The Most Annoying Child Star Now Starring In A Major Horror Movie

Jojo Siwa will star in the upcoming horror film All My Friends Are Dead.

By Chris Snellgrove | Updated

One of the interesting things about horror movies is that many stars seem belatedly ashamed to have starred in them. For example, it took Kevin Bacon a while to acknowledge that the first Friday the 13th movie was his original big role. But horror movies can also serve as a new start for certain actors, including annoying child star JoJo Siwa. Deadline reports that she will star in the upcoming horror film All My Friends Are Dead.

If JoJo Siwa’s name doesn’t immediately ring any bells for you, that’s probably because you don’t have much reality television as part of your media diet. Siwa is best known for appearing in two seasons of the show Dance Moms along with her mother. There, she was as annoying as only child actors can be, but she was also resourceful, and she lasted until week nine of the show’s second season despite being the youngest contestant.

jojo siwa
Jojo Siwa in Dance Moms

After that, JoJo Siwa tried to pivot to a career in music while still making appearances on reality television, including on The Masked Singer. At first, she seemed happy to market herself to a younger audience, and she even appears as a playable character in two kid-friendly video games: Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix. Now, though, she looks eager to shed her kiddy image for good, and starring in a bloody horror movie seems like a surefire way of doing so.

We don’t know much about the horror movie All My Friends Are Dead yet, including who will star in it other than JoJo Siwa and Jade Pettyjohn. But it’s being written by the Saw 3D scribe Marcus Dunstan and one of the executive producers is Saw franchise veteran Kevin Greutert, so we’re betting this one is going to be bloody. The plot of the movie involves music festival attendees getting murdered one by one and slowly discovering that their deaths are being modeled after the Seven Deadly Sins.

In other words, All My Friends Are Dead embodies the fine horror tradition of mashing two existing ideas to create something new. For example, young people getting mysteriously picked off as they try to party sounds a lot like Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, and we can’t think of Seven Deadly Sins deaths without thinking about the iconic horror film Se7en. We’re hoping this conceptual mishmash results in a killer film, and nobody is more hopeful about its success than JoJo Siwa herself.

The young star has expressed joy at the fact that she’ll be working alongside Jade Pettyjohn, and she has said that “I absolutely love horror movies and I can’t wait to start production!” She also acknowledged that this film is different from anything she has done before, but that seems to be the point. JoJo Siwa, like anyone else, can’t exactly rebrand herself if she’s just doing the same things she has done before.

Looking back at the life and career of JoJo Siwa, though, it’s clear that change has been her only constant. In her time, she’s been a reality star, created a fashion line, released a tabletop game, and even had a breakfast cereal named after her. So if “horror star” is getting added to this ongoing list of JoJo’s bizarre adventures, we’re pretty excited to see how this all plays (or perhaps “slays”) out for her.