Cannes: Epic Pictures' Horror Label Scares Up 'Slay Belles,' 'Lasso' (Exclusive)

'Slay Belles' is executive produced by 'Saw' franchise director Darren Lynn Bousman.

Epic Pictures has ramped up the scares for its Dread Central Presents horror label, acquiring Slay Belles and Lasso to release in North American and sell internationally.

Directed by Dan Walker (credited as "Spooky Dan Walker"), Slay Belles is a holiday horror-comedy in which three cosplaying women accidentally unleash Krampus and have to team up with Santa Claus to save the world. Kristina Klebe (Hellboy, Halloween), Susan Slaughter (Ouija House) and Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) star, with horror icon Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed Saw 2, Saw 3 and Saw 4, as well as 11-11-11 and Tales of Halloween for Epic Pictures, exec producing.

Western-style slasher Lasso, from Wives With Knives producer and director Evan Cecil, follows tourists at a small-town rodeo festival who find themselves at the center of a deadly ritual, fighting to survive while being hunted by bloodthirsty cowboys. Lindsey Morgan (General Hospital, The 100) and Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints) star.

Epic Pictures will be presenting both films in Cannes along with Anthony DiBlasi’s Extremity and Epic’s own productions — The Golem (Paz brothers), Extra Ordinary (Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman) and The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot (Robert D. Krzykowski).