Sony picks up Mouthwashing for a film, with Karyn Kusama to direct

Darlings, the spotlight has swung toward a freighter drifting in the dark. Mouthwashing, the indie horror game from Wrong Organ, is getting a feature film, and I confess it caught my eye for the sort of reason that makes a columnist sit up straight: it is a small, strange game with a lot on its mind.

The facts: Sony has acquired the feature film rights to the game, and Screen Gems, Sony Pictures’ label, is producing, with Karyn Kusama attached to direct.¹ Scott Derrickson, who directed Sinister and Doctor Strange, is among the producers.¹ Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay are attached as writers; they have worked with Kusama before on The Invitation and Destroyer.¹ The game is out on PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and it is a horror adventure.¹

What makes the source material distinctive is the pairing of its themes and its structure. It has plenty to say about how corporations take advantage of their workers, and it plays with character perspective, revealing some narrative threads and holding others back until they are taut enough to snap.¹ It is also short enough that its misery does not outstay its welcome.¹ That compact, pressurized shape is a rare thing, and exactly the sort of craft I like to see an underdog studio get credit for.

It also deals with sexual assault, which is why Kusama’s attachment as director is a welcome detail: the director of the cult favorite Jennifer’s Body is a woman.¹ That is a thoughtful pairing on paper.

The film is a harder sell than it sounds. The game has minimal interactivity and leans on its first-person perspective, so how that translates to the screen is an open question.¹ The game has also drawn an intense fandom that often favors skits and memes over reckoning with the story’s themes.¹ Rock Paper Shotgun’s writer, whose opinion this is, says he may log off the day it arrives.¹

It is for horror fans who like their dread grounded in workplace dynamics, and for anyone curious whether a walking-sim nightmare can survive the leap to cinema.

More on the deal in our earlier coverage: Sony picks up Mouthwashing for film, Karyn Kusama to direct.

Our read: This is a promising team attached to a hard adaptation. Kusama is the strongest card in the hand; the writers’ track record is the nervous part. Watch whether the film keeps the game’s perspective tricks or leaves them behind.

Footnotes

1. Rock Paper Shotgun, “Mouthwashing is getting a feature film adaptation from Sony and I need all of you to be normal about it whenever it comes out”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰