Phels High
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
When four friends find themselves barricaded inside a school, survival puts their loyalty to the ultimate test.
Starring
Omari Hardwick · Marc J. Jefferies · Elise Neal
Films
Scroll to explore / 09 Films01 / 09
The Good Wife
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: KEVIN J. NELSON
DIRECTED BY TERRANCE HARDEN
DIRECTED BY TERRANCE HARDEN
A suburban wife is caught between her marriage and an affair, trying to hold her carefully built life together.
Whatever You Do
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
A forensic photographer and a new security guard discover that the entities stalking a hospital morgue are harmless in darkness and lethal the instant light touches them. Survival means resisting every instinct to turn the lights on.
SOME CHILDREN NEVER STOP PLAYINGTHEBACK HOUSE
The Back House
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
A handyman rents a back house haunted by his landlady’s drowned children. As they begin taking over his body, he discovers she’s been sending strangers inside for years, waiting for one of them to walk out calling her Mom.
SILENCE IS THE RULE.DON’TSCREAM
Don’t Scream
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
Silence is the rule. With The Split, a masked killer who attacks only when you scream, He’ll Make sure you do.
CRY BABY
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
A masked killer lures strangers to an abandoned stroller with a crying doll of himself as a baby, offering them one chance to love the child his father threw away and slaughtering anyone who recoils.
FOUR CARDS. ONE INHERITANCE.ONE OFYOU
One of You
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
Four estranged siblings gather at their mother’s home. Her final request turns an inheritance into a deadly game: one of them killed her.
Unwanted Guest
DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
WRITTEN BY BECHIR SYLVAIN
WRITTEN BY BECHIR SYLVAIN
A beaten and bruised white woman jumps into a car full of Black men moments before police pull them over. As officers question what they’ve done to her, the men begin to fear what she’s about to do to them.
WTF Is That?
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KEVIN J. NELSON
A domino game is interrupted by reports of an alien invasion over Los Angeles. As friends try to secure the house, they discover that the threat may already be inside.
Available Screenplays
Original feature screenplays by Kevin J. Nelson.
Featured Projects
Slasher / Horror
Silence is the rule. With The Split, a masked killer who attacks only when you scream, He’ll Make sure you do.
View Pitch
Supernatural Horror
Say “Simon says.” Then obey, no matter who begs you to stop.
Horror / Thriller
They rang her doorbell and ran. One of them woke up in a room full of them, where only she decides who gets to leave.
All Screenplays
Browse the complete slate.
Slasher / Horror
DON’T SCREAM
Completed screenplayAfter leaving a friend for dead, a group of teenagers wakes trapped inside their school with The Split, a masked killer who knows their secret and attacks only when they scream. Survival means staying silent while he finds increasingly brutal ways to force the sound out of them.
View Pitch
Supernatural Horror
SAY IT
Completed screenplayDuring a mansion getaway, a group of friends discovers a cube that issues increasingly horrifying commands, each followed by the same demand: “Say it.” Refusing triggers the house’s deadly traps, but obeying won’t save them unless they say two words first: Simon says. Then do exactly what Simon says, no matter who begs them to stop.
View Pitch
Horror / Thriller
BEYOND THE DOOR
Completed screenplayA game of ding-dong ditch ends with one teenager missing. He wakes in a room full of doorbells, trapped by a woman whose games punish every wrong move with death. His friends follow his trail to her door, unaware she’s been waiting for the rest of them.
View Pitch
Holiday Thriller
SILENT KNIGHT
Completed screenplayOn Christmas Eve, a handyman breaks into his billionaire employer’s mansion to steal the money for his daughter’s heart transplant. When armed invaders storm the house, saving the family he came to rob could cost his own daughter her last chance to live.
View Pitch
Psychological Thriller
DEATH OF ASYLUM
Completed screenplayThree years after her daughter vanishes, a mother’s sessions with a psychologist begin unlocking disturbing fragments of that night. Unable to tell whether she is recovering memories or imagining them, she must uncover what happened to her first child before she is left searching for her second.
View Pitch
Suspense Thriller
OSCAR NOMINATED
Completed screenplayDenied permission to operate on his dying wife, a surgeon is ordered to save the officer who shot her. He takes the wounded cop hostage in his operating room and must guide an EMT through his wife’s emergency surgery inside an ambulance blocked by protesters demanding justice for her, convinced her shooter is inside.
View Pitch
Action Thriller
HOUSE OF CORRECTION
Completed screenplayWhen a corrections officer refuses to execute the inmate blamed for his mother’s murder, the warden orders them both dead. With every exit covered, he must unleash the prison’s most dangerous inmates and fight beside a cop killer against his own unit.
View Pitch
Action Thriller
HE MADE ME DO IT
Completed screenplayA detective is offered custody of her son in exchange for killing a rogue operative avenging her sister’s murder. The officials promising to reunite her family are the very people the operative has come to kill.
View Pitch
Murder Mystery / Thriller
LOCKED IN
Completed screenplayA favor before retirement pulls Detective Delroy into a motel murder involving three couples, a dead sex worker and no surveillance. As he dismantles their alibis, he discovers someone arranged for him to cover the case. Every guest is hiding why they checked in. Someone is hiding why he was called.
View Pitch
Supernatural Horror / Thriller
DON’T WAKE UP
Completed screenplayAfter a sleep study forces her awake, a nurse watches the man from her nightmares murder her doctor. Now the prime suspect, she must return to the burned-out house where the terror began, while every person she turns to for help risks becoming his next victim.
View Pitch
Action Thriller
TWIST OF FATE
Completed screenplayAn undercover Philadelphia detective discovers the drug kingpin he’s hunting is the cop running his investigation, and the brother he lost after their mother’s murder. To expose the empire, he must turn a multimillion-dollar drug deal into a takedown while answering to the one man who can authorize his arrest or arrange his execution.
View Pitch
Erotic / Heist Thriller
INSATIABLE
Completed screenplayAfter an injury leaves gaps in her memory, an art gallery employee falls for a seductive new client just as the man who robbed the gallery walks free. With her colleagues terrified and her lover holding secrets from her forgotten past, their affair becomes the most dangerous move in a heist that isn’t finished.
View Pitch
Thriller / Slasher
THE LOCK IN KILLER
Feature in developmentTwenty years after their parents survived a string of unsolved murders, four friends enter the same skating rink for its first overnight lock-in since the killings. When the bodies start turning up, they discover the killer their parents escaped is back, and this time, there’s more than one killer in the crowd.
View Pitch
Supernatural Horror
THE BACK HOUSE
Feature in developmentA handyman rents a back house haunted by his landlady’s drowned children. As they begin taking over his body, he discovers she’s been sending strangers inside for years, waiting for one of them to walk out calling her Mom.
View Pitch
Horror / Murder Mystery
ONE OF YOU
Feature in developmentFour estranged siblings find their mother with her throat slit and receive a chilling ultimatum: identify her killer in twelve hours or lose their inheritance. Then her body disappears, and someone begins killing the people searching for answers. With every death, the surviving siblings stand to inherit more, and finding the killer means trusting someone who could profit from their murder.
View Pitch
Holiday / Thriller
WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS?
Feature in developmentWhen Christmas’s magic is stolen, a powerless Santa breaks into a con artist’s home with a job: steal it back. With the Grinch closing in, Santa must let a professional liar call the shots and turn to the Naughty List for help before the holiday disappears forever.
View Pitch
Horror / Slasher
CRY BABY
Feature Film in DevelopmentA masked killer lures strangers to an abandoned stroller with a crying doll of himself as a baby, offering them one chance to love the child his father threw away and slaughtering anyone who recoils.
View PitchThriller / Slasher
THE LOCK INKILLER
Feature in developmentTwenty years after their parents survived a string of unsolved murders, four friends enter the same skating rink for its first overnight lock-in since the killings. When the bodies start turning up, they discover the killer their parents escaped is back, and this time, there’s more than one killer in the crowd.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Pitch materials available by request.
Supernatural Horror
THE BACKHOUSE
Feature in developmentA handyman rents a back house haunted by his landlady’s drowned children. As they begin taking over his body, he discovers she’s been sending strangers inside for years, waiting for one of them to walk out calling her Mom.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Pitch materials available by request.
Horror / Thriller
BEYONDTHE DOOR
Completed screenplayA game of ding-dong ditch ends with one teenager missing. He wakes in a room full of doorbells, trapped by a woman whose games punish every wrong move with death. His friends follow his trail to her door, unaware she’s been waiting for the rest of them.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Holiday Thriller
SILENTKNIGHT
Completed screenplayOn Christmas Eve, a handyman breaks into his billionaire employer’s mansion to steal the money for his daughter’s heart transplant. When armed invaders storm the house, saving the family he came to rob could cost his own daughter her last chance to live.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Action Thriller
HE MADEME DO IT
Completed screenplayA detective is offered custody of her son in exchange for killing a rogue operative avenging her sister’s murder. The officials promising to reunite her family are the very people the operative has come to kill.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Supernatural Horror
SAY IT
Completed screenplayDuring a mansion getaway, a group of friends discovers a cube that issues increasingly horrifying commands, each followed by the same demand: “Say it.” Refusing triggers the house’s deadly traps, but obeying won’t save them unless they say two words first: Simon says. Then do exactly what Simon says, no matter who begs them to stop.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Slasher / Horror
DON’TSCREAM
Completed screenplayAfter leaving a friend for dead, a group of teenagers wakes trapped inside their school with The Split, a masked killer who knows their secret and attacks only when they scream. Survival means staying silent while he finds increasingly brutal ways to force the sound out of them.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Murder Mystery / Thriller
LOCKEDIN
Completed screenplayA favor before retirement pulls Detective Delroy into a motel murder involving three couples, a dead sex worker and no surveillance. As he dismantles their alibis, he discovers someone arranged for him to cover the case. Every guest is hiding why they checked in. Someone is hiding why he was called.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Horror / Murder Mystery
ONE OFYOU
Feature in developmentFour estranged siblings find their mother with her throat slit and receive a chilling ultimatum: identify her killer in twelve hours or lose their inheritance. Then her body disappears, and someone begins killing the people searching for answers. With every death, the surviving siblings stand to inherit more, and finding the killer means trusting someone who could profit from their murder.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Pitch materials available by request.
Erotic / Heist Thriller
INSATIABLE
Completed screenplayAfter an injury leaves gaps in her memory, an art gallery employee falls for a seductive new client just as the man who robbed the gallery walks free. With her colleagues terrified and her lover holding secrets from her forgotten past, their affair becomes the most dangerous move in a heist that isn’t finished.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Supernatural Horror / Thriller
DON’T WAKEUP
Completed screenplayAfter a sleep study forces her awake, a nurse watches the man from her nightmares murder her doctor. Now the prime suspect, she must return to the burned-out house where the terror began, while every person she turns to for help risks becoming his next victim.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Action Thriller
TWIST OFFATE
Completed screenplayAn undercover Philadelphia detective discovers the drug kingpin he’s hunting is the cop running his investigation, and the brother he lost after their mother’s murder. To expose the empire, he must turn a multimillion-dollar drug deal into a takedown while answering to the one man who can authorize his arrest or arrange his execution.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Action Thriller
HOUSE OFCORRECTION
Completed screenplayWhen a corrections officer refuses to execute the inmate blamed for his mother’s murder, the warden orders them both dead. With every exit covered, he must unleash the prison’s most dangerous inmates and fight beside a cop killer against his own unit.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Psychological Thriller
DEATH OFASYLUM
Completed screenplayThree years after her daughter vanishes, a mother’s sessions with a psychologist begin unlocking disturbing fragments of that night. Unable to tell whether she is recovering memories or imagining them, she must uncover what happened to her first child before she is left searching for her second.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Suspense Thriller
OSCARNOMINATED
Completed screenplayDenied permission to operate on his dying wife, a surgeon is ordered to save the officer who shot her. He takes the wounded cop hostage in his operating room and must guide an EMT through his wife’s emergency surgery inside an ambulance blocked by protesters demanding justice for her, convinced her shooter is inside.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Screenplay and pitch materials available by request.
Holiday / Thriller
WHO STOLECHRISTMAS?
Feature in developmentWhen Christmas’s magic is stolen, a powerless Santa breaks into a con artist’s home with a job: steal it back. With the Grinch closing in, Santa must let a professional liar call the shots and turn to the Naughty List for help before the holiday disappears forever.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Pitch materials available by request.
Horror / Slasher
CRY BABY
Feature Film in DevelopmentA masked killer lures strangers to an abandoned stroller with a crying doll of himself as a baby, offering them one chance to love the child his father threw away and slaughtering anyone who recoils.
The Story
Enter your details to read the full story.
Written and Directed by Kevin J. Nelson
Development and pitch materials available by request.
The company / 1804 Pictures
Who We Are
1804 Pictures is an independent film production company developing and producing horror, thrillers, and character-driven films.
Our stories explore what people are capable of under pressure. Fear, family, loyalty, and survival shape the choices our characters make and the consequences they face.
Our slate includes feature films and original projects in development. We work with creative and production partners to make films that pull audiences in and give them something to talk about afterward.
Business inquiries
Let’s talk film.
For writing and directing inquiries, or to explore a production collaboration with Kevin J. Nelson and 1804 Pictures, get in touch.
info@1804pictures.comWritingDirectingProduction collaborations
News & Awards
In the news
Selected coverage / 2023–2024
Dermot Mulroney
Brianna HildebrandDermot Mulroney and Brianna Hildebrand join Kevin J. Nelson’s Speed Demon
Coverage of the horror thriller’s casting announcement, naming Kevin J. Nelson as director.
Read articlePhoto credits
Dermot Mulroney: Super Festivals / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Brianna Hildebrand: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Display crops for the split layout.
Featured coverage / DeadlineKevin J. Nelson’s Phels High heads to theaters
Coverage of the film’s theatrical debut.
Read article Phels High / Official posterFrankford filmmaker debuts Philadelphia-centric ‘Phels High’ here at home
Kevin J. Nelson on his Philadelphia roots, the local cast, and bringing Phels High home.
Read article Image via 6abc / Action News
Phels High wins at the 2024 ESSENCE Film Festival
Blavity names Kevin J. Nelson’s film among the festival winners, taking the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.
Read article Image: Phels High / via Blavity
Omari Hardwick, Elise Neal, TJ Atoms to star in Phels High
A look at the ensemble behind Kevin J. Nelson’s feature debut as writer and director.
Read article Image via Blex MediaRecognition
Film & filmmakerESSENCE
ESSENCE Film Festival
Audience Award
Best Narrative Feature
Phels High · Kevin J. Nelson
Read the coverageHAPA
NIFF
ABFF
SKIPTOWN
Skiptown Playhouse International Film Festival
First Time Filmmaker Award for a Director
Kevin J. Nelson · Phels High
View winnersSKIPTOWN