Vesperia Films
Feature Film Financing Pitch Deck · 2026
After a YouTuber goes missing filming in an abandoned mall, his reclusive brother and his impulsive best friend go looking for him…
…only to discover that the mall doesn't operate by the rules of time, and something inside has been waiting for them.
A once bustling and vibrant mall…
Until the tragic West Falls Massacre of 1995, when an unidentified assailant brutally murdered 15 mall-goers.
In the years that followed, the shopping center's patronage and reputation nosedived, leading to its closure in 2002.
Urban legends describe the killer, known as The Lurker, as alive and loose in the mall.
Teens routinely break into West Falls as a rite of passage. Many of those kids have gone missing.
Meet Me At The Grand Staircase was conceived as a response to the modern-day "Male Loneliness Epidemic."
The film examines the downstream horrors of Internet-fueled social isolation and toxic masculinity, through the aesthetic and thematic lens of liminal spaces.
The West Falls Megaplex is a metaphorical representation of the modern Internet. The mall's impact on the three male protagonists mirrors the ways in which young men are psychologically twisted by online media and consumer culture.
We intend for this film to serve as an indictment of these repressive values and a critique of how they can create monsters of our men.
Casting & tonal references.
A quiet introvert with a deep resentment for the world around him. Considered an outcast by his peers, he's keenly aware of the cruelty and confusion of the world. He's lost the groundedness he once found in his relationship with his brother, and despite his silence, is one wrong move away from snapping.
ref · The End of the F***ing World (2017)
The antithesis to Tony. After becoming friends with and starting his YouTube channel with Josh, his jealousy grows as he views Josh as the more popular of the two. Solely driven by ego and the desire for attention, he is in complete denial that his friend may be in actual danger. He may not even care whether Josh is dead or alive.
ref · The Dirties (2013)
An early YouTuber who makes energetic and impulsive videos, each one crazier than the last. Most of Josh's backstory is pieced together across the film through clips from his personal vlogs. Despite his charisma and boy-next-door charm, it's clear he's masking his sadness and repressing a deep trauma.
ref · Chronicle (2012)
Tony's classmate and arguably the most popular girl in school. Having mysteriously gone missing at the start of the film, she is a recurring topic of conversation among the boys. When they finally encounter Carrie, she has gone from bubbly to broken — becoming as vacant as the mall itself.
ref · Lady Bird (2017)
How can isolation lead to violence?
Meet Me At The Grand Staircase explores masculinity, loneliness, and surveillance.
Through the literal lenses of Josh, Ian, and Tony, we witness how self-documentation can warp our relationships and sense of self.
The Internet takes the symbolic form of an abandoned mall, enclosing the young men in a physical embodiment of social isolation.
Eerie and suffocating.
Found footage + analog horror = suspense and dread.
"Analog horror" has skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade. With its lo-fi aesthetics, off-putting tone, and mysterious atmosphere, it has become the zeitgeist's favorite horror subgenre. Audiences are drawn to high-concept, low-budget storytelling; Meet Me at the Grand Staircase seeks to capitalize on this fascination.
A transitional place between what was and what's next.
The physical embodiment of the uncanny valley. Emptiness that feels wrong.
Liminal spaces are frequently associated with analog horror, but exist in the internet lexicon well beyond horror fans.
Many people connect on a deep psychological level with the unique feelings of nostalgia and eerie surrealism captured by liminal-space imagery. Dead shopping malls are a popular example, with their familiar yet vacant atmospheres.
As a guinea pig for growing up in the digital age, I have seen the ways in which the internet has helped and hurt our young people. I've previously found comfort in reclusive internet forums and made friends with people I had never met in real life. I've had a front-row seat to the isolating nature of the Internet and felt both comforted and alienated all at the same time.
It's important to me to use these experiences to reflect the emotional truth behind this isolation. Particularly in men, the loneliness and repression that is encouraged online is, quite frankly, terrifying. I could've been susceptible to such a culture, and therefore believe it's my responsibility to translate how that experience feels.
Throughout my career, I have made films that are thoughtful and empathetic, diving into nuanced depictions of masculinity. Meet Me at the Grand Staircase dissects themes I've been exploring my entire life, in a time where our society is desperate to reach our young men. I believe the remedy is increased reflection and empathy.
Vesperia Films is a Vancouver- and Los Angeles-based production company founded by award-winning filmmakers Dakota Daulby and Harrison Houde, specializing in elevated genre storytelling with commercial appeal. Harrison has also produced for MrBeast, the #1 YouTube channel in the world.
Their debut feature Tight Lettuce (a $2.4M bilingual drama) premiered at Fantasia 2026, where it won the Gold Audience Choice Award and Best Quebec Film to wide critical acclaim — establishing Vesperia as a company that delivers high-concept projects on ambitious scales. Their horror slate includes Adjoining, a supernatural thriller featuring Brenna D'Amico (Descendants), and an upcoming body-horror short, Term, starring Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) — showcasing the company's ability to attract recognizable talent to bold, uncompromising material. They recently optioned and are in development on the feature length of their horror-fantasy proof of concept Vance with BAFTA winner Michael Hirst's new company in London.
From scrappy beginnings to building a curated team of collaborators and securing real production budgets, Vesperia has proven they can turn wild ideas into finished films — and they're just getting started.
A cinematographer working in Los Angeles. His projects have played in film festivals in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and DC, and he has worked on-set with Apple TV, Uniqlo, Capitol Records, TEDx, and others. Currently, he is the Film Creator at Prenuvo, a health-technology company dedicated to early cancer detection and prevention.
Apple TV · UNIQLO · Capitol · TEDx
A filmmaker best known for the Dead Mall Series, a documentary webseries cataloging the 2010s urban-decay phenomenon of foreclosed shopping malls. With over 617,000 subscribers and tens of millions of views, Bell's documentaries have earned a cult following for their nostalgic tone, social critique, and immersive exploration of forgotten American landscapes.
As a producer and consultant, Dan contributes his extensive knowledge of nationwide mall locations and years of experience with liminal-space subcultures.
Low-budget horror is the highest-ROI bet in cinema.
$60K budget → $248M gross
$15K budget → $193M gross
$2M budget → $33M gross
$15K budget → $2M gross
Projected timeline; Fantasia deadline is fixed.
The world of Meet Me at the Grand Staircase has extensive franchise potential, and a rich lore ready for further exploration.
Chronicles the initial construction of the mall in the small town of Berrysville, NJ. Construction workers are picked off one by one, as the land itself seems to reject the mall's presence. New themes of gentrification and class are explored.
The plot follows the local police station. As kids in the town continue to go missing, the police force is continuously baffled by mysterious events surrounding the mall. In a combination of Se7en and It, more of Berrysville's secrets are uncovered — including Lovecraftian creatures, a cryptic cult, and a time-travel loop.
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If this project resonates, we would love to continue the conversation.
grand-staircase.com
