When I covered The Green Inferno in Toronto, Eli Roth mentioned a horror app he was working on. He was mum on details in September, but this week his partner Jack Davis gave me some new details on the app.
Right now, horror fans may look all over the web for horror stories on sites like Bloody Disgusting, FearNet and our own Shock Till You Drop. The Crypt is a central mobile hub for horror content designed to engage the fans to contribute as well. While websites proliferated, The Crypt team noticed a gap in the mobile market. “We also noticed that mobile space for horror was wide open,” Davis said. “Everything’s moving mobile. A million trends can show you that everything’s moving mobile.”
The Crypt will produce original articles and photos from their in house team, including special effects wizards who will show off their wares. The Crypt will also host videos and audio, with a roster of horror podcasts in the works. “The app has come up with a really nice way to stream video,” Davis said. “We’re going to stream all different types of video on there and we can also stream audio. We’re going to have a lot of podcasts local to the app.”
The Crypt will also sync up with your Facebook and Twitter, providing the social networks with data to connect horror fans. Imagine your very own horror meet cute happening this way. “The app records every story you’ve liked and every piece of content you submit, and you can find your Facebook friend or Twitter followers and see what kind of content they’re liking,” Davis said.
Davis sees The Crypt as “somewhat of a Funny or Die for horror.” Videos may include short films or interviews with horror creators, including Roth himself. It won’t conflict with your current favorite horror sites either, since The Crypt team will be providing their own original content.
“We don’t plan on aggregating content,” Davis said when I asked. “We have a huge team of in house people producing our own media content. We think that we can provide the best content so we’re going to have all in house content, all original to The Crypt. When it comes to streaming videos, a lot of that can be aggregated. Written and photo content won’t be aggregated. It’s going to be in house, but for video, if Eli is doing an interview and we want to put that up there or something else, we can effectively stream video so you can watch videos on the app. That can be aggregated.”
The Crypt is finished and has passed two rounds of beta testing. It will be available for iOS first with plans for Android down the road.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
