Dark Castle Entertainment

The Challenge

Initially known for its early 2000s horror films like "Orphan," "Gothika," and "House of Wax," Dark Castle Entertainment underwent a significant transformation in 2015 under new ownership. Expanding its focus to include multiple genres and a global perspective, Dark Castle has since produced innovative films such as "Shell," "Orphan: First Kill," and "The Nice Guys." An upcoming project, "Last Breath" (2026), will star Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu. To reflect this new direction, Dark Castle enlisted FGS Longview to refresh its brand identity, aligning it with the company’s evolving vision.

Our Solution

Dark Castle’s history is deeply embedded in its namesake. The distressed and macabre appearance of the castle has firmly positioned the company within the horror genre. However, as the company aimed to leverage its history while exploring a wider range of genres, our solution was to incorporate abstract castle and film motifs within a post-modern context.

Our Process

Various architectural elements, including crenellations, towers, spires, and brickwork, were integrated with objects and shapes related to film and cinema. Initial explorations were limited to black and white treatments. Colour, inspired by various “supermoons” were also considered.

Recommendation

Several successful combinations were proposed, ultimately leading to a design that evocatively resembles both a tower and a movie projector, depending on the viewer's perspective.

We retained the black-and-white silhouette as the default color scheme. However, to convey the breadth of storytelling, we envisioned genre-specific renderings that could be used to identify Dark Castle in movie trailers.

Website

We relaunched the brand with a new website that highlights the diversity of Dark Castle’s current catalog through immersive full-screen clips of recent films. The website functions as a comprehensive index of their entire catalog and serves as a platform to promote news and upcoming releases.

Animated Bumper

A highlight of this project is the creation of an animated logo bumper that plays before feature films produced by Dark Castle. Collaborating closely with the DC creative team, we developed storyboards for a 15-second clip that transitions the viewer from a dark horror-informed context

to a grand expression of the new identity. FGS teams provided creative and art direction to outsourced 3D rendering artists and musical composers.

Beginning with a homage to classic horror, we move backwards through a dimly lit stone cladded hallway and hear the toll of a mysterious clock tower bell, a sound featured in the original bumper. As we continue to zoom out, we move through a classically styled study with warm overtones from a fire and chandelier lighting as

well as a nod to storytelling with a display of books. In the final frames we back through the window to reveal the tower of a dark castle sitting amongst the clouds, while the sound lands on a positive musical resolution and the new logo is overlayed.