, Sweeney is building a portfolio that zig-zags from mainstream superstar to indie scream queen and back again. The fact she signed on to adapt a horror novel the public hasn’t even read yet? Mark that as a flex—and a likely sign producers think she can anchor whatever disturbing twists Marcus Kliewer’s ‘The Caretaker’ has in store. We’ll see how gnarly it gets. But given the pedigree here, and Sweeney’s habit of picking projects that get people talking, it’s definitely one to track—book release or not.