Korea’s leading investment distribution company CJ ENM has launched a specialty film label, 413 Pictures, specializing in thrillers and horror flicks for Vietnamese, Thai and American film industries. In a news release, the company announced that it has launched 413 Pictures and expects to release three projects, which will start filming soon in Thailand and the United States. 

The name for the new label is a combination of 4 and 13, which are considered unlucky numbers in the East and West, respectively. It will be used for international thriller and horror genres produced by CJ ENM. Its first lineup includes three horror movies. In the United States, an English version of Korean crime thriller Hide and Seek (2013) directed by Joel David Moor and a new version of The Housemaid (2016), originally a Korea-Vietnam co-production, are already underway. In Thailand, A Portrait of a Beauty is set to start production in October, helmed by Thailand’s well-known commercial director Surapong Ploensang. 

“We aim to target the fast-growing U.S. thriller-horror market efficiently”, said CJ in a statement. In 2017, Hollywood’s low-budget horror movies with production costs of up to USD 17.8 million earned USD 1.2 billion worldwide, so CJ ENM decided to plunge into this continuously growing market. This follows the film entity’s first foray into the genre, Satan’s Slaves, which was co-produced with Indonesian film studio Rapi Films and became Indonesia’s biggest box-office hit of 2017. CJ ENM added, “In the long term, we hope to establish a foothold as a specialty production label for thrillers and horror flicks, in the same way as Blumhouse Production, the studio behind Get Out and Paranormal Activity series, and New Line Cinema, the studio of It and The Conjuring franchise.”