A pregnant woman's eerie dreams draw her to a reclusive indigenous man at the boundary of her suburban sprawl and his ancestral lands. Their encounter unleashes a blood curse that transforms her and her unborn child into instruments of vengeance against the subdivision itself.

Origin Story

As we took the winding curve off the Turnpike, the car emerged into a wasteland of the Kissimmee development. The treeless lots, squished closely-enough together to induce claustrophobia, encroached upon the edge of the Florida Everglades. Mounded clay, stacked in front of construction sites, tinted the wind with an orange haze, while the late summer heat warped the air above the asphalt. No humans in sight. Just endless stucco and meandering sidewalks. We looked at each other: this is a horror movie.

Synopsis

Suburban Horror / Psychological Thriller

  • The complexity of the post-colonial world: reconciling the horrors of the past with the steady drumbeat of time and progress

  • environmental degredation

  • societal dread

Sarah and Mark recently moved into a pristine Florida subdivision and are expecting their first child. When Sarah begins experiencing recurring dreams of a mysterious indigenous man watching her from an ancient swamp, Mark dismisses them as "pregnancy brain." On her morning walk, Sarah is haunted by eerie similarities between her dreams and the neighborhood. Yet she is still compelled toward where the water flows...

In the woods, Elijah is kinder than the neighbors portrayed - but still cryptic. The bizarre interaction puts Sarah on edge, causing her to step backwards into a bush, cutting her leg. Elijah offers Sarah a talisman - a gator tooth - for her and her child’s protection. As Sarah leaves, Elijah bends down to snap off the bloody branch: a trap to capture Sarah’s blood.

As Sarah returns home to clean and calm herself, Elijah - in a desperate attempt to save his land - enacts a perverted ritual using Sarah’s blood. He summons a deep, tainted force to wreak havoc upon the suburb: a corrupted alligator warrior spirit (based on real Floridian indigenous legend), Halpate.

At a neighborhood party, Sarah and Mark learn that there really is an indigenous man, Elijah, living on the last patch of unconsumed land at the suburb’s edge. Unable to stomach the derision of her neighbors, and propelled forward by an unnamed deep need, Sarah takes Elijah a homemade pie. At the development’s edge, Elijah appears, welcoming Sarah into his territory. She steps onto the grass. The boundary is crossed.

Note from the Director

Halpate was born from a deeply personal place. I grew up between Puerto Rico and Florida, running barefoot through the woods, jungles, creeks, and swamplands— spaces that felt alive, mysterious, and sacred in their own way. Those wild places shaped my imagination and gave me a reverence for the natural world that’s never left me.

After 12 years away, I came back to a Florida that was vastly changed. The wild spaces are disappearing and actively being swallowed by the endless suburban development. I can only look on in horror as the construction of cookie-cutter homes and commercial real estate replaced the beauty and wildness that once defined this place.

Being Puerto Rican of Taíno descent, I’ve always felt connected to the Indigenous histories of Florida and the Caribbean in ways I'm still figuring out. This story started because I couldn't stop thinking about what was happening to the Florida I grew up in. But it also became about something I'd been circling for a while: about Indigenous people and their history, what memories the land actually holds onto, and what we're really losing when we pave it all over.

– Harry, Writer + Director of Halpate.

Key Creatives

  • Harry Perales Jr

    WRITER/DIRECTOR

  • Kate Szekely

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/SARAH

  • Derin Thorpe

    CO-DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

The Vision

  • In October 2025, Epiphany Junkie is filming the 12 minute proof-of-concept for the feature. Throughout 2026, we will tour the film to major horror and genre festivals with the intention of building audience and network, while proving market viability to potential producing partners and investors. The goal is to film a $750K feature (currently in development) in Central Florida within the next three years.

  • Horror can be an incredibly creative and lucrative genre. Our two main comps, The VVitch and Get Out, had budgets in the $4-4.5 million range, but grossed over $40 million and $255 million, respectively.

    Epiphany Junkie’s ethos is rooted in the theater kid mentality: we can create phenomenal worlds with imagination, ingenuity and sheer scrappiness. Being rooted in the Southeast, we have access to exceptionally talented crew, fantastic locations and close-knit filming communities that can deliver more for less.

  • Stemming from our experience in immersive theater, Epiphany Junkie takes an innovative and multi-faceted approach to getting the work out there.

    Halpate’s marketing campaign kicks off in the world of vertical shorts. Inspired by the likes of District 9 and The Blair Witch Project, the first round of marketing will be platform-specifc content that live within the world of Halpate, but don’t reveal key plot details or even scenes from the short or feature. Even while our film is on the festival circuit, we are building audience and intrigue with the at-home horror lover — right in the palm of their hand.

    By opening access to the film’s world, we develop a relationship with audiences that make them want to invest in the IP. Epiphany Junkie will be hosting invited, in-person watch parties at local independent cinemas. By investing in the cultural and artistic landscape of our local communities, we galvanize a market that makes demand for a feature — and cinematic universe — inevitable.

Join Us

To date, we have raised $16,250 of the overall $25K project budget. We plan on running a secondary online crowdfunding campaign for post-production funds in November 2025.

If you would like to contribute, please reach out, stay tuned for our Seed & Spark campaign, and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.