Help Our Cause

The creators behind the upcoming horror short Visiting Hours are excited to announce the launch of a fundraising campaign to bring their chilling vision to life. As independent filmmakers based in Texas, we’re calling on supporters, horror fans, and enthusiasts of indie cinema to help us make this spine-tingling film a reality.

Visiting Hours is a terrifying journey that explores themes of isolation, fear, and the supernatural. With your generous donations, we’ll be able to cover production costs, hire talented local crew members, and ensure the film achieves the high standards of horror filmmaking that Texas is known for.

By supporting the funding for Visiting Hours, you’re directly contributing to bringing this powerful short film to life. Your contribution will help cover essential production costs, including location fees, set design, equipment, and securing talented actors and crew members. Additionally, the funding will help with post-production processes such as editing, sound design, and the final polish to ensure the film’s vision is fully realized. Your support helps make Visiting Hourspossible and ensures that its message can reach and impact audiences in the most professional and meaningful way.

Together, we can bring this project to life and support the future of Texas filmmakers.

Tone:

The tone of this film is a blend of psychological horror, dark suspense, and supernatural dread, with moments of unsettling tension and eerie calm before the storm. The atmosphere is oppressive and cold, largely driven by the setting of the care facility, which feels like a character in itself—sterile, industrial, and lifeless. The film begins with a slow burn, gradually building unease and a sense of impending danger as the viewer is drawn into Simon’s growing discomfort. As the story progresses, the tone shifts from subtle dread to full-blown terror, as the horrifying truth of the nursing home and its residents is revealed. The tone becomes nightmarish in its latter half, as Simon realizes that he is surrounded by predatory, monstrous entities masquerading as elderly residents. The final act is a desperate race for survival, filled with a heightened sense of terror and claustrophobia.

Style:

1. Visual Style: The film’s visual style is gritty and atmospheric, with a muted color palette dominated by cold grays and sterile whites, evoking a sense of discomfort. The lighting is harsh and unforgiving, particularly in the hallways of the nursing home, where the buzzing fluorescent lights and flickering bulbs create a strobing effect that adds to the tension. Shadows play a key role, both physically and metaphorically, as the elderly residents' true nature begins to reveal itself. The final act plays heavily on low light, flickering bulbs, and the red glow of emergency lights, heightening the sense of danger and predation.
2. Sound Design: The sound is a critical element in the atmosphere, with industrial noises (like the clacking of shoes, squeaking of wheels, and the constant buzzing of the lights) contributing to the oppressive mood. There is a constant hum of discomfort that never quite dissipates. The subtle sound of breathing or sniffing from the elderly residents as they awaken and begin to hunt adds an unsettling auditory layer to the horror. The film uses silence as a tool, with key moments of stillness amplifying the eventual screams and terror, especially in the climax.
3. Pacing and Editing: The pacing is deliberate, allowing the tension to build gradually. Early scenes linger on details—such as the uncomfortable shoes, the strange behavior of the residents, and Simon’s nervous glances—which keep the audience on edge. As the horror ramps up in Act 2, the pacing quickens, with increasingly frantic cuts between Simon’s struggle to survive and the slow encroachment of the monstrous residents. In the final act, the editing becomes more frantic, mirroring Simon’s panic and desperation as he faces the ultimate horror.
4. Horror Elements: The horror is both psychological and physical. The film plays on the primal fear of being trapped, abandoned, and hunted. The elderly residents’ monstrous transformation into “Grampires” (elderly vampires) provides the supernatural twist, but the horror is equally tied to the breakdown of Simon’s perception of reality. The horror is not just in the grotesque, but also in the emotional and psychological terror of Simon realizing that the people who are supposed to protect him—the caretakers—are instead part of a monstrous system that preys on the vulnerable.
5. Character Development: The characters are intentionally stark, with MOM being a cold, self-serving figure who is oblivious to the terror around her, contrasting sharply with Simon’s innocence and growing awareness. Nurse Rawling starts off as a seemingly benign authority figure, but as the story progresses, her role as a manipulator and orchestrator of the horror becomes clearer. Gladys, once a passive character, turns into a key symbol of the home’s dark truth when she reveals the “Grampires” to Simon. These characters, especially Simon, provide the emotional core, allowing the audience to relate to his fear and survival instinct in the face of overwhelming evil.