Nate Ruegger

I owe my love of writing & directing to the woods.

At 6 years old, I made my first movies in the tiny orchard behind my childhood home. When I stepped into their sun-dappled shade, I felt like I had entered an enchanted forest where my imagination could run wild. I love the woods to this day… but only as a place to visit.

The feature film of Trust Me will be my tribute to the thousands of witness accounts documenting the ongoing phenomenon of a certain species of shape-shifting creature in the forests of North America. Out of a reverent captivation with these accounts, I made my viral short Trust Me as a folk horror movie featuring a new breed of monster - one that fuels our paranoia and forces us to ask who… or what… can we trust?

Trust Me is a blend of my experience producing documentaries at USC Film School, directing a slow-burn thriller as my thesis film ANOTHER LIFE, and writing my latest folk horror feature which made Nicholl Fellowship Quarterfinalist and The Blood List.

Racking up over 1 MILLION VIEWS across Facebook & YouTube, in just 10 minutes Trust Me gives you a glimpse of a new folk horror villain for our current age of anxiety: a monster who looks and sounds like your closest companion… and asks you to follow them into the dark.

You can view the short Trust Me, and more of my work, at my website linked on the left.