AMC Networks streaming service Shudder has picked up horror film “The Night Shifter” from Brazilian media giant Globo TV in its continued bid to diversify and expand its programming lineup. This is AMC’s second acquisition from Globo, after 10-episode series “Supermax,” a co-production led by Globo, Argentina’s TVP, Mediaset Spain, Mexico’s TV Azteca, and Uruguayan channel Teledoce. The fictional reality prison-set series was created by Argentine director-producer-writer Daniel Burman, whose 2003 “The Lost Embrace,” won Berlin’s Grand Jury Prize and a best actor Silver Bear for Daniel Hendler.
“The Night Shifter” turns on morgue employee Stênio (played by Daniel de Oliveira, “The Party”) whose ability to speak with the dead makes for interesting nights. Stenio unleashes a curse that will endanger himself and his family after some conversations with the afterlife inadvertently reveal secrets of his own life.
Directed by Dennison Ramalho, the film premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal and also screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the London Film Festival and at Spain’s premier genre film fest, Sitges.
“The Night Shifter” debuts in March in the United States, the U.K., Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand and Canada in Portuguese, with subtitles in local languages, or dubbed in German for select countries.
Licensing a feature film to AMC’s Shudder dovetails with Globo’s multi-platform strategy as it builds its presence in major international film festivals. While at the 69th Berlinale, the network presented its catalog of feature films at the European Film Market and promoted a screening of the limited series “Harassment,” an original Globo production made exclusively for Globo Group’s streaming platform, Globoplay.