VFX ‘Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark’ gets an animated series

Mercury Filmworks and La Chouette Compagnie partner to develop ‘Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark’, a horror anthology series

Mercury Filmworks (Hilda, The Lion Guard), a Canadian independent animation studio, and French animation studio, La Chouette Compagnie (Droners, Taki Tanuki), have partnered to develop, produce and distribute a horror anthology series titled Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark (12 x 13-minute episodes).

Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark is a 2D-animated series targeted towards teens and young adults. The horror anthology series is based on a well-known YouTube channel of the same name which has over 200,000 subscribers and over nine million views. The series is created by Emmy award-winning Hilda producer and director, Andy Coyle.

The official description for the series reads as follows:

Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark, inspired by the longstanding traditions and conventions of the horror genre, is a suspenseful collection of modern folk tales that often explore coming-of-age themes intended to be equal parts scary and heartfelt. The series embraces the crossover between podcast and lo-fi YouTube content that allows the audience to watch, listen or both. Each episode is essentially a mini-scary movie. Individually they stand alone and can be enjoyed independent of each other, but all are a piece of a larger world. Hidden connective tissue and easter eggs come together to add a second layer to the storytelling and an extra satisfaction for the fanbase.

Mercury Filmworks VP of original series and co-productions Chantal Ling stated, “We’re thrilled to join forces with La Chouette and collaborate once again with Andy Coyle on Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark. Andy’s distinctive creative vision brings a fresh and electrifying twist to the horror genre. Having worked alongside him on Hilda, we know firsthand his remarkable ability to blend heart and suspense seamlessly. This anthology series will not only thrill existing fans of the YouTube shorts, but also captivate new audiences around the globe with its unique storytelling. Whether watching or listening, we’re eager to expand on the series’ established fanbase and share these spine-tingling tales with viewers everywhere.”

La Chouette Compagnie CEO Mariam Hachmi shared, “Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark promises to be a fun ride for fans of the horror genre with each episode delivering a new tale, and we look forward to working with Andy and the team at Mercury to make this an epic series that will appeal to teen audiences around the world.” 

Mercury Filmworks will present Don’t Walk Home Alone After Dark to potential international media partners at the MIPCOM market in Cannes, France this month.