Mouthwashing Is Getting a Live-Action Film Adaptation from Sony

Sony Pictures' Screen Gems has acquired the feature film rights to the indie psychological horror game Mouthwashing, with Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body) set to direct, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. For a studio system that usually waits for a franchise to post blockbuster numbers, optioning a tense, narrative-heavy indie counts as a rare turn down a darker alley.

Kusama brings her longtime collaborators Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay (The Invitation, Destroyer) to write the script, with Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Black Phone) producing. The news landed the same day the game itself made the jump to consoles: Mouthwashing released October 29 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch, arriving on Xbox Game Pass at the same time.

Developed by Swedish studio Wrong Organ and published by Critical Reflex, Mouthwashing follows five crew members stranded on the space freighter Tulpar after it crashes into an asteroid, with dwindling supplies and paranoia tearing them apart. It launched on PC in September 2024 and has sold more than 800,000 copies on Steam — a cult hit whose word of mouth did the marketing.

The details

• Studio: Sony Pictures (Screen Gems, the label behind the Until Dawn film)
• Director: Karyn Kusama
• Writers: Matt Manfredi, Phil Hay
• Producer: Scott Derrickson
• Release window: unannounced; no production start date yet

Why it matters

Translating first-person horror to the screen is a structural problem: Mouthwashing leans on subjective perspective, a nonlinear story, and player-controlled pacing to land its themes of denial and abuse of power. Pairing it with Kusama — a director known for slow-burn dread — suggests Screen Gems is treating it as a psychological thriller rather than a creature feature, and that Hollywood's appetite for game adaptations now extends to 800,000-copy indies, not just million-seller franchises.