'Pretty Little Liars' Creator Marlene King Explains Why 'PLL' Fans Will Love 'The Merciless'

Marlene King is taking her teen drama storytelling from the small screen to the silver screen. In late May, news broke that the “Pretty Little Liars” creator would be adapting and executive producing Danielle Vega’s “The Merciless” for Alloy Entertainment. International Business Times spoke with the King, who dished not only about the chilling tale, but why fans of her hit ABC Family show will love it.

“The Merciless,” which is being released on Thursday, is about Sofia Flores, a new girl who gets accepted into the popular group at her small-town high school. But Sofia’s new friends aren’t all they are cracked up to be. They pressure her into joining them in performing an exorcism on one of their classmates.

For fans of “Pretty Little Liars,” this chilling tale about teens seems right up King’s alley. And the writer, director and producer felt the same.

“I had a meeting with Les Morgenstein and Elysa Dutton at Alloy, and I think they brought me there thinking I’d be a good fit for the book,” King explained of how she jumped on board. “They told me what it was about, and I got very excited. After I read the book I felt like this was a great opportunity for me to write my first full-on horror movie.”

King has brought horror to the screen through her supernatural series “Ravenswood” and multiple “Pretty Little Liars” Halloween specials, but “The Merciless” is going to be taking things to the next level.

“It’s not a slasher horror fest or anything like that,” King told IBT of the film. “It’s a provocative subject; it’s scary subject matter. I think it’ll be thrilling and horrific all at the same time.”

So, is “The Merciless” for fans of “Pretty Little Liars”? King thinks so!

“It’s going to absolutely be for ‘Pretty Little Liars’ fans,” she dished about her new project. “What I love about our ‘Pretty Little Liars’ fans is that they really love to get scared. I’m about to write the Christmas episode and I sent out a tweet the other day – just out of curiosity, ‘what do you want from the Christmas episode? Do you want it to be romantic? Do you want it to be a Hallmark card? Do you want it to be scary?’ Everyone immediately wrote back ‘both romantic and scary. We want scary.’”

“People love to be scared and this demographic, really loves it,” she continued. “I never realized until ‘Pretty Little Liars’ how much joy I get out of scaring people.”

“The Merciless” book will be released on June 12.