‘Alone Time’: ‘Dolly’ Director Expands Horror Short Into Feature Film

With Backrooms and Obsession proving there’s real momentum behind YouTube-born horror, filmmakers and studios are increasingly mining viral shorts for the next big genre hit. The latest to make the leap is Rod Blackhurst’s Alone Time.

Originally released in 2014, the 12-minute short has quietly built a following online, now sitting at nearly 2 million views. According to Deadline, it’s officially being developed into a feature film.

Witchcraft Motion Picture Company and Fever Dream are teaming up to expand the short into a full-length adaptation, with Blackhurst (Dolly) set to return as director.

The original Alone Time follows Ann Saunders, a young New York professional struggling with emotional trauma and personal loss. Seeking escape, she joins a friend on a remote camping trip in the Adirondack wilderness—only for the situation to spiral when her friend disappears and Ann becomes convinced she is being stalked in the woods.

As reality fractures, the story shifts from survival horror into something more psychologically unstable, blurring memory, perception, and the possibility that the real threat may be internal rather than external.

Blackhurst said the project has stayed with him for years, noting that the short “found its audience organically online long before that was considered a legitimate path for filmmakers.” He added that expanding it into a feature allows the story to explore its psychological themes on a much larger scale.

Blackhurst will also direct the feature adaptation.

More on Alone Time as the project develops.