Sony buys Mouthwashing film rights with Karyn Kusama set to direct
Yellowjackets director Karyn Kusama will helm the adaptation, with Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay writing and Crooked Highway producing under Screen Gems.
Sony Pictures has acquired the feature film rights to Mouthwashing, the 2024 psychological horror game from Swedish developer Wrong Organ and publisher Critical Reflex. Deadline broke the news on October 29, 2026, reporting that Karyn Kusama is attached to direct and that Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay will write the script.
Who is making it
Kusama earned two Primetime Emmy nominations directing Yellowjackets, and her film work includes Girlfight, Jennifer's Body, The Invitation and Destroyer. Manfredi and Hay are long-time collaborators who wrote The Invitation and Destroyer with her. Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill and Vince Cheng are producing through their Crooked Highway banner, which has a deal at Sony's Screen Gems label.
Story details are under wraps. Eurogamer notes that no cast or release window has been announced, and it is not yet clear how closely the film will follow the game's plot.
Why Mouthwashing got the call
The game follows five crew members stuck aboard the space freighter Tulpar after their captain, Curly, crashes it. Rations dwindle, the ship's power is running out and the crew turns on itself, told through a nonlinear structure that keeps reshuffling what you think you know. It is short, nasty and memorable, which is exactly why it spread.
Deadline puts sales close to 1 million units and says the game won Best Narrative and Players' Choice at the Horror Game Awards. Eurogamer, which counted more than 500,000 PC sales as of February 2025, points to the Iron Lung film as a model: that indie horror adaptation took about $21 million worldwide.
Now on consoles
The deal lands the same week Mouthwashing reached consoles. It is now on PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and Deadline says it is heading to Game Pass on console and PC. On Steam the PC version has been out since September 26, 2024, so SEA players have several easy ways to see what the fuss is about before any film arrives.
Wrong Organ, meanwhile, is working on Carcass Clad, a co-op horror game where three players crew a tank as Commander, Driver and Gunner.
Source: Eurogamer; Deadline; Critical Reflex (Mouthwashing on Steam).
