Producer Joe Dante and director Nick Basile (American Carny: True Tales from the Circus Sideshow) have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Dark, a psychological thriller set during the 2003 New York City blackout.

The synopsis reads:

Kate, a struggling 30-something model with a troubled past, has just moved into her girlfriend Leah’s Brooklyn loft but already doubts about their relationship have begun to loom.

When Leah leaves for the weekend, Kate unexpectedly finds herself alone in the apartment in the midst of the worst blackout in North American history.

As darkness falls over the city, Kate’s paranoia grows and she begins to believe someone in the building is stalking her. With no one to help her and escape out of reach, Kate is forced to confront her deepest fears as she fights to survive through the night.

If that’s not good enough to give up the skrilla you earn at your soul-killing job 40-hours a week, then keep in mind that the film stars “American Horror Story” babe Alexandra Breckenridge (she was the young maid) and Monsters stunner Whitney Able (pictured).

Peep the pitch:

Vanessa Hudgens is currently in talks with Sony Pictures to star in The Kitchen Sink, a horror-comedy in which a group of teens join forces with vampires and zombies to fight off an alien invasion. As silly as that sounds, the Oren Uziel-penned script was part of 2010’s Black List.

The film is directed by Robbie Pickering (Natural Selection) and co-stars Denis Leary (Amazing Spider-Man), Nicholas Braun (Red State), Mackenzie Davis (Smashed), Josh Fadem (Miss March) and Chris Zylka (Piranha 3DD).

TheWrap reports that Hudgens will play a popular teen whose life is in danger when aliens invade earth. Hudgens, who came to fame in Disney’s High School Musical franchise, has starred in a string of genre offerings, including Beastly, Sucker Punch and the upcoming Frozen Ground and Machete Kills.

IFC Films has released a trailer for Haunter, a supernatural thriller from Cube and Splice director Vincenzo Natali, starring Abigail Breslin (The Call) as a girl trapped in her home, reliving the same day over and over up until ghostly visions tip her of the evil specter (Stephen McHattie) keeping her prisoner.

Haunter arrives in theaters and VOD on Oct. 18. Folks online are understandably describing the film as a horror version of Groundhog Day, but it also calls to mind an older and more subdued Freddy Krueger, one who’s lost his sense of humor and his razor bladed glove.

Peep it: