1989

For a long time, I had a dream — to create a prequel to a legendary survival-horror game series that changed the genre forever when it appeared in 1998. Like many fans back then, I was incredibly excited about its film adaptation… but in my view, the movies gradually shifted from slow-burn horror and mystery toward pure action. For me, one of the closest examples of a truly story-driven horror adaptation is The Last of Us — where characters, relationships, and emotional stakes come first, and action remains secondary. This short film takes place in 1989 — nine years before the incident that would later shake a quiet American town and become the beginning of a global nightmare. It’s a glimpse into the early days of an outbreak… before everything went wrong. Of course, five minutes is far too short to fully explore characters and mythology — but that’s the limitation of the platform and the contest format. Fun fact: the film features an AI influencer I originally created for TikTok — her account grew to 12K followers in just two weeks. And attentive viewers will notice quite a few hidden easter eggs 😉 Within the five-minute runtime, I wanted to showcase several stylistic approaches — from sharp, creative transitions inspired by Guy Ritchie to a more classical detective-style narrative. I would love to eventually expand this concept into a full series — with grounded characters, a more realistic and scientific origin of the virus, deeper mystery, atmosphere, and dread. And yes… eventually, more action too.