EXCLUSIVE: Gruesome horror feature complements French sales and production company’s growing genre slate.

Paris-based Memento Film International (MFI) has picked up international rights to found footage horror picture S-VHS, following its premiere in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival last week. 

The picture is the sequel to V/H/S, which had members of the audience fainting in the aisles when it premiered in Sundance last year.

News of deal follows Friday’s announcement that WmE, which represented North America, had sold the picture to Magnolia which also distributed V/H/S.

“We’re already big fans of the first one, which was super scary and smart,” said Memento head of international sales Tanja Meissner.

“This one takes it to another level. The talent of the directors involved and the new orientations on the found footage exercise makes this second installment a sure bet for theatrical releases around the globe.”

S-VHS is produced by The Collective, Salient Media and Brad Miska’s Bloody Disgusting. The portmanteau features segments by horror maestros Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, Eduardo Sánchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Evans and Jason Eisener.

The deal was negotiated by Gary Binkow, CEO of The Collective on behalf of the production and MFI’s Emilie Georges, Nicholas Shumaker and Meissner.

“We’re excited to be working with Memento and can’t wait for the World to see S-VHS and have their minds blown,” said Binkow.

In S-VHS, two private investigators, searching for a missing student, break into an abandoned house where they discover a collection of mysterious VHS tapes. As they view the horrific contents of each cassette, the gruesome truth about the student’s disappearance begins to emerge.

MFI’s acquisition of S-VHS complements its growing auteur-driven genre slate. It’s first foray into the genre field, Jim Mickle’s loose remake of Jorge Michel Grau’s cannibal picture We Are What We Are opened Sundance’s Midnight section.

MFI will introduce the film to buyers at the upcoming EFM. Offers are already on the table for Japan, Australia, Latin America and Russia.

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