Ryan Glover's Split Rock heads to Shudder in five territories. Canada is not among them.

On October 8, Shudder announced it had acquired Split Rock, the second feature from writer and director Ryan Glover. Variety’s exclusive, also carried on Yahoo, lists the rights as the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, with a December 25 streaming date on Shudder. Rue Morgue and iHorror print the same five-territory list. Dread Central reports the acquisition without naming territories. Canada does not appear in any of those territory lists, even in coverage that calls the film Canadian or places the story in Saskatchewan.

We can't wait to share this unsettling tale with Shudder audiences.

What the deal coverage actually says

Variety identifies the film as Glover’s sophomore feature after The Strings, and puts festival stops ahead of the stream: world premiere at the 59th Sitges Film Festival and a North American premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on October 21. Rue Morgue and iHorror both note that the Brooklyn screening will be on 35mm, with cast and filmmakers present. iHorror adds that The Strings also landed on Shudder, which matches Glover’s comment about working with the service again.

Rue Morgue’s headline calls Split Rock a “Canadian chiller” without explaining the label in the body. iHorror names Glover as a Canadian writer-director and places the story in the Saskatchewan badlands; it does not say whether those details came from a press kit. Variety does not mention Canada. None of the four reports settles country of production or Canadian financing.

Cast named across the coverage includes Clark Backo, Olivia Luccardi, Drew Ray Tanner and Graham Verchere. The film was shot on 16mm. Emily Gotto, SVP of acquisitions and productions at Shudder, negotiated for Shudder; Brian Robertson of Low End negotiated for the filmmakers.

Shudder’s older footprint still includes Canada on paper

Two AMC Networks press releases put Canada inside Shudder’s service footprint, though both are years old.

The October 2016 release announced Canada among the markets receiving the service, alongside the United Kingdom and Ireland, after the US launch. The August 2020 release announcing Australia and New Zealand described the prior footprint as the US, Canada, Germany, the UK and Ireland.

Set beside the 2026 five-territory deal list, Canada and Germany are the markets from that 2020 description that do not appear in the Split Rock rights list.

That comparison has limits. The AMC releases are ten and six years old. I did not find a current Shudder market list in the sources for this piece, so I cannot say whether the service still operates in Canada on the same terms. A territory list in a title deal names what the buyer acquired for that title. It can be narrower than where the service itself runs, and catalogue windows can differ by country even where the app is available.

Why the Canada label and the territory list sit awkwardly

iHorror is the only outlet among the four that offers a concrete basis for a Canadian frame: Glover as a Canadian writer-director and a Saskatchewan badlands setting. Rue Morgue uses “Canadian chiller” in the headline and leaves the body unexplained. Variety stays off the nationality point.

No report I opened explains Canadian rights status for Split Rock. Unsold, held back, or sold elsewhere are all possible, and none of those outcomes is confirmed here.

What remains open for a Canadian viewer

The Variety territory list, echoed by Rue Morgue and iHorror, establishes what Shudder acquired in the coverage I have. It does not explain what was left out. Whether Split Rock will appear on Shudder in Canada on December 25 is a question those sources do not answer; the date is given with the five listed territories, not beyond them.

A viewer who sees a “Canadian” label beside a five-territory Shudder deal should treat the Canada window as unconfirmed until Shudder or the filmmakers say otherwise. The sources I used leave that confirmation out.