Before We Were Monsters
Atlanta, Georgia | Film Feature
Horror, Fantasy
After a classmate dies in front of them, four misunderstood teens develop supernatural powers that reflect their unresolved trauma. A coming-of-age horror film with humor, heart, and practical FX body horror for anyone who's ever felt like they didn't belong.
Before We Were Monsters
Atlanta, Georgia | Film Feature
Horror, Fantasy
1 Campaigns | Georgia, United States
79 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$6,544
Goal: $15,000 for production
After a classmate dies in front of them, four misunderstood teens develop supernatural powers that reflect their unresolved trauma. A coming-of-age horror film with humor, heart, and practical FX body horror for anyone who's ever felt like they didn't belong.
In Partnership With
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Before We Were Monsters is a supernatural coming-of-age story set in a small suburban town in Georgia (where we spent our own teenage years and currently live).
After being sent to detention, four outcast teens are left traumatized by the sudden death of their classmate Seymour, and in the days that follow, they each develop a strange ability tied to how they're coping:
Strength. Invisibility. Manipulation. Numbness.
As they isolate themselves and experiment with their powers, they leave a trail of unintended consequences across their small town. Eventually, the four teens seek each other out in search of answers and collectively end up on the run from a local power-hungry deputy.
Think The Breakfast Club meets Carrie.
The film is structured like a nesting doll, a Weapons-esque series of interconnected short stories that revisit the same events from different perspectives. As we move from one character to the next, new information reframes what we've already seen, shifting our understanding and building empathy.
Tonally, it starts grounded, rooted in the mundane rhythms of small-town life, and then gradually slips into something more heightened and surreal and a little (okay, a lot) chaotic. It's funny and emotional and at times unsettling... or, you know, just like high school.
We're using all practical, in-camera FX to make it feel even more grounded, gory, and a little throw-backy.
We all have a go-to response when things get hard. Some of us power through. Some of us disappear. Some of us try to take control. Some of us go numb. This film takes those responses and makes them physical, so you're not just being told what these characters feel, you're experiencing it alongside them.
So many of us are navigating identity and mental health completely alone. Monsters is about what happens when those experiences are finally seen and shared and faced together. We believe the best movies help us explore deep questions, and we hope this movie points us towards each other when we need it most.
Katelyn Campbell is a queer indie filmmaker, an award-winning director, and a growing production designer who is passionate about telling stories that make people feel seen and understood. She has worked on more than twenty short films, music videos, features, and commercials. Recent directing credits include Hedgehog, Good Morning!, and 86 Monstertruck. She served as Script Supervisor and Assistant Editor on Gargantuan, and as Art Director and Colorist on Waking State. Her work explores coming-of-age, horror, and surrealist storytelling. This is her feature directorial debut.
Hudson Phillips is an Atlanta-based writer, producer, and founder of Mirror Box Films. His debut feature, This World Alone, premiered on Hulu, won six Best Feature awards, two Best Screenplay awards, and earned praise from The New York Times. His second feature, Guacamole Yesterdays, screened at 11 festivals and toured theatrically to 13 cities. His latest feature, Gargantuan, a practical-FX sci-fi adventure, is currently in post-production. He has also written four features for hire and had a script optioned by Lionsgate Films. He writes and produces genre films designed to help audiences embrace their emotions, not just escape them.
Mirror Box Films has spent the last decade making beautiful movies with beautiful people, skipping traditional distribution deals entirely and taking our films on tour instead, showing up in person at arthouse theaters across the U.S. and having deep conversations with the humans who take the time to connect with our films. We make elevated, emotional genre films that make you feel seen, including the feature films This World Alone, Guacamole Yesterdays, and Gargantuan.
Most films fail by trying to replicate what Hollywood is doing... just with way less money. We take a different approach, embracing the things that work and reinventing what doesn't.
We're shooting over 12 days in late August 2026 with a core team of 10, which keeps everyone close to the work and close to each other. The script is a living, breathing thing, and we adjust when something isn't working rather than throwing money at it. We can't compete with Hollywood on scale (and we're not trying to). But we can prioritize story over spectacle and practical FX over CGI and balance bigger set pieces with intimate, two-people-in-one-room scenes that allow us to laugh, cry, gasp, and feel seen.
Everything we do is built around community, and this film is no different. Monsters is part of the UNG Micro-Budget Film Lab (five films, five teams, all crowdfunding simultaneously, all lifting each other up) and the NonDē 50 Films Project, a collective of 50+ filmmakers making films in 2026 and sharing resources, data, and support as they go.
We believe the indie film model survives by going deeper with fewer people and raising the tide for all filmmakers who are alongside us. Being part of these communities is us putting that belief into practice.
We've successfully run crowdfunding campaigns for both This World Alone and Gargantuan, raising over $46,000 combined across those two projects. We know how to make supporters feel like part of the process and how to get a film over the finish line.
For us, crowdfunding is really about crowd-building. Every backer becomes part of the film, part of the conversation, part of the community, part of what carries this thing from a dream on the internet and into the real world.
We're raising $15,000 for Production on Seed & Spark — and here's exactly where it goes.
Our lovely investors are covering the people: cast, crew, post-production, and marketing. Every single person on this film is getting paid (and they're all getting paid the same amount). That's already handled.
What's not covered yet is the physical reality of making the movie — the sets, the food, the gear, the insurance, the hard drives. That's what this campaign is for.
Every dollar you give goes straight towards a real expense:
- Keeping 20+ people fed across 12 shoot days
- The gear, the kits, the expendables, and the practical FX (bloooood!)
- Location fees, set dressing, and props
- The insurance that keeps everything legal and protected
- The hard drives that make sure we never lose a frame
All the decidedly unglamorous stuff that makes the glamorous stuff possible.
If you've ever felt invisible or like your story didn't matter, we’re making Before We Were Monsters for you.
Share it with someone who needs to hear that a story like this exists. We're not just raising money, we're inviting you to be a part of this film, building right alongside us from the ground up.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
CATERING & CRAFTY
Costs $3,500
We're feeding 20+ cast & crew members across 12 shoot days. Happy bellys = happy humans.
RENTALS & EXPENDABLES
Costs $2,500
The vehicles, cameras, batteries, and grip supplies that get burned through fast on any working set.
LOCATIONS & SETS
Costs $1,500
Fees, permits, and dressing that turn real spaces into the world of this film.
Props & FX
Costs $3,000
This is a body horror film. The practical fx aren't just decoration, they're the story.
INSURANCE
Costs $3,000
It's not sexy, but it's what makes everything else legal and possible.
HARD DRIVES & BACKUPS
Costs $1,500
Every frame lives on a drive. This keeps our footage safe, backed up, and never lost.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Katelyn Campbell is a queer indie filmmaker, an award-winning director, and a growing production designer who is passionate about telling stories that make people feel seen and understood. She has worked on more than twenty short films, music videos, features, and commercials. Recent directing credits include Hedgehog, Good Morning!, and 86 Monstertruck. She served as Script Supervisor and Assistant Editor on Gargantuan, and as Art Director and Colorist on Waking State. Her work explores coming-of-age, horror, and surrealist storytelling. This is her feature directorial debut.
Hudson Phillips is an Atlanta-based writer, producer, and founder of Mirror Box Films. His debut feature, This World Alone, premiered on Hulu, won six Best Feature awards, two Best Screenplay awards, and earned praise from The New York Times. His second feature, Guacamole Yesterdays, screened at 11 festivals and toured theatrically to 13 cities. His latest feature, Gargantuan, a practical-FX sci-fi adventure, is currently in post-production. He has also written four features for hire and had a script optioned by Lionsgate Films. He writes and produces genre films designed to help audiences embrace their emotions, not just escape them.
Mirror Box Films has spent the last decade making beautiful movies with beautiful people, skipping traditional distribution deals entirely and taking our films on tour instead, showing up in person at arthouse theaters across the U.S. and having deep conversations with the humans who come watch our stuff. We make elevated, emotional genre films that make you feel seen, including the micro-budget sci-fi features This World Alone, Guacamole Yesterdays, and Gargantuan.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Before We Were Monsters is a supernatural coming-of-age story set in a small suburban town in Georgia (where we spent our own teenage years and currently live).
After being sent to detention, four outcast teens are left traumatized by the sudden death of their classmate Seymour, and in the days that follow, they each develop a strange ability tied to how they're coping:
Strength. Invisibility. Manipulation. Numbness.
As they isolate themselves and experiment with their powers, they leave a trail of unintended consequences across their small town. Eventually, the four teens seek each other out in search of answers and collectively end up on the run from a local power-hungry deputy.
Think The Breakfast Club meets Carrie.
The film is structured like a nesting doll, a Weapons-esque series of interconnected short stories that revisit the same events from different perspectives. As we move from one character to the next, new information reframes what we've already seen, shifting our understanding and building empathy.
Tonally, it starts grounded, rooted in the mundane rhythms of small-town life, and then gradually slips into something more heightened and surreal and a little (okay, a lot) chaotic. It's funny and emotional and at times unsettling... or, you know, just like high school.
We're using all practical, in-camera FX to make it feel even more grounded, gory, and a little throw-backy.
We all have a go-to response when things get hard. Some of us power through. Some of us disappear. Some of us try to take control. Some of us go numb. This film takes those responses and makes them physical, so you're not just being told what these characters feel, you're experiencing it alongside them.
So many of us are navigating identity and mental health completely alone. Monsters is about what happens when those experiences are finally seen and shared and faced together. We believe the best movies help us explore deep questions, and we hope this movie points us towards each other when we need it most.
Katelyn Campbell is a queer indie filmmaker, an award-winning director, and a growing production designer who is passionate about telling stories that make people feel seen and understood. She has worked on more than twenty short films, music videos, features, and commercials. Recent directing credits include Hedgehog, Good Morning!, and 86 Monstertruck. She served as Script Supervisor and Assistant Editor on Gargantuan, and as Art Director and Colorist on Waking State. Her work explores coming-of-age, horror, and surrealist storytelling. This is her feature directorial debut.
Hudson Phillips is an Atlanta-based writer, producer, and founder of Mirror Box Films. His debut feature, This World Alone, premiered on Hulu, won six Best Feature awards, two Best Screenplay awards, and earned praise from The New York Times. His second feature, Guacamole Yesterdays, screened at 11 festivals and toured theatrically to 13 cities. His latest feature, Gargantuan, a practical-FX sci-fi adventure, is currently in post-production. He has also written four features for hire and had a script optioned by Lionsgate Films. He writes and produces genre films designed to help audiences embrace their emotions, not just escape them.
Mirror Box Films has spent the last decade making beautiful movies with beautiful people, skipping traditional distribution deals entirely and taking our films on tour instead, showing up in person at arthouse theaters across the U.S. and having deep conversations with the humans who take the time to connect with our films. We make elevated, emotional genre films that make you feel seen, including the feature films This World Alone, Guacamole Yesterdays, and Gargantuan.
Most films fail by trying to replicate what Hollywood is doing... just with way less money. We take a different approach, embracing the things that work and reinventing what doesn't.
We're shooting over 12 days in late August 2026 with a core team of 10, which keeps everyone close to the work and close to each other. The script is a living, breathing thing, and we adjust when something isn't working rather than throwing money at it. We can't compete with Hollywood on scale (and we're not trying to). But we can prioritize story over spectacle and practical FX over CGI and balance bigger set pieces with intimate, two-people-in-one-room scenes that allow us to laugh, cry, gasp, and feel seen.
Everything we do is built around community, and this film is no different. Monsters is part of the UNG Micro-Budget Film Lab (five films, five teams, all crowdfunding simultaneously, all lifting each other up) and the NonDē 50 Films Project, a collective of 50+ filmmakers making films in 2026 and sharing resources, data, and support as they go.
We believe the indie film model survives by going deeper with fewer people and raising the tide for all filmmakers who are alongside us. Being part of these communities is us putting that belief into practice.
We've successfully run crowdfunding campaigns for both This World Alone and Gargantuan, raising over $46,000 combined across those two projects. We know how to make supporters feel like part of the process and how to get a film over the finish line.
For us, crowdfunding is really about crowd-building. Every backer becomes part of the film, part of the conversation, part of the community, part of what carries this thing from a dream on the internet and into the real world.
We're raising $15,000 for Production on Seed & Spark — and here's exactly where it goes.
Our lovely investors are covering the people: cast, crew, post-production, and marketing. Every single person on this film is getting paid (and they're all getting paid the same amount). That's already handled.
What's not covered yet is the physical reality of making the movie — the sets, the food, the gear, the insurance, the hard drives. That's what this campaign is for.
Every dollar you give goes straight towards a real expense:
- Keeping 20+ people fed across 12 shoot days
- The gear, the kits, the expendables, and the practical FX (bloooood!)
- Location fees, set dressing, and props
- The insurance that keeps everything legal and protected
- The hard drives that make sure we never lose a frame
All the decidedly unglamorous stuff that makes the glamorous stuff possible.
If you've ever felt invisible or like your story didn't matter, we’re making Before We Were Monsters for you.
Share it with someone who needs to hear that a story like this exists. We're not just raising money, we're inviting you to be a part of this film, building right alongside us from the ground up.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
CATERING & CRAFTY
Costs $3,500
We're feeding 20+ cast & crew members across 12 shoot days. Happy bellys = happy humans.
RENTALS & EXPENDABLES
Costs $2,500
The vehicles, cameras, batteries, and grip supplies that get burned through fast on any working set.
LOCATIONS & SETS
Costs $1,500
Fees, permits, and dressing that turn real spaces into the world of this film.
Props & FX
Costs $3,000
This is a body horror film. The practical fx aren't just decoration, they're the story.
INSURANCE
Costs $3,000
It's not sexy, but it's what makes everything else legal and possible.
HARD DRIVES & BACKUPS
Costs $1,500
Every frame lives on a drive. This keeps our footage safe, backed up, and never lost.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Katelyn Campbell is a queer indie filmmaker, an award-winning director, and a growing production designer who is passionate about telling stories that make people feel seen and understood. She has worked on more than twenty short films, music videos, features, and commercials. Recent directing credits include Hedgehog, Good Morning!, and 86 Monstertruck. She served as Script Supervisor and Assistant Editor on Gargantuan, and as Art Director and Colorist on Waking State. Her work explores coming-of-age, horror, and surrealist storytelling. This is her feature directorial debut.
Hudson Phillips is an Atlanta-based writer, producer, and founder of Mirror Box Films. His debut feature, This World Alone, premiered on Hulu, won six Best Feature awards, two Best Screenplay awards, and earned praise from The New York Times. His second feature, Guacamole Yesterdays, screened at 11 festivals and toured theatrically to 13 cities. His latest feature, Gargantuan, a practical-FX sci-fi adventure, is currently in post-production. He has also written four features for hire and had a script optioned by Lionsgate Films. He writes and produces genre films designed to help audiences embrace their emotions, not just escape them.
Mirror Box Films has spent the last decade making beautiful movies with beautiful people, skipping traditional distribution deals entirely and taking our films on tour instead, showing up in person at arthouse theaters across the U.S. and having deep conversations with the humans who come watch our stuff. We make elevated, emotional genre films that make you feel seen, including the micro-budget sci-fi features This World Alone, Guacamole Yesterdays, and Gargantuan.