I’m an LGBTQ screenwriter and filmmaker from Los Angeles and a Graphics Reporter for National Geographic Magazine. I’m currently developing a half-hour horror/comedy with Hazy Mills and have directed several shorts that have won awards on the festival circuit. My latest film, 29 Palms (with Chikako Fukuyama of Terrace House and Juror #2), premiered in Japan and played at the Academy Qualifying St. Louis International Film Festival in 2024.

I love horror not just for the scares, but for what it reveals. Horror has this unmatched ability to expose what we’re really afraid of – failure, mortality, shame. With Santa Fe, I wanted to funnel all of that through a lens we rarely see in the genre: a modern queer love story.

I’ve never seen a gay open relationship explored like this in horror, and I believe stories like this matter now more than ever. But more than that, Santa Fe is a grass-is-greener cautionary tale, rooted in the quiet fears of loss and longing. And while there’s definitely murder, blood, and some sci-fi parasitism, it’s a deeply personal story about the terror of turning into our parents. Who can’t relate to that?

Tonally, Santa Fe is folk horror meets queer drama. Visually, it’s a Georgia O’Keeffe fever dream – warm, desolate, and a little too quiet. The horror here leans on emotional tension blended with sci-fi components – especially the fungal element – which are rooted in real research I did with National Geographic.

Santa Fe is for anyone who’s ever looked at their life and asked, “Could I be happier? Did I miss the boat? Am I doomed to become my parents?” And if the answer to all three is “yes,” at least the sunsets here are nice.

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