With his throwback slasher Dolly scaring audiences on Shudder this year, director Rod Blackhurst has another project already in the works — this time based on his own short film. Deadline reports that Blackhurst is working with Witchcraft Motion Picture Company to adapt Alone Time, his 2012 short that went viral on YouTube, into a full-length feature.
Written by David Ebeltoft and directed and produced by Blackhurst, Alone Time amassed millions of views across YouTube and Vimeo after it premiered fourteen years ago. The original short’s synopsis is as follows:
Seeking refuge from a collapsing relationship, a deteriorating family situation, and mounting emotional trauma, Ann reluctantly joins her closest friend on a remote camping trip deep in the Adirondack wilderness.
When her friend mysteriously disappears, Ann becomes convinced that an unseen figure is stalking her through the forest. What begins as a survival nightmare slowly transforms into something far more disturbing as fractured memories, conflicting realities, and hidden truths force Ann to confront the possibility that the greatest threat may not be lurking in the woods at all, but buried deep within her own psyche.
“Alone Time has quietly followed me for over a decade,” Blackhurst said to Deadline. “What began as a short film about isolation and the weight of life now feels more relevant than ever. The original short found its audience organically online long before that was considered a legitimate path for filmmakers. Bringing it to life as a feature allows us to explore those themes on a much larger and more psychologically unsettling canvas.”
Blackhurst will direct the full-length film, and produce alongside Noah Lang. This is the third time one of his shorts has been adapted into a film, after this year’s Dolly, as well as Universal and Blumhouse picking up Night Swim, the full-length version of which starred Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon.
It’s also the latest project to end up in the YouTube-to-Hollywood pipeline, after the recent success of Obsession and Backrooms, which picked up young filmmakers from the online platform and turned them into superstar directors. While Blackhurst’s trajectory has been much longer — Backrooms’ Kane Parsons was barely out of diapers when Alone Time originally premiered — it’s a sign of change in the industry, as they continue to outsource for new and growing talent.
No release date has been announced for the full-length version of Alone Time. Stay tuned to FANGORIA for more updates.
