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THE FILM

Logline: After the unexplained death of her best friend, Wenonah becomes haunted by an eerie manifestation of the past, forcing her and her roommates to look at their deeper connections through past life regression hypnotherapy.

The relationships of three college roommates are challenged when they experience the loss of their fourth roommate and best friend, Alice. Grief begins to peel back the layers of their darkest behaviors as each of them sink into their own destructive vices that drive resentment between them.

Soon after her death, they are forced to work together when they encounter paranormal phenomenon, dreams that follow them from the darkness, and eerie messages from unknown sources that cannot be ignored. They discover that Alice had underwent past life regression therapy, and in a left a gateway open between the past and the present.

As their lives and friendships are threatened, they must face the truth of their own shared past lives and put an end to the harmful cycles they perpetuate in each other's lives. 

Past Life Regression Hypnosis

Have you ever felt a cold shiver of a warning intuition? Or wondered where an unreasonable fear comes from? A recurring behavior you experience in relationships? Past life regression sinks into these questions specifically and says; Perhaps it’s not a habit you developed, but a trait or behavior that formed in a past life and continues to manifest in your present. Perhaps you have carried these things with you to each life, but have so far failed to release them. It’s often turning our gaze inward that is the most terrifying part of healing, but like any fear, we won’t get the answers we need until we have the courage to look at it face-to-face.

Past Life Regression - Guided hypnotherapy that takes you back through time to your previous lives by accessing memories that are hidden in your subconscious mind.

Past life regression is an intriguing theory that we have lived other lives in the past that carry trauma and life lessons over into the life we’re living now. Whether you believe in it or view it as a metaphor for intergenerational trauma, exploring past lives is a rich subject to explore for human drama and horror. 

Melissa has always been fascinated with past life regression and has had her own incredible personal experiences with hypnotherapy. She was inspired years ago when she read Brian Weiss’s book Many Lives, Many Masters, both personally and as a storyteller. Mostly, she couldn’t stop wondering why we weren’t seeing more movies out there telling these stories. 

The genre offers an incredible avenue to open up discussions in a fascinating, powerful way. We are taking this opportunity to tell a story exploring life, death, and the beyond through a marketable, mainstream horror film.

Regression is an exploration of past life regression hypnotherapy and healing cycles of generational trauma through the lens of a timeless genre: HORROR. Much like the clever use of astral projection in James Wan’s 2010 horror hit Insidious, Regression leverages an underutilized concept to dig into a deep discussion about trauma healing. Horror has the unique capability to explore controversial or uncomfortable topics in a captivating and disarming way. It’s as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. 

Many successful horror movies utilize this approach to tackle important subjects.

REGRESSION CAST

WATCH THE FULL TEASER

We shot this teaser as a proof of concept for tone and atmosphere of the feature.

SCRIPT SNEAK PEEK

THE PASSION BEHIND HORROR

Horror is not only a genre we are professionals in, we also love it with a passion.

Horror has been a vehicle for speaking our truth in metaphors for decades. In this genre we can explore the things that echoes deep in our souls but we can't say aloud. We can create analogies that people understand. We can send messages and talk about topics together in a way that disarms and opens perspectives. We can hide the spinach in the cake. 

We are here to push forward a world in which storytelling unifies and breaks down barriers. To us, films are not just for entertainment - they can change the world.

MORE THAN JUST A MOVIE, THIS IS A MOVEMENT

• Out of ALL horror films made between 1988 to 2017 - only 6% of those were directed by women.
• Women also make up 60% of the horror audience, compared to 50% of the regular movie-going audience.
• Female-led films outperformed male-led movies in every budget range in a study by CAA and Shift 7, reviewing films from 2014-2017. When compared by total box office results, the analysis also found that films that passed the Bechdel Test outperformed films that failed. This is especially impressive, considering that of the 350 films in the dataset, only 30% of those films were female-led.

Spearheading this project is Mooncastle Films, a horror production company centering women and underrepresented groups in story, cast, and crew. 

ABOUT US

We are a passionate  team of filmmakers dedicated to each other and the craft of storytelling. No doubt, we are on our own life cycle together, continuing from many lives before.

Together this team has made over 15 feature films which have seen over a hundred film festivals, multiple wins, and recouped their costs in distribution.

OUR WORK

Abigail is our latest horror feature film which Dark Star Pictures has picked up for distribution. (dir. Melissa Vitello, prod. Stacy Snyder, dp. Bryan Ricke)

My Left Arm is a short film presented by this same team.

Check out Melissa's directing work on her reel.

THE MONEY BEHIND HORROR

"The good news is that horror is a genre that reliably produces hit movies, often on very modest budgets. In fact, measured purely in terms of profit, horror is the best genre in the industry." -American Film Market

• Horror is the most profitable genre according to Stephen Follows Data and Education. On average, horror movies are the most likely to make a profit when compared to movies of all other genres.

• Horror has seen a significant rise in popularity with mainstream audiences.
• Horror films have an incredibly loyal audience. A study by Movio in 2018 stated that 44% of paranormal horror fans go to the movies more than 12 times a year.
• Horror films do NOT need to be critically acclaimed or have a large budget or recognizable names to be successful.

• In our own data analysis of horror films, we surmise that on average there is an annual spend of $350M with an annual gross of $2B. We also saw from the data that 2 out of 3 horror films under $10M budget recouped their investment.

BUDGET

Distributors and industry professionals shared with us that they thought our last feature was 4x the actual budget due to the high production quality we were able to create. We are seasoned, we are equipped, we are scrappy, and we are capable of making every dollar stretch. Utilizing funding where it serves the film best is what we do.

We pride ourselves on being on-time and on-budget with each project we produce.

THE INVESTMENT TERMS

While filmmaking always comes with risks, we are positioning ourselves to be in the direct pathways of the most successful outcomes for these films.

After distribution costs and fees, revenue will be distributed to equity investors to recoup their investment plus 20% of their investment, on a pro-rata basis.

Once the investment plus 20% is recouped, any deferrals are paid next. Cast and/or crew may elect to defer part of all of their payment until the movie makes money. For example, a reputable actor may take a small fee during filming and defer the rest of their payment. All deferments will be listed on the working budget available to investors and will not exceed $50,000 USD. 

Remaining revenue is split 50/50 into two Net Profit Participant pools: the “Investors Pool” and the “Producers Pool”.

Equity investors are paid out from the Investors Pool proportionate to their percentage of investment contribution.

For example, if an investor contributes 50% of the cash needs for production, they will receive 50% of the Investors Pool profits. Net profit participation is paid out quarterly for the first two years, then annually thereafter, for as long as the film generates income. The Investors Pool is for investors only and is protected from any other profit participants.

The Producers Pool is where producers, director, actors, and other profit participants receive profit participant “points”. You may have heard of this as “points” or “backend points”.

With our timeline, we plan to finish the film by the end of May 2025 and begin shopping it out to distribution companies. From there, it will take a few more months before the film begins generating profits, meaning that investors should not expect to see repayment begin until fall of 2025 at the earliest.

DISTRIBUTION

We will reach out to these distribution companies with the finalized film, evaluate the offers, and select the most advantageous distributor for this film. Our last feature Abigail received many offers, and we ended up having our top two ideal distributors competing for the film. Being in a position like that again would be advantageous for Regression. 

• Dark Star Pictures - Picked up our last film for distribution and will be releasing it later this year. Showtime and Shudder have purchased from Dark Star with regularity. Dark Star is deeply connected to top-tier festivals including the highest regarded genre film festival, Fantastic Fest. To top it off, they are amazing to work with and have become our friends!
• XYZ Films - Recently made us a compelling offer to distribute our film, they have shared that they are looking forward to reviewing our films.
• A24 - Target distributor we are developing a relationship with, our close colleagues have an Oscar-winning film distributed with A24.
• Amazon Prime - Colleague is the head of genre development, our team has distributed three films on the platform.
• Fangoria Studios - Our relationship with the SVP of Fangoria Studios opens many doors for us in press, festivals, distribution, and more as this 40-year-old brand has millions of followers as the premiere horror publication.
• Archstone Entertainment - Actively asked to be publicly listed as one of our partners, has offered distribution on a previous film. 
• IFC Films - Wants to see our completed films, connection was at Sundance for years before IFC and is interested in our works. 
• Saban Films - Asked to be updated on our project, we have an open door to submit our films to them.
• Buffalo 8 - We have a relationship with the head of production, has offered distribution on a previous film. 
• Mind the Gap Pictures - Foreign sales agent we have had the pleasure of working with to secure airline distribution in multiple territories for a previous film. Champions women-led films.
• Odin’s Eye - Signed a Letter of Intent to distribute another project we are developing.

An offer may also come with a “minimum guarantee” (MG for short). An MG is an amount of money the distribution company will offer for the film upfront as a sign of confidence they have in the film being financially successful. This money is paid to film LLC as the offer is signed. Within the waterfall structure above, this MG money goes back to investors on a pro-rata basis. As the film makes money, the distributor will take their commission and recoup the MG amount (what they paid the film), then send all other profits to the film LLC.

Tell me more about licensing….

Windowing refers to the film's placement within the market at any given time. Below is the typical windowing structure for a film.

• Theatrical - Released at the movie theater. This can be as few as 12 screens for a local release, domestically on 12k+ screens, or an international release. This term can range from one weekend to months.
• TVOD (Transactional Video-On-Demand) - Buying or renting the film at home. Audiences buy the film on a digital platform in order to watch. The term can range from 3, 6, or 9 months.
• SVOD (Subscription Video-On-Demand) - This is the streaming platforms. Viewers pay a subscription for access to the streaming library. Streamers usually want the film 90 days after the film goes live on TVOD. Terms typically range from 1-3 years.
• AVOD (Advertisement supported Video-On-Demand) - Viewers do not pay to watch the film, instead watching ads throughout the film. The film is paid for every time an ad is watched. Lately, we have heard from multiple distribution companies that independent films are seeing the most profits from this window, earning $8 per view.

TALK MONEY TO ME: THE RECOUP PLAN

The strategy for this film is to release it digitally as soon as possible, leveraging each window for maximum profits. Films of this budget range typically do not have a theatrical release, as that would incur significant distribution costs to be recouped. Should the market have a strong demand for content during our release phase, we are open to determining with our distributor if a theatrical release is in the best interest of the film.

Our first phase of recoupment would be through TVOD, where anyone can rent or buy the film on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, VUDU Fandango, YouTube Movies, Verizon Fios TV, Spectrum OnDemand, or DirecTV. This would likely be a 3-month phase, however, if significant and steady income is generated in this phase, we would extend the term. 

For the SVOD phase we see Hulu, Showtime, or Shudder as viable streaming homes for this film but will explore all streaming options. We anticipate a 1-year term with the option to re-up the contract at the end of the term.

AVOD platforms like Tubi give us access to the largest audience. As there are no paywalls for consumers, people can view this film any time. This is the most likely place for the film to stay for the course of the distribution term, which can range from 10 to 15 years. We expect income from this phase year after year.

One of the strengths of this genre is that Regression will have renewed audience interest annually - around Halloween.

PRODUCTION TIMELINE

As organized, enthusiastic filmmakers we are always preparing what we can in advance. Once our minimum funding is available, we will be ready to hit the ground running. Regression already has a meticulous production plan in place. Our goal is to start principal photography in the Fall of 2024 and picture lock by Spring of 2025. From there, we will take the film to distributors, studios, and film festivals with the goal of securing a sale or distribution agreement. From there, final quality checks and marketing materials would be developed and the film release date would go public.

Do you have the courage to join us on this journey?