Filmmaker Statement

This film is something I've been working on for 3 years. As someone who's suffered from sleep paralysis, I noticed that there was a massive lacking of stories depicting this fairly common phenomena and the one's that do depict it often fall short of how terrifying it truly is. With this film I set out to rectify that by depicting sleep paralysis as authentic as possible within our limitations. I also wanted to explore two themes that always have stuck with my work and life: single ambition and familial trauma. I wanted to have all three of these aspects bleed into each other in this film in a dark trinity of terror and angst. The road to finishing this film was extremely long and winding. It was originally set to be my intermediate film project for my MFA degree at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. It was slated to be film in March of 2020 but as can be surmised...it didn't end up happening. Half a year later, the project was accepted to be a Grad Thesis project and principle photography happened a year thereafter. The process of making this film has taught me so much not only about filmmaking on a higher level but also things about myself as well as the world and the people living in it. I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to make this film a reality and to have gone on this journey with the amazing cast and crew who made it happen.