A young woman, a ring, and an empty house at the end of the road. Some doors are better left locked.
Shelby and her fiancé pull off the highway looking for somewhere to spend the night. They find the only thing the woods will give them: a cabin at the end of a dirt road, lights on, door open, no one home.
What follows is a slow descent into a town that has forgotten how to sleep, a ring that won’t come off, and a figure at the door that calls itself the Ashen Man. The film unfolds in patient, in-camera horror — long takes, practical effects, no jump cuts. It is about the sound a house makes when it’s pretending to be empty. It is about the moments before the moment.
Stay Home is the debut feature from Blue Pulse Studios, written and directed in-house, scored by Blue Pulse’s own composer team, and shot over forty-three days in the woods outside Pittsburgh in early 2026. Currently in post for a 2027 release.
Two figures the audience will not forget. One they will follow. One they will not.
An archaeology student a year from her dissertation, three years from a wedding she keeps postponing, and forty-three minutes from a cabin she shouldn’t have stopped at. The film is hers from the first frame.
A figure from a story Shelby’s grandmother used to tell. He arrives the way folk-horror antagonists arrive: at the threshold, not over it. The film never quite shows you his face. You will think you saw it anyway.
A small team. Most of them have other names you might recognize.
Production posts, behind-the-scenes essays, and the scenes we cut.
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