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There are early signs its working.
And as you would imagine, thats helpful on churn.
What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.
So Im curious about the origin story for Shudder.
What made the company go big on a streaming service for horror fans?
Samuel Zimmerman:It is not dissimilar from that.
Most big companies are moving toward broad, all-encompassing platforms.
Shudder is clearly more of a niche play.
Why can that work?
Craig Engler:I think its two things.
First of all, when we say niche, we might mean targeted, but we dont mean small.
When you talk about the horror genre, it is incredibly broad, incredibly deep.
It encompasses everything fromAliensandSilence of the LambstoPsycho,The Birds, and traditional slashers likeFriday the 13th.
Obviously, right now Netflix is the king of, Hey, we have something for everyone.
But a lot of the streamers are coming out with something for everyone.
And what we provide is something you cant get anywhere else.
Theyll have a couple movies or a couple shows that you might want to watch.
But if you want anything beyond that, then their offerings become very shallow, very quickly.
Whereas we continue to have this pool that is not only very broad, but very deep.
There is literally a movie for everyones taste on Shudder.
Whats your budget for originals, or at least, what are your ambitions?
We also have a lot of success in the documentary/docuseries space.
That makes up at least 850 to 900 playable hours.
Are these movies that are already made, and youre simply the distributor?
Or are you getting involved earlier in the development process and putting your creative mark on projects?
Emily Gotto:Were coming in at different phases, [including] festivals and marketplaces.
And were now broadening our reach … coming in to fully finance films.
Its us bringing stuff to the consumer.
We reached out and said, Hey, is there a feature version of this?
And they came back and said, Yes, there is.
They sent us a pitch deck.
It was actually relatively short, six pages long.
But we green-lit the movie based on two words: Zoom seance.
We dont want to be beholden to whats available to us.
Would it be safe to say thatHostcost you under $500,000?
Do you repurpose a lot of titles from AMC and the AMC Networks for Shudder?
I knowDiscovery of Witchesis a co-production with your sister streamer Sundance Now.
Samuel Zimmerman:At the moment, we have both seasons ofNOS4A2andThe Walking Dead:World Beyond.
Craig Engler:Weve had more shows go to AMC that weve had shows from AMC go to Shudder.
We premieredCreepshowon Shudder in October 2019, and it ran on the AMC linear data pipe in May 2020.
Even when it runs on AMC, its a Shudder original.
Even though youre a horror-focused platform, youre clearly not trying to be nonstop shopping for horror movies.
Or is it more about being choosy, or even snobby, about what you program?
Samuel Zimmerman:I am not necessarily snobby.
To me, whats more significant is being contextual.
Wehavehad the Universal Monsters on Shudder, for instance, and we will have them again.
Right now we have theVal Lewtoncollection.
Hes a very influential and historical producer in the genre,withCat Peoplebeing his first film.
We really want to be curated and contextual in our programming.
Craig Engler:Were not elitist, or snobs in any way.
I think what we would say is we are passionate.
We love to go find films and present them in a way that gets people excited about them.
you might go to whatever, Hulu and you might seeFriday the 13th: Part Four.
Then were going to tell you why each film is supercool, and why you should watch them.
Theyre not just going to sit in our library.
People think they want a huge library of classic monster films available to them at all times.
But they really dont.
What they want to watch is new films, andoccasionallyclassic films.
Samuel Zimmerman:It hasnt.
I havent hit any hard walls.
I would say more than anything, its just about creative windowing and finding the right time.
But I have not run into walls with things like HBO Max happening.
We have a Warner deal this year.
Some of the older titles, youll find that the rights are tied up or split.
Or sometimes people dont know who owned the rights, or those rights are currently being contested in court.
People ask us, How come you dont have like all 12 of these films?
And it doesnt necessarily have to be scary in order for it to be termed horror.
So it is very competitive.
Filmmakers want to work with us again, because theyve had a really enjoyable experience, number one.
Theres an opportunity for back end for the filmmakers, an opportunity for profit participation.
So it gives us an edge because people feel confident in us … A great example is a film that Emily and Sam found,La Llorna.
We put our heart and soul into promoting that film.
It got a Golden Globe nomination.
It was shortlisted for the Oscars.
You might have access to a theoretically bigger audience.
Netflix has more dollars than Shudder; I dont think thats a surprise to anyone.
Whats your strategy to address that problem?
And its just going to continue to develop as we are coming in on projects earlier in their production.
We were hopefully keenly aware from very early.
Weve tried to keep that in our brains from the beginning.
Stephen King isnt just one of the best-selling horror authors.
Hes one of the best-selling authors of all time.
I dont know anybody who doesnt like Stephen King.
Thats how broad this genre can be, and thats how broad we think Shudder could be.
