Worm Hunger
Orlando, Florida | Film Short
Horror, LGBTQ
A young gay man named Jacob has a fantasy of a football player he is infatuated with, but this dream turns against him when his suppressed desires manifest in horrific acts of violence. This surreal homoerotic horror film explores both the euphoria and the terror of queer self-discovery.
Worm Hunger
Orlando, Florida | Film Short
Horror, LGBTQ
1 Campaigns | Florida, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $1,605 for pre-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
18 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
A young gay man named Jacob has a fantasy of a football player he is infatuated with, but this dream turns against him when his suppressed desires manifest in horrific acts of violence. This surreal homoerotic horror film explores both the euphoria and the terror of queer self-discovery.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Worm Hunger is an experimental horror short film written and directed by Owen Felton. The film follows Jacob, a young gay man whose fantasy of a football player he is infatuated with turns against him when his desires manifest as horrific acts of violence in his dream.
Shot on 16mm film, this project will combine avant-garde editing techniques with both original and archival footage to explore the surreal emotions entangled with queer desire through dream logic and horror imagery. It's going to be bloody, sexy, and weird as hell!
Nowhere (1997)
The film will take inspiration from cult classic queer horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, iconic slashers such as the Slumber Party Massacre series, the transgressive films of Queer New Wave pioneer, Gregg Araki (Nowhere, Mysterious Skin, Totally Fucked Up), as well as more experimental works such as Kenneth Anger's surreal homoerotic short film, Fireworks.
Slumber Party Massacre II (Top), A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (Bottom)
The title comes from a passage in William S. Burroughs's novel, Queer. He writes: “In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull toward Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other's body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals.” The term 'worm hunger' communicates the all-consuming, almost primal queer desire to consume and to be consumed.
I am enrolled in the Experimental Cinema BFA program at the University of Central Florida, and this will be my senior capstone film for the course. This project will be the culmination of my entire filmmaking education at UCF. I have experience shooting on digital, Super 8, and 16mm film formats.
As a filmmaker, my priority is to push boundaries of what we are used to seeing on screen, and I most enjoy doing this by exploring taboo topics such as queer sexuality and by experimenting with the formal elements of my craft. Worm Hunger will be my best example of this to date- a showcase of all my long-running fascinations in filmmaking dialed up to 100.
Giallo Homo (2024)
In 2024, I wrote, directed, and edited my first narrative short film, Giallo Homo: a pastiche of 70s Italian slashers with a gay twist. This experience taught me how to command a cinematic language to tell a story with a strong visual style that you can't look away from.
My Director of Photography and I (who will once again be collaborating on my latest film) crafted the film's language by using 70s filmmaking techniques such as split field diopter shots, crash zooms, and split screens.
Giallo Homo (2024)
I learned everything I know about directing through this experience. The film was a big success with audiences, and I won the award for best editing at the Lights, Camera, Action film festival. The final film will tour the festival circuit later this year.
Giallo Homo (2024)
In 2025, I made Cyber Cemetery: a non-linear narrative film composed entirely of desktop webcam footage and screen recordings. With a budget of zero dollars and limited resources, I challenged myself to create something unique that felt true to my experience of growing up as a child of the internet.
The film follows a lonely teenage boy who uploads video diaries to YouTube describing his terrifying experiences with a demonic entity that he believes is haunting his computer screen. It's part lo-fi horror film, part queer coming-of-age film.
Cyber Cemetery (2025)
The film will be shot at the end of February. We are currently deep into the rigorous process of pre-production, which includes rehearsing with actors, testing camera setups, scheduling, and buying materials for the shoot. The next couple of weeks will be spent finalizing everything for the shoot while we raise funds. Immediately after shooting, the film will be sent off to get processed and scanned.
After we have received the footage, we will then go into post-production until the end of March. It will premiere at the final capstone exhibition at UCF in April. Some minor adjustments might be made after this, and then it will be submitted to film festivals in May. After it has premiered at festivals, it will be released online to the public. However, donors of a certain amount will receive early access to the film via a private screener link (including a special introduction from me)!
Shooting on film is expensive. First, there's the cost of buying the film stock, then the cost of developing it, and finally, scanning it. In total, that's about $600 of our budget, but it's worth that price to make this film look as gorgeous as it possibly can.
We need YOUR help to bring these images to life in the way they were intended.
Other expenses include:
- Set decoration, Props, Costumes, and Makeup to craft vivid images that pop out of the screen.
- Craft Services and Catering to feed our hard-working and talented crew for each day of shooting!
- Film Festival Submissions to bring our film to audiences all across the world! (The average cost of submission is around $60 and upwards)
Thank you for reading this far! Your interest in this project means everything to us, and we hope you'll consider supporting our film in any of the following ways:
- Contribute to the campaign, get some cool perks: Even if it's just a single dollar, any and all contributions help get us one step closer to bringing this ambitious project to life! We have plenty of neat incentives for those who contribute!
- Share the campaign: No money, no problem! If you can't contribute, maybe someone you know might be able to! Spread the word by sharing this campaign with everyone you know!
- Follow us on social media: You can follow @feltoland on TikTok and X, as well as @owenfelton on Instagram, to support us and stay updated.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
16mm Film
Costs $600
The entire project is shot on film, which must be purchased, processed, scanned, and shipped back to us. This gets very expensive very fast!
Production Design
Costs $600
We want the world of this film to feel as immersive as possible, so we are putting a lot of money into the set dressing and props.
Makeup and SFX
Costs $100
This is a horror movie, and it needs to be BLOODY!
Film Festival Submissions
Costs $500
To get our film out there for audiences across the world, we need to get into some festivals, which all have submission fees that add up!
Catering/Craft Services
Costs $150
Our hard-working cast and crew need to eat so that they can do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Owen Felton | Writer | Director | Editor
Owen Felton is a 22-year-old queer filmmaker based in Orlando, Florida. He is currently in his senior year at the University of Central Florida, where he is majoring with a BFA in Film. He has experience as a writer, director, editor, script supervisor, and production designer. His interests primarily lie in horror films and queer films, so most of his work exists somewhere in the intersection of those two things. Most recently, he wrote and directed a homoerotic homage to Italian slasher films called Giallo Homo (2024) and an experimental screenlife short film called Cyber Cemetery (2025). He is passionate about breaking taboos and challenging audiences with unconventional stories.
Collin Aull | Director of Photography | Actor | Composer
Collin Aull is a filmmaker based in Orlando, Florida, who has worked as a director, cinematographer, first assistant camera, gaffer, and grip. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film. He is experienced in shooting on both digital and analog formats, including Super 8 and 16mm film. He has served as the cinematographer on at least 10 short films, including two of his own, Lohengrin (2024) and Nocturne (2025). He also shot my previous directorial effort: Giallo Homo (2024). On this film, he is a triple threat! He is acting in it, shooting the majority of it, AND composing the original score. As my life partner and closest collaborator, he is an essential part of this team.
Jane Melynn Chapman | First Assistant Director
Jane Melynn Chapman is a filmmaker based in Orlando, Florida, who has extensive experience as both a director and a 1st AD. She graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film. She has a passion for bringing original stories to the screen and fostering positive environments on set with her strong leadership skills. She recently wrote and directed the short films Bitters (2024) and Goodbye, Mr. Stewart (2025).
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Worm Hunger is an experimental horror short film written and directed by Owen Felton. The film follows Jacob, a young gay man whose fantasy of a football player he is infatuated with turns against him when his desires manifest as horrific acts of violence in his dream.
Shot on 16mm film, this project will combine avant-garde editing techniques with both original and archival footage to explore the surreal emotions entangled with queer desire through dream logic and horror imagery. It's going to be bloody, sexy, and weird as hell!
Nowhere (1997)
The film will take inspiration from cult classic queer horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, iconic slashers such as the Slumber Party Massacre series, the transgressive films of Queer New Wave pioneer, Gregg Araki (Nowhere, Mysterious Skin, Totally Fucked Up), as well as more experimental works such as Kenneth Anger's surreal homoerotic short film, Fireworks.
Slumber Party Massacre II (Top), A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (Bottom)
The title comes from a passage in William S. Burroughs's novel, Queer. He writes: “In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull toward Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other's body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals.” The term 'worm hunger' communicates the all-consuming, almost primal queer desire to consume and to be consumed.
I am enrolled in the Experimental Cinema BFA program at the University of Central Florida, and this will be my senior capstone film for the course. This project will be the culmination of my entire filmmaking education at UCF. I have experience shooting on digital, Super 8, and 16mm film formats.
As a filmmaker, my priority is to push boundaries of what we are used to seeing on screen, and I most enjoy doing this by exploring taboo topics such as queer sexuality and by experimenting with the formal elements of my craft. Worm Hunger will be my best example of this to date- a showcase of all my long-running fascinations in filmmaking dialed up to 100.
Giallo Homo (2024)
In 2024, I wrote, directed, and edited my first narrative short film, Giallo Homo: a pastiche of 70s Italian slashers with a gay twist. This experience taught me how to command a cinematic language to tell a story with a strong visual style that you can't look away from.
My Director of Photography and I (who will once again be collaborating on my latest film) crafted the film's language by using 70s filmmaking techniques such as split field diopter shots, crash zooms, and split screens.
Giallo Homo (2024)
I learned everything I know about directing through this experience. The film was a big success with audiences, and I won the award for best editing at the Lights, Camera, Action film festival. The final film will tour the festival circuit later this year.
Giallo Homo (2024)
In 2025, I made Cyber Cemetery: a non-linear narrative film composed entirely of desktop webcam footage and screen recordings. With a budget of zero dollars and limited resources, I challenged myself to create something unique that felt true to my experience of growing up as a child of the internet.
The film follows a lonely teenage boy who uploads video diaries to YouTube describing his terrifying experiences with a demonic entity that he believes is haunting his computer screen. It's part lo-fi horror film, part queer coming-of-age film.
Cyber Cemetery (2025)
The film will be shot at the end of February. We are currently deep into the rigorous process of pre-production, which includes rehearsing with actors, testing camera setups, scheduling, and buying materials for the shoot. The next couple of weeks will be spent finalizing everything for the shoot while we raise funds. Immediately after shooting, the film will be sent off to get processed and scanned.
After we have received the footage, we will then go into post-production until the end of March. It will premiere at the final capstone exhibition at UCF in April. Some minor adjustments might be made after this, and then it will be submitted to film festivals in May. After it has premiered at festivals, it will be released online to the public. However, donors of a certain amount will receive early access to the film via a private screener link (including a special introduction from me)!
Shooting on film is expensive. First, there's the cost of buying the film stock, then the cost of developing it, and finally, scanning it. In total, that's about $600 of our budget, but it's worth that price to make this film look as gorgeous as it possibly can.
We need YOUR help to bring these images to life in the way they were intended.
Other expenses include:
- Set decoration, Props, Costumes, and Makeup to craft vivid images that pop out of the screen.
- Craft Services and Catering to feed our hard-working and talented crew for each day of shooting!
- Film Festival Submissions to bring our film to audiences all across the world! (The average cost of submission is around $60 and upwards)
Thank you for reading this far! Your interest in this project means everything to us, and we hope you'll consider supporting our film in any of the following ways:
- Contribute to the campaign, get some cool perks: Even if it's just a single dollar, any and all contributions help get us one step closer to bringing this ambitious project to life! We have plenty of neat incentives for those who contribute!
- Share the campaign: No money, no problem! If you can't contribute, maybe someone you know might be able to! Spread the word by sharing this campaign with everyone you know!
- Follow us on social media: You can follow @feltoland on TikTok and X, as well as @owenfelton on Instagram, to support us and stay updated.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
16mm Film
Costs $600
The entire project is shot on film, which must be purchased, processed, scanned, and shipped back to us. This gets very expensive very fast!
Production Design
Costs $600
We want the world of this film to feel as immersive as possible, so we are putting a lot of money into the set dressing and props.
Makeup and SFX
Costs $100
This is a horror movie, and it needs to be BLOODY!
Film Festival Submissions
Costs $500
To get our film out there for audiences across the world, we need to get into some festivals, which all have submission fees that add up!
Catering/Craft Services
Costs $150
Our hard-working cast and crew need to eat so that they can do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Owen Felton | Writer | Director | Editor
Owen Felton is a 22-year-old queer filmmaker based in Orlando, Florida. He is currently in his senior year at the University of Central Florida, where he is majoring with a BFA in Film. He has experience as a writer, director, editor, script supervisor, and production designer. His interests primarily lie in horror films and queer films, so most of his work exists somewhere in the intersection of those two things. Most recently, he wrote and directed a homoerotic homage to Italian slasher films called Giallo Homo (2024) and an experimental screenlife short film called Cyber Cemetery (2025). He is passionate about breaking taboos and challenging audiences with unconventional stories.
Collin Aull | Director of Photography | Actor | Composer
Collin Aull is a filmmaker based in Orlando, Florida, who has worked as a director, cinematographer, first assistant camera, gaffer, and grip. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film. He is experienced in shooting on both digital and analog formats, including Super 8 and 16mm film. He has served as the cinematographer on at least 10 short films, including two of his own, Lohengrin (2024) and Nocturne (2025). He also shot my previous directorial effort: Giallo Homo (2024). On this film, he is a triple threat! He is acting in it, shooting the majority of it, AND composing the original score. As my life partner and closest collaborator, he is an essential part of this team.
Jane Melynn Chapman | First Assistant Director
Jane Melynn Chapman is a filmmaker based in Orlando, Florida, who has extensive experience as both a director and a 1st AD. She graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film. She has a passion for bringing original stories to the screen and fostering positive environments on set with her strong leadership skills. She recently wrote and directed the short films Bitters (2024) and Goodbye, Mr. Stewart (2025).