A man does everything in his power to not fall asleep in an attempt to escape certain death.

The internet is all about the short snappy horror films with the extremely-light narrative and the jumpy endings. Which are great. But when a little dialogue and backstory is added into them, we jump into a different level of terror. This is exactly where Ryan Godoy’s ‘Every Night I See Them’ lands. While it’s still considerably short and snappy, the story relies heavily on the dialogue to drive the tone and mood of the unusual circumstances. We had the opportunity to chat with director Ryan Godoy who told us a little more on his film.

Can you tell us what inspired you to bring this story to life?

This film was a collaboration between me and writer, Cade Scott. I wanted to make a short film that was almost entirely dialogue-driven because so few of my past films included any dialogue. I Wanted it to be horror-themed because horror is my genre of choice. And I wanted it to take place in a kitchen because it was a cool location I had access to for free. I essentially gave Cade the prompt of: dialogue-driven, two people in a kitchen, horror. Cade put together a draft, I had some notes, he had some changes. I hopped in to write along with Cade, and after many drafts, feedback, and delays, we landed on the draft that we eventually shot. After that, director of photography, Paul Houston, partnered with me to help make the film look as amazing as it does.

What’s your favorite scene of the film?

My favorite scene really boils down to the final shot of the film. It is one of those shots that was living in my head for months leading up to filming. I wasn’t sure we’d be able to pull it off or I was worried that it wouldn’t end up being as good as it was in my head. On set, we probably did 10 to 15 takes plus a few different setups of that final shot before everything clicked. The second I saw it on the monitor I knew that that shot was making it into the final cut. It was a lot of fun to shoot and see come together.

The sound design really brings the terrors to another level, can you tell us about the process?

I worked with a sound studio called MelodyGun. I met with their lead sound designer, Thomas Ouziel, and went over the entire film beat by beat. He really took the time to get to know the film and my intentions before jumping into the sound design. He asked questions that really got down into the motivation of every moment in ways that stretched me as a filmmaker and made me a better storyteller. The end result was awesome. Thomas really brought some unique ideas to the table that I never would have considered on my own. They are an amazing studio that I really enjoy working with and plan to work with again in the future.

People will ask for it, do you see a feature-length future for ‘Every Night I See Them’?

Yes. What started out as an exercise to practice directing dialogue turned into a really cool concept. I believe there is a lot of room to explore an expanded version of this story.