Good Boy writer and director Ben Leonberg will be helming Sony's Ankle Snatcher

Good Boy - Courtesy of Shudder

The 2025 experimental horror hit Good Boy came out in October, placing short-film writer and director Ben Leonberg in the feature-length horror spotlight. Now he’s stepping back into it with news that he will be directing Sony’s Ankle Snatcher, an adaptation of the Grady Hendrix short story of the same name. 

The original story was released by Amazon Original Stories in 2023 as part of their Creature Feature selection of horror stories, which also featured original works from authors such as Joe Hill, Josh Malerman, and Paul Tremblay. 

Ankle Snatcher centers on Marcus, a young man whose mother was murdered one night when he was a child. His father, who was blamed for the murder, left him alone in the house after her death. But not before walking into his son’s bedroom and telling him he was “very sorry, but the boogeyman had taken Mom away.” He warns him to not turn out the lights after he leaves (so the boogeyman won’t take him, too). Years later, the now-adult Marcus brings his girlfriend home after revealing this trauma to her, and questions if there is a haunting presence in his house, or a more natural—but darker—presence within himself. 

Sony acquired the rights to the story in 2024, and Hendrix was brought on to adapt it for the screen. Leonberg and fellow screenwriter Alex Cannon will be rewriting the adaptation. 

Grady Hendrix has been a popular name in contemporary horror literature for some time, and this has not gone unnoticed by the studios. His novel My Best Friend’s Exorcism was adapted into a 2022 Amazon Prime original movie, and his book Horrorstor is currently being developed into a film. Additionally, his books The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and Final Girl Support Group are currently being developed into series. 

His most recent publication, Witchcraft for Waverly Girls, was released in January 2025 and focuses on young women at 1970s maternity home who encounter a mystical coven. 

His stories remind us of the dime store horror novels that dominated the world of paperbacks, but he sets them against a backdrop of human issues and a strong emotional core. Despite that, his work usually carries a fairly ironic sense of humor. This makes the writer/director of Good Boy an excellent choice to helm an adaptation of Ankle Snatcher. 

Escape Artists, known for the hit Apple + series Severance, and Aperture Entertainment, who are also producing the Final Girl Support Group series, will be producing the project with Sony. 

As of now, Ankle Snatcher does not have a release date, but the original story is available on Amazon through Audible and Kindle Unlimited.