The Troop, Nick Cutter’s ultra-gory horror novel about a Boy Scout troop in a seriously icky situation, is heading to the big screen thanks to James Wan. Wan and his Atomic Monster production banner will produce The Troop film adaptation, with Channel Zero director E.L. Katz at the helm. The story concerns a group of boys on a camping trip in the Canadian wilderness and the gut-churning experience that follows.

I’ve never understood the appeal of camping. Who the hell wants to go into the woods and sleep on the cold, hard, dirty ground? Plus: there are bugs. No thank you – it’s not for me. But people all over love to camp and parents happily send their kids into the Boy Scouts to trek into the great outdoors. They might change their mind after they see The Troop, the film adaptation of Nick Cutter’s novel of the same name. Here’s the synopsis:

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. A horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival with no escape from the elements, the infected…or one another.

The jacket cover also describes The Troop as “Part Lord of the Flies, part 28 Days Later.” Sounds like a laugh riot!

E.L. Katz is set to direct The Troop, and that’s a damn fine choice. Katz directed genre fave Cheap Thrills and the most recent (and sadly final) season of Channel Zero, The Dream Door. The Dream Door was the best season of Channel Zero yet, and I’m all-in on what Katz does now. Having James Wan involved certainly doesn’t hurt matters either. The Troop is a particularly gory novel, so if this adaptation ends up being faithful you can expect to see a lot of red stuff up on the screen.