Sony has snatched up the movie rights for Mouthwashing, the hit independent horror video game released in 2024.
Deadline reports Sony has obtained the rights from developer Wrong Organ and publisher Critical Reflex, and also brought on Karyn Kusama to direct the adaptation, a director perhaps best known for her work on the acclaimed Yellowjackets television show.
Sony has also enlisted Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay to write for the project, as well as production company Crooked Highway (who you may know for the Ethan Hawke–lead series of movies, The Black Phone). There is no word on which actors will star in the adaptation as of yet, nor whether the story will follow that of the game’s own narrative.
Mouthwashing was a critically acclaimed release, and sold more than 500,000 copies as of February 2025. That was on PC alone, with the game made available on consoles yesterday.
This adaptation would arguably follow the path paved by the Iron Lung movie, created by Mark Fischbach (better known by his online alias Markiplier) and his own production company Markiplier Studios. That, a film adaptation of an indie horror game, performed exceptionally well at the box office bringing in $21m globally shortly after its premiere.
A Mouthwashing movie is an interesting idea. The main question is whether or not it would follow the plot and narrative structure of the game faithfully, or whether changes would be made to better suit the big screen. A sillier – but awfully tantalising – question, is who you’d like to see casted in the movie? Who’d play Swansea… Who’d play Jimmy?!? Questions abound.
