VFX · Feature Film · 2024
The Challenge
Delivering 189 shots of supernatural horror VFX across three months — while simultaneously integrating Wonder Dynamics AI generation and Janga FX real-time tools into our pipeline for the first time on a feature film — demanded both technical courage and operational precision.
Making it even more challenging was the reality of a severely limited production budget. Finding a way to deliver feature-quality VFX under those constraints required creative problem-solving not just on screen, but in how we structured and financed the work itself.
The Solution
We deployed Wonder Dynamics for AI-assisted VFX generation, Janga FX for real-time supernatural effects, and combined both with traditional Nuke compositing and Houdini simulation. The result is a film that pushes the exorcism genre into genuinely new visual territory — and a pipeline blueprint for how AI tools can be responsibly integrated into indie feature production.
To make the budget work, we partnered with Jalisco’s film incentive programme — a critical financial alignment that made our contribution to the film possible. We are deeply grateful to Jorge and the entire Jalisco team for their support, belief in the project, and the doors their programme opened for independent productions like ours.
Our Write-up
Shadow of God is a feature horror film that became one of our most technically and creatively adventurous projects to date. Directed by Michael Peterson — our friend and long-time collaborator at Peterson Polaris — it stars Mark O’Brien as Father Mason Harper, an elite Vatican exorcist who suspects the entity he’s battling during an unauthorized exorcism might not be demonic at all — but perhaps God himself. Jacqueline Byers and Shaun Johnston round out the impressive cast. Produced with The Coven, the sales firm behind the Terrifier franchise, this was a high-profile project with serious ambition. For us, it was also a technological leap: we integrated Wonder Dynamics AI tools and real-time FX using Janga FX, exploring what the future of indie horror VFX can look like.
189 shots over three months — a genuine case study in where we’re headed. The financial reality of Shadow of God was a challenge in its own right — a feature-scale VFX scope on a genuinely limited budget. The solution came through our partnership with Jalisco’s film incentive programme, which provided the financial framework that made our involvement possible. Without that alignment, this chapter of the film simply wouldn’t have been achievable. We are sincerely thankful to Jorge and the Jalisco team for backing independent productions with the ambition and vision that Shadow of God represents.
