Skagit is an experimental Northwest horror film.

Four friends leave Seattle for a getaway weekend in the Skagit Valley, but as the hours pass, the soaked, primeval landscape bears down upon them and seeps into their minds. The weekend spins violently off its axis as the valley shows each of the visitors’ appetites and fears they didn't know they possessed - separating each of them into their own dangerous alternate realities. Watch the trailer here.

Check out this new interview with the director in The Stranger about the making of the film and this review in the Cascadia Daily News.

Skagit had its US premiere at The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival this June, where it took home the award for Outstanding Feature Director. The world premiere was on opening night of Hastings Rocks Film Festival in Hastings, an eerie seaside town in the UK, where Skagit won Best Feature Film and Best Editing. Skagit also won Best Feature at Bleedingham Film Festival and was an official selection at We Make Movies IFF in LA, Atlanta Horror, London Rocks, Poulsbo Film Festival, Local Sightings, First Hermetic, and Gorst Underground.

The film was shot at over 20 locations in Northwest Washington over three rainy, muddy weeks in November. We finished it in April 2021 and are currently submitting to festivals. You can read more about the backstory of the film and who made it on our press page, read an interview with the director in Crosscut about Skagit and what it’s like to make art during the pandemic, and listen to this podcast interview on Rotating Reels.

You can support us with a tax-deductible contribution through our fiscal sponsor Northwest Film Forum.

Writer and Director Nick Thompson is a filmmaker and photographer born and raised in Seattle and a graduate of the Evergreen State College. His recent film projects include a music video for local band Salt Lick and the web series Douglas Fern’s Fact File, a docu-satire chronicling Seattle’s history and rapidly changing cultural landscape, as well as several experimental short films. Nick’s films have been presented at Local Sightings Film Festival, Northwest Film Forum, and the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, and he recently published Curveball Karaoke, his fourth photo book, featuring portraits of people who sing karaoke at Lottie’s in Seattle. He’s also a teaching artists in local high schools through South End Stories. He’s currently writing is second feature film. More information about his photography and other film projects is available online at nicktfilms.me.

Producer Leah Trangen, also from Seattle, is an experienced producer and editor with a background in anthropology and documentary film. Her recent projects include Vitch, an evocative exploration of the life and legacy of a Jewish caricaturist and mime artist who survived the war performing in Nazi Germany, and Personhood, a provocative film about the "fetal rights movement" and the criminalization of pregnancy in America. She now lives in Los Angeles.

Executive Producer Rachel Price’s most recent film is Stuffed (dir. Erin Derham, premiered at 2019 SXSW). She is also the producer of the documentary Julian Price: Envisioning Community, Investing in People (2016) as well as an archivist and film producer. She is the founder and executive director of Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound (MIPoPS) which digitizes and makes accessible moving image materials. MIPoPS has recently been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities, National Historical Publications & Records Commission, and 4Culture grants. She is the producer of the animated shorts Birdathlon (2010) and Legend of the Great Auk (2016), both directed by Karen Lewis.

Associate Producer Hailey Williams is a Washington native. She is a graduate from the University of Washington, with degrees in Cinema and Media Studies, Literature, and History. She started her filmmaking career by becoming Production Assistants on 48 hour film sets, and slowly transitioning to an Assistant Director by her senior year of college. Hailey has been an Assistant Director for short films such as 'Coffee, Wine & Orange Juice,' collaborated on professional and educational development projects such as 'Stigma' and a PSA about Dyslexia. Furthermore, she has also helped with production management on short films such as 'Acid Test,' and was the Assistant Director and Associate Producer for Skagit. Hailey now works for an educational philanthropic research organization as part of the Film Team.

Associate Producer Tracey Breese is a producer dedicated to telling diverse stories of social relevance. She’s produced several narrative fiction short films as well as marketing videos for nonprofits. Most recently she produced and directed her own film, "Winter Beach" (with a mostly female crew) about womanhood and aging, which screened at New York's Nasty Women Unite Festival. She is a graduate of the New School's Media Studies program, focusing on production.