I remember a time when aspiring horror filmmakers needed to convince a studio executive to watch their script. Now all it takes is a very short upload of pure nightmare fuel to YouTube praying that Jordan Peele and Sam Raimi will notice.
Dylan Clark’s short film Portrait of God is officially becoming a feature. Lionsgate is acquiring the project from Universal and giving it the green light. Peele and Raimi will produce through their respective companies, Monkeypaw Productions and Ghost House Pictures, starring Chase Infiniti. Who would have thought that something which began with one woman, a dark room and a painting you probably should not examine too closely, would receive this kind of promotion.
Clark uploaded Portrait of God to YouTube in August 2022. The short follows a religious young woman preparing a presentation about a mysterious painting. Most people see nothing inside it. But there are others who claim they can make out the face of God hiding in the darkness. And listen, if several people warn you that a painting contains something only certain viewers can see, perhaps leave the lights on.
The film has now attracted more than 10 million views on YouTube. Clark will direct the feature and co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Russo. What is not clear though is how Lionsgate will expand on the longer version of the story. And a release date for that matter. TheWrap
But the creative team is certainly impressive.
Peele has repeatedly used the theme of horror to explore identity, power and the uncomfortable things people prefer not to talk about. And Raimi has spent decades placing unfortunate characters in rooms with objects they should never have touched. Bringing the two together for a film about faith and a deeply suspicious painting feels almost unfair.
That painting does not stand a chance.
Chase Infiniti is also becoming one of Hollywood’s most interesting young performers following One Battle After Another and The Testaments. She now gets the unenviable job of convincing us that staring into a patch of darkness is a reasonable activity. Although I suppose horror films would become much shorter if characters behaved sensibly.
The announcement continues a growing Hollywood trend. Studios have started treating YouTube horror shorts like proof-of-concept auditions. Instead of explaining how a creature, atmosphere or scare might work, filmmakers can show audiences the finished idea and allow view counts to demonstrate whether people care or not.
It makes perfect sense.
Horror does not always need an enormous budget or a famous cast to work. It works perfectly fine with one unsettling idea, a strong sound design and enough darkness for the audience’s imagination to work against them. And this is one thing that Portrait of God understands. Its terror comes from uncertainty. You spend time staring at the image, attempting to decide whether something is actually there or whether your eyes are creating a shape because the film told you to look for one.
That is where the feature adaptation faces its biggest problem.
The short works because it’s exactly that, a short. There is no time for long explanations. It gives us a disturbing idea and then leaves before we become comfortable with it. A feature film cannot rely on one woman looking at one painting for 90 minutes, unless Lionsgate is preparing the most stressful art lecture in cinema history. One might think that the story will need more characters, conflict and mythology. But every addition creates a risk.
Because if the painting is carefully explained it may become less frightening. If the figure is shown too often there will be no need for the audience to continue searching the shadows. Give us a lengthy history involving an ancient order, a missing priest and somebody finding a journal in a basement, and we may begin to miss the simple terror of not knowing what we saw.
This happens often when Hollywood expands horror shorts. The original presents a beautifully contained nightmare. Then the feature arrives with a backstory, family trauma and a supernatural expert who has spent 30 years waiting to explain the rules. The fact is sometimes the monster is scarier before it receives administrative paperwork.
But Clark directing the feature is a promising sign. Because he understands what made the original work, and the involvement of Peele and Raimi suggests the film will have producers who know that horror does not improve simply because there is more of it. The move to Lionsgate also strengthens Clark’s relationship with the studio. He is already preparing a new take on The Blair Witch Project there, meaning one online short has helped move him towards two major horror projects.
That is the larger story behind Portrait of God.
YouTube is no longer only somewhere filmmakers place their work while waiting for Hollywood to call. It has become the place where audiences discover and validate ideas before studios become involved. A filmmaker can create something small, allow millions of people to respond and arrive at the studio meeting with proof that the nightmare already works.
And yes, the feature adaptation will still have to justify turning seven effective minutes into an entire film. But with Clark directing, Infiniti starring and two horror giants standing behind it, Portrait of God has assembled quite a team.
Now they simply have to avoid explaining what is hiding in the dark.
At least, not too quickly.
