Magnolia Pictures' new genre label Magnet has swooped on its second acquisition in the last couple of days and taken North American rights to Toby Wilkins' directorial debut Splinter.

The film is nearing completion and centres on a young couple on the run that finds themselves besieged in a patrol station by a parasite with a taste for human flesh.

Wilkins is a longtime effects artist and was recently hired to direct the third episode of The Grudge in Ghost House Pictures' franchise.

Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles said Splinter had 'a great shot at being a truly iconic horror film.' Magnet will release the film theatrically in 2008.

Magnolia's senior vice president Tom Quinn and head of business affairs Jason Janego brokered the deal with CAA's Micah Green and Brian Kavanaugh Jones and Jamie Carmichael of ContentFilm.

Earlier this week Magnet picked up North American rights to Franck Vestiel's sci-fi horror epic Eden Log.