Discover Portrait of God Short Film (2022), Dylan Clark’s viral horror shorts: story, cast, trailer, visual style, themes, reviews, festival journey, and where to watch.
Portrait of God is a 2022 horror short written and directed by Dylan Clark. The film follows Mia Reilly, a religious young woman preparing a presentation about a mysterious artwork called Portrait of God. The painting looks completely black to many viewers, while others insist they can see a figure hidden inside it. When Mia begins to perceive something herself, her academic presentation turns into a disturbing confrontation with her beliefs.
What makes the film particularly interesting today is what happened after its release. The roughly seven-minute short became a major online horror success, passing one million YouTube views within six months and later surpassing 10 million views. Its concept has now expanded into a feature film project: Lionsgate has acquired the feature adaptation, Chase Infiniti is attached to star, Dylan Clark is directing, and Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele are producing.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Title | Portrait of God |
| Year | 2022 |
| Runtime | About 7 minutes |
| Genre | Horror, religious horror, supernatural/cosmic horror |
| Director | Dylan Clark |
| Writer | Dylan Clark |
| Lead | Sydney Brumfield as Mia Reilly |
| Music | Ryan Shreves |
| Production | Independent short film |
| Original release | August 28, 2022 |
| Original platform | Dylan Clark’s YouTube channel |
| Vimeo | Available through Dylan Clark’s Vimeo page |
| Current YouTube reach | More than 10 million views |
| IMDb rating | 7.4/10 from roughly 3,100 ratings at the time of research |
| Feature adaptation | In development/greenlit at Lionsgate |
| Feature star | Chase Infiniti |
| Feature producers | Sam Raimi, Jordan Peele and others |
| Feature director | Dylan Clark |
| Feature release date | Not announced |
The original short was released in the United States on August 28, 2022. IMDb lists a seven-minute runtime and credits Clark as both director and writer, with Sydney Brumfield, Dylan Clark and Ali Dusinberre among the principal credited performers.
There is not yet a full official trailer for the feature-length Portrait of God. Current reporting says production and release details remain limited, although a short promotional teaser has been reported.
Until a full trailer arrives, the original seven-minute short is the essential preview. It reveals the film’s basic premise while deliberately preserving the mystery surrounding the painting.
Watch the original Portrait of God short film:
You can also watch the film through Dylan Clark’s Vimeo page.
The best way to experience Portrait of God is to watch it before reading a detailed explanation. The short is built around uncertainty, and knowing exactly what happens can reduce the impact of its final moments.
The official YouTube upload describes the premise simply: a religious girl prepares a presentation about a painting titled Portrait of God, and what she sees begins to challenge her beliefs. The upload was published on August 28, 2022.
Film Shortage also featured the film, helping introduce Clark’s work to another online short-film audience.
The story centers on Mia Reilly, a young religious woman working on a presentation about an unusual painting.
The artwork appears to be nothing more than an empty black image. Mia explains that most people cannot see anything in it. Yet witnesses describe seeing a human-like figure within the darkness, often reporting remarkably similar details.
For Mia, the painting becomes more than an unusual subject for a presentation. Her personal faith makes the mystery increasingly important. She wants to understand what others claim to see, and that curiosity gradually becomes frightening.
As she continues looking at the image, the distinction between faith, perception and reality begins to collapse.
The short’s horror does not depend on constant jump scares. Instead, it asks an unsettling question: What if the thing people believe they can see in the darkness is actually there?
That simple premise gives Portrait of God its lasting psychological effect.
Dylan Clark is the creative force behind Portrait of God. He wrote and directed the original short and also handled several filmmaking responsibilities, including editing and visual effects. IMDbPro additionally credits him with the film’s cinematography.
Clark developed his filmmaking career through horror shorts made during and after his studies at Ithaca College. In an interview, he explained that his early projects were small productions that helped him experiment, improve and gradually build an audience online.
Sydney Brumfield plays Mia, the central character whose faith becomes the emotional core of the story.
Because the film concentrates so heavily on one character, her performance is crucial. Reviews have particularly praised the restrained way Brumfield communicates Mia’s curiosity, uncertainty and fear.
Ryan Shreves created the original score. His work is important to the film’s atmosphere because Portrait of God relies heavily on tension, silence, darkness and slowly escalating unease rather than conventional horror spectacle. IMDbPro credits Shreves as composer, while his own website lists Portrait of God among his film-score credits.
The production also included contributors such as Surina Belk-Gupta and Andrew Caffrey in camera/assistant-directing and production roles. IMDb and Flickchart list a broader crew covering camera, sound, makeup, visual effects and editorial work.
The story of Portrait of God is unusual because much of its recognition came through the internet horror community, rather than an extensively documented traditional festival campaign.
The film attracted significant attention after its YouTube release. An Ithaca College newspaper report stated that it reached one million YouTube views within six months and described the production as a seven-minute short made by a small student team over five days.
The film has also appeared in horror-focused festival programming. For example, the Faith and Fear Horror Festival lists A Portrait of God, directed by Dylan Clark, as a 2022 seven-minute horror film.
Its broader recognition has included coverage from horror publications and strong audience interest. IMDb currently lists the short at 7.4/10 from roughly 3,100 ratings, while individual horror reviews have been considerably more enthusiastic.
The greatest recognition, however, may be the feature adaptation itself: a small independent horror short has progressed into a Lionsgate feature project involving two major modern horror producers.
One reason Portrait of God resonates with aspiring filmmakers is its relatively modest origin.
Dylan Clark studied filmmaking at Ithaca College and was already experimenting with horror shorts before making the film. His earlier projects helped him learn how to create effective horror with limited resources. In his account of his career, he described these small productions as an important part of his growth as a filmmaker.
An Ithaca College report described Portrait of God as a seven-minute production made with a small team in a dark studio over five days. At the time of publication, the film had already crossed one million YouTube views.
The film demonstrates an important lesson in independent horror: a strong concept can be more valuable than a huge production budget.
Rather than building a complicated world, Clark begins with one question:
What would God look like?
Then he turns that question into a visual mystery.
The visual identity of Portrait of God is built around darkness.
The film frequently limits what the audience can see. Instead of showing a conventional monster clearly, Clark uses shadow and restricted visibility to force viewers to imagine what may be present.
That approach is particularly effective because the central object is itself a dark painting. The visual language of the film therefore reinforces its story: the audience is repeatedly encouraged to stare into darkness and search for meaning.
Reviews have highlighted the film’s framing, darkness and restrained presentation as major strengths. One review compared its atmosphere favorably with films such as The Witch and Saint Maud, while another emphasized that the horror comes from suspense and what remains hidden rather than gore or repeated jump scares.
The result is a visual style that feels closer to psychological and cosmic horror than conventional monster horror.
Mia is not simply investigating a strange painting. She is trying to reconcile what she believes with what she can actually perceive.
The central tension becomes: Should belief come from faith, experience or evidence?
Many horror stories are about being unable to see the monster.
Portrait of God adds another possibility: what if seeing the monster is itself the danger?
The title creates a theological question that the story deliberately refuses to answer comfortably. The film asks what happens when humans attempt to reduce something divine, infinite or unknowable to a physical image.
The painting becomes an almost supernatural test of perception. Some people see nothing. Others see the same mysterious figure. Mia eventually has her own unsettling experience.
That makes the viewer question whether the threat is supernatural, psychological—or something much larger.
The film’s strongest idea may be that humanity does not necessarily have the ability to understand everything it encounters.
That is one reason the story fits comfortably within cosmic horror: the frightening part is not simply that a creature exists, but that its existence may be beyond human comprehension.
Portrait of God has received strong reactions from horror-focused reviewers.
Grave Noise rated it 10/10, describing it as an effective and disturbing horror short whose central mystery remains with the viewer after the film ends.
The Movie Buff also praised Clark’s concept and filmmaking, particularly the single-character structure, Sydney Brumfield’s performance and the way darkness disguises the visual effects.
The Houston Press included the film in a collection of horror shorts and praised its atmosphere, religious horror elements and disturbing creature imagery.
Audience reception has also been strong, with IMDb listing the movie at 7.4/10 from more than 3,000 ratings at the time of research.
The critical consensus is especially interesting because reviewers tend to focus on the same strengths: concept, atmosphere, restraint, darkness and the ending.
The original Portrait of God short is available online.
The primary viewing destination is Dylan Clark’s YouTube channel, where the original upload has accumulated more than 10 million views.
Watch Portrait of God on YouTube
The short is also available through Dylan Clark’s Vimeo page.
Watch Portrait of God on Vimeo
Availability of future clips, trailers and distribution platforms may change as the feature adaptation moves forward.
The original short has now become the basis for a much larger horror project.
As of October 4, 2026, Lionsgate has acquired and greenlit the feature adaptation after the project was previously set up at Universal. Chase Infiniti is attached to star, while Dylan Clark will direct. Clark and Joe Russo are credited as co-writers.
The producing team includes:
The feature marks the first producing collaboration between Raimi and Peele, two filmmakers strongly associated with modern horror.
The most important information remains unknown: there is no announced release date and the complete feature storyline has not been disclosed. Current reporting also says there is no full trailer yet.
That secrecy could actually fit the property well. The original short’s power comes from withholding information, so revealing too much about the feature too early could work against its central mystery.
Dylan Clark’s career illustrates how internet filmmaking can open doors to the traditional film industry.
He began building experience through small horror projects and YouTube videos before Portrait of God became a breakout success. His own account of his early career emphasizes experimentation, repeated short-film production and learning through limited resources.
The success of Portrait of God helped push that career forward. What began as a short film eventually attracted major industry attention and became a feature project.
Clark is now involved in another major Lionsgate project as director of a new Blair Witch Project film, currently scheduled for September 24, 2027.
That makes Portrait of God more than a successful short. It is a major turning point in Clark’s career—from student filmmaker and YouTube creator to studio horror filmmaker.
The film’s greatest strength is its simplicity.
There is one central question, one main character, one disturbing object and a tightly controlled runtime.
Instead of explaining everything, Clark lets the audience fill in the gaps. That is particularly effective in horror because imagination can create something more frightening than a fully explained monster.
The painting also functions as both story device and visual metaphor. It represents the human desire to give form to something that may be impossible to understand.
That combination of theology, mystery and visual horror is what separates Portrait of God from an ordinary supernatural short.
Many short horror films attempt to deliver a shock within the first few seconds.
Portrait of God takes another approach.
It establishes an intellectual question first. The viewer becomes interested in the painting before necessarily becoming afraid of it. Once the horror arrives, the viewer has already accepted the mystery as something worth investigating.
The film therefore turns curiosity into a source of danger.
That is an especially effective storytelling strategy for a film this short.
Portrait of God is a standout example of how an original horror concept can travel from a tiny independent production to a major Hollywood adaptation.
Dylan Clark’s 2022 short succeeds because it does not attempt to explain everything. Instead, it combines religious imagery, psychological tension, darkness and an unsettling central mystery into approximately seven minutes of horror.
Its journey is now even more remarkable. After becoming a viral YouTube short, the story has developed into a Lionsgate feature with Chase Infiniti starring and Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele producing.
For horror fans who have not seen the original, the best starting point is still the short itself. Watch it without spoilers, look carefully at the painting, and decide for yourself what you think is hiding in the darkness.
Portrait of God is a 2022 horror short about a religious young woman preparing a presentation about a mysterious painting. Some people see only blackness in the artwork, while others claim to see a frightening figure.
Dylan Clark wrote and directed the original short film.
Sydney Brumfield plays Mia Reilly, the short film’s main character.
The original short is available on Dylan Clark’s YouTube channel and Vimeo.
Yes. The short is being expanded into a feature film at Lionsgate, with Dylan Clark directing and Chase Infiniti attached to star.
Yes. Jordan Peele and Sam Raimi are producers on the feature adaptation, marking their first producing collaboration.
There is currently no full official trailer for the feature. The original 2022 short is available online and serves as the best introduction to the premise.
No release date has been announced as of 2026.
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