Halsey to Star in New Horror Film ‘Replacer,’ Co-Written With Avan Jogia
Halsey is heading back to the big screen with a new horror project that pushes deeper into genre experimentation.
The singer-songwriter and actress has signed on to star in Replacer, a new psycho-sexual horror film she also co-wrote with her partner, actor-director Avan Jogia, who is set to direct. The project adds another unexpected turn to Halsey’s increasingly eclectic acting career, while also marking a creative collaboration between the couple behind the scenes.
According to early plot details, Halsey will play Proxy, a troubled DJ who becomes stranded in Montreal and is drawn into an underground creative scene after meeting an enigmatic artist and his circle of friends, who operate an independent pirate-style radio station. The story takes a darker turn when a mysterious signal buried beneath the city’s subway system begins interfering with the station’s broadcast, triggering a descent into something far stranger and more disturbing. Proxy is then forced into a fight to escape before the signal transforms her, and those around her, into something increasingly primal and unrecognizable.
The project already has major industry backing. Lilly Wachowski, best known for co-creating The Matrix franchise alongside sister Lana Wachowski, has signed on as executive producer and appears highly enthusiastic about the film’s unconventional tone.
In comments about the project, Wachowski described the script as a surreal collision of horror, thriller, and comedy, calling it a paranoid, high-energy genre hybrid rooted in a version of Montreal rarely seen onscreen. She also pointed to filmmaker influences that reportedly shaped the project’s DNA, including David Cronenberg, Alex Cox, Tony Scott, and John Carpenter, a lineup that strongly suggests Replacer is aiming for something stylized, chaotic, and unapologetically weird.
The production also includes a sizable team of executive producers and co-producers spanning multiple production companies, signaling broader confidence in the project as it enters the international marketplace. Halsey is reportedly expected to help introduce the film to buyers at Cannes, where the project will begin seeking distribution support.
Replacer represents the latest step in Halsey’s acting career, which she has been steadily building in recent years, following appearances in MaXXXine, the newest installment in Ti West’s horror trilogy, and Americana, where she starred alongside Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser.
