ECLIPSE OF US

Exploring the murky depths of emotional repression, The Angler transforms an intimate story into a haunting visual metaphor. As writer and director, I crafted the film to reflect my fascination with light, isolation, and the dangers of what we hide beneath the surface — blending psychological horror with deeply human storytelling.

HOW IT BEGAN

In September 2024, Carlos Sales, a talented virtual production manager and good friend of mine approached me with a challenge. He wanted to make a proof of concept showcase for his work as a virtual production designer, but needed a creative head as the backbone. And even better, he wanted to do it in 5 weeks. So we got to work. This page is dedicated to our process to create a quality proof of concept short film with a small timeline and even smaller budget.

In development and pre-production, I have been heavily inspired by the film “The Cranes Are Flying”. Set in Soviet wartimes, this couple heavily inspired to couple in “Eclipse of Us”, torn apart by war and the evolution of violence. The lighting also takes away from this theme, creating high contrast and using eye light as a strong motif.

INSPIRATION

“The Cranes Are Flying” Kalatozov, 1957

From the DirectoR

Angler began as a proof of concept I created in film school with seven hundred dollars, a few friends, and a sketchbook full of sea creatures. It was the first project I ever directed, and it became the moment I realized I wanted to tell stories from behind the camera. That short proved we could make something that felt bigger than its budget by staying rooted in character and using practical effects to make the unreal feel tangible.

The new film is a queer drama-horror that drifts between warmth and the pull of the dark. At its center are Logan and Annie, two young women caught between the intimacy they crave and the silence that keeps them apart. The Angler, the glowing figure that waits beneath the surface, is not just a monster. It is the lure of that silence, the weight of everything we push down until it begins to feel alive on its own.

I am drawn to stories, like those of my greatest influence Guillermo del Toro, that find empathy in their monsters. Angler comes from that same impulse, believing that even the things we fear most in ourselves deserve to be faced and understood.

We built this film with practical effects, water-logged sets, and a creature made by hand to bring a human, tactile kind of horror to the screen and to make space for queer voices within the genre. I hope that as you explore this site you see not just a monster story but a story about the courage it takes to reach for the light.

See how virtual production designer and co-producer Carlos Sales designed the environments of “Eclipse of Us” and how he made this film possible to film in an entirely virtual environment.

“Virtual Production is the process of developing 3D Environment in Unreal engine for use in film productions. As someone striving to become a specialist on the topic, I wanted to share my workflow breakdown of my process when developing this environments.” - Sales