Dylan Clark shot a seven-minute horror short in a classroom at Ithaca College during finals week, paid for it out of his own pocket, and put it on YouTube. Four years later it is a Lionsgate feature with Chase Infiniti starring and Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele producing. Portrait of God moved to Lionsgate this week, out of Universal, with Clark directing.
The short opens on a line from the Old Testament, “No man shall see Me and live,” and then stands a religious girl in front of a painting of the same name. To some of the people who look at the canvas it is a flat black rectangle. Others describe the same figure standing in the dark. It cleared a million views inside six months of its August 2022 upload.
Seven minutes is a generous length for one idea, and this idea is strong enough that the pitch writes itself. Whether it can hold ninety is the bet Lionsgate has just made.
Ghost House Meets Monkeypaw
Raimi produces with Rob Tapert for Ghost House, Peele with Win Rosenfeld for Monkeypaw. Deadline, which broke the project in December 2025, reported it as the first time the two have produced together, and for a pair of banners that have spent years turning other people’s ideas into theatrical horror, that is a surprise on its own. Joe Russo, who wrote The Inheritance, co-wrote the screenplay with Clark and produces alongside them. Romel Adam and Jose Cañas executive produce for Ghost House, with Chris Rosati for NAT20 Films and Monkeypaw.
Universal Had It First
Universal set the film up in December 2025 with Clark attached to direct his own material. Lionsgate has now taken it over. “With Sam and Jordan, two of the genre’s most influential producers, the extraordinary Chase Infiniti starring, and Dylan at the helm, this is an exceptional creative team,” Lionsgate’s Adam Fogelson said, adding that the goal is a film that is “haunting, thought-provoking, and scary as hell.”
Infiniti takes the part of the girl in front of the painting. She broke through last year in One Battle After Another, after Apple’s Presumed Innocent.
Clark’s Other Lionsgate Movie Is ‘Blair Witch’
Clark is also directing Lionsgate’s new Blair Witch, which the studio has dated for September 24, 2027. Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams executive produce that one, alongside original filmmakers Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick and Gregg Hale. The third of the 1999 leads, Rei Hance, turned the new film down. Clark came up making horror shorts on YouTube and now has two pictures at the same studio.
Lionsgate has not dated Portrait of God. The short is still up, still seven minutes, still free, which makes this the rare case where the pitch can be watched years before the movie exists.
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