Justin Long has set his next horror movie and it's about something all of us have probably feared at least once in our lives: lice. Simply titled Lice, the upcoming horror film is about a particularly nasty parasitic invasion.
Variety reports that the film will be the first feature produced by Kevin Connolly's ActionPark Productions with his partner Patrick Marino. It is being touted "as a horror mashup of The Breakfast Club and Lord of the Flies."
Long will be joined by Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and Connolly, best known for starring in the HBO series Entourage, will also star in the movie. Lice goes into production this week and will film in Canada. Based on the early description for the movie, it will be a fun throwback with plenty of references to the "'80s high school classics," but with plenty of scares thrown into the mix.
Here is the official synopsis shared by Variety.
“Lice” follows a deadly outbreak of the parasite at a Long Island high school in the 1980s. When the school goes under military lockdown, the itch-crazed students turn on each other in a desperate struggle to survive.
Long plays the school's principal "who is out of his depth and soon out of his mind," while Hirsch is the "burned-out science teacher Mr. Shanker." Connolly will play "the tenacious Detective Sikorski, the desperate cop on the outside racing against time to contain the outbreak."
Jonathan Bensimon will make his feature directorial debut, directing a script from Anthony Musella and Shaun Harris. Connolly came up with the original film concept.
Speaking about his idea, Connolly says he wants to make something for people like him, a movie that is "fun, weird, scary, and completely unpredictable."
Lice are the freaky little insects known for spreading from person to person and inhabiting human hair. Countless children have been inflicted with lice at least once in their lives from unknowingly sharing hats or getting too close to an infected classmate.
It's the type of thing parents fear as they're a nuisance and hard to get rid of once they begin laying eggs in your hair. I can only imagine how that will play out in a horror movie and it's somewhat surprising we haven't seen them show up in more horror movies already.
Long's casting makes total sense as the actor has been dubbed a "scream king" by many horror fans. He's well known for his comedic hops, but Long has also appeared in several scary movies, like Tusk, Barbarian, Drag Me to Hell, and Jeepers Creepers. In 2024, he co-wrote and co-directed a segment of V/H/S/Beyond and also starred in the Paramount film Spin the Bottle.
On the television side, Long has appeared in Creepshow and starred in season 1 of Disney+'s Goosebumps revival.
Hirsch is better known for his dramatic roles in movies like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Into the Wild, but he has dabbled in horror with The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Devil's Workshop.