INDUSTRY:
VIDEO EDITING/MOTION
CLIENT:
MYSELF
YEAR:
2026
EXPERIENCE:
PREMIERE/ACTING/SHOOTING/SCREENWRITER
Subject #23
about.
Subject #23 is a psychological thriller short film centered on a man who slowly unravels the truth that his life is not his own. Partially inspired by the isolation and loss of autonomy felt during the COVID-19 pandemic, the film explores what it means to exist in a world that feels controlled, surveilled, and on the verge of collapse. Drawing from the atmospheric dread of survival horror, the visual language leans into cold, clinical spaces, suffocating stillness, and a creeping sense that something fundamental has gone wrong. Written, directed, edited, and starring Mauro Piccininni, Subject #23 is a deeply personal project about identity, control, and what remains of a person when the world stops making sense.
challenge.
The biggest challenge was sustaining dread without relying on traditional horror beats. Subject #23 needed to feel psychologically suffocating rather than conventionally scary, closer to the slow, atmospheric unease of Silent Hill than anything loud or sudden. Keeping the clinical visual style from feeling flat while still making it feel deeply wrong required careful attention to lighting, negative space, and sound. Pacing was everything: moving too fast would break the tension, moving too slow would lose the viewer. The goal was to build a world that felt recognizable but deeply off, somewhere between a hospital hallway and the end of the world, and to make the audience feel what the character feels before they fully understand what is happening.
