Click to watch trailer
EXCARNATE
Short Film – 18 minutes
THE STORY
What if the one thing that finally gave you purpose was the thing that caused you the greatest loss?
Jase has spent his life failing at everything that mattered: careers, passions, relationships. Then he discovers a vintage camera that gives him something he has been searching for: purpose.
But when the people closest to him begin dying under disturbing and unexplained circumstances, Jase must confront a horrifying possibility. The thing that finally gave his life meaning may be the very thing destroying it.
THE CURSED CAMERA LORE
The story behind the curse and the origins of the film.
Photography first emerged in the early 1800s, but by the 1840s and 1850s, it was rapidly spreading into everyday life. For the first time, people could preserve a person’s likeness with remarkable detail, creating an image that could outlive the person who sat before the camera.
But for some cultures, communities, and belief systems, the idea of capturing a person’s image carried a deeper significance. A photograph was not necessarily viewed as a simple picture. The idea of capturing someone’s likeness, preserving it, and separating that image from the person themselves could be unsettling, even spiritually significant.
The fascination and unease surrounding the camera have been with us since photography’s earliest days. What appears to us as an ordinary act of pointing a camera, exposing an image, and preserving a moment was once something unfamiliar, mysterious, and, for some, deeply concerning.
Today, we take photographs for school pictures, family gatherings, vacations, weddings, and the moments we want to remember forever. A flash goes off, the picture is taken, and we move on.
But is it really that simple?
Is there something more to capturing a person’s image? Is it good? Is it evil? Or is it simply superstition?
MEET THE FILMMAKER
Tom Wheeler
Writer • Director
Tom Wheeler is an independent filmmaker based in Illinois, focused primarily on writing and directing. He is the founder of Wheeler Film Productions, where he develops and produces narrative films and documentaries, ranging from short films to feature-length projects.
THE FILMMAKER’S INTERVIEW
Go deeper behind the film as Tom Wheeler discusses what inspired EXCARNATE, the story behind the cursed camera, the challenges of bringing the film to life, and what he learned along the way in this Q&A interview.
FILM STILLS
BEHIND-THE-SCENES
