Lee Cronin, director of New Line’s upcoming Evil Dead Rise, is reuniting with the studio to direct the original horror feature Thaw.

Cronin, who is riding high from Rise’s rapturous reception at this year’s SXSW, will also rewrite the current draft.

Van Toffler and David Gale of Gunpowder & Sky, as well as Adam Goldworm of Aperture, who produced the well-regarded drama My Friend Dahmer and has Final Girl Support Group set up at HBO, are producing.

Set years after the polar ice caps have melted and sea levels have risen, the story of Thaw centers on a group of survivors at sea searching for a new home. Their prayers are answered with the discovery of an inhabitable town, that is, until they encounter a new nightmare living just below the water’s surface.

Thaw was initially written by Jeremy Passmore, who developed the project as an original spec with Goldworm,...