Lionsgate has acquired and greenlit Portrait of God, a horror feature from writer-director Dylan Clark based on his viral 2022 short film, with Chase Infiniti set to star. The project also marks the first-ever producing collaboration between Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele, two of the most influential names in modern horror.
Clark’s original short follows a religious young woman who discovers a disquieting answer to the question “What does God look like?” and has amassed more than 10 million views on YouTube since its debut. The feature adaptation, co-written by Clark and Joe Russo, was previously set up at Universal before landing at Lionsgate, which has also tapped Clark to direct its upcoming reimagining of The Blair Witch Project, his feature directorial debut, slated for September 2027. Raimi will produce through his Ghost House banner alongside Rob Tapert, while Peele produces through Monkeypaw Productions alongside Win Rosenfeld.
For Infiniti, the role continues a fast-moving run that’s placed her at the center of major studio and streaming projects back to back. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for her breakout performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, and an Emmy nomination for her lead role in Hulu’s The Testaments, a follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale. Landing as the star of a project backed by Raimi and Peele together puts her at the center of one of horror’s most closely watched producing pairings, in a genre where lead roles for Black women have historically been limited in scope and visibility.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson praised the creative team assembled around the project, calling Clark one of horror’s most exciting emerging voices and describing the combination of Raimi, Peele, Infiniti, and Clark as having all the ingredients for a film that’s “haunting, thought-provoking, and scary as hell.” Clark, who came up through the YouTube horror space alongside filmmakers like Obsession’s Curry Barker and Backrooms’ Kane Parsons, said Infiniti’s performance in One Battle After Another made her an easy choice, calling her one of the most exciting young actors working today. No release date or plot details for Portrait of God have been announced.
With Clark’s Blair Witch reboot arriving first in 2027, Portrait of God now joins a growing list of projects testing whether viral internet horror can translate into theatrical success, and whether this particular pairing of talent can make that leap look effortless.