One Phone, Two People, One Take: How "Tlacatli (Mirror)" Won BloodBat's Most Creative Award

"Tlacatli (Mirror)" was never going to be an ordinary BloodBat entry. A solo-shot horror short built from an unlikely mix of Aztec mythology and Twilight Zone-style unease, it earned writer-director Matthew Torres the 2025 BloodBat Most Creative Award at the Screaming Room Film Festival in Long Beach, California.

Torres made the film with his wife, Bella Torres, and effectively no one else. He wrote, directed, and edited; she produced and recorded. Together they turned a two-person crew and a single phone into a winner that landed with the judges: the studio team at Buffalo 8, Max Tzannes (director of Et Tu), and the HorrorBuzz and MidSummer Scream crews all singled it out.

The concept arrived almost instantly. "It was inspired by a mix of Aztec mythology, Twilight Zone, and wanting to film the whole thing solo," Torres says. "When the rules of the contest were given, I knew the direction I could take it." Speed, it turned out, was his native mode: he landed the story in under ten minutes and had it outlined, storyboarded, and scripted an hour later. Filming took roughly another hour. The rest of the weekend belonged to the edit. "The real struggle came in editing and sound design," he says. "That took six hours."

Getting there meant killing a few darlings, starting with the jokes. The film began life much sillier. "At first it was going to be more funny and silly," Torres recalls. "We even filmed a Scooby-Doo-style 'running through doors' scene, but eventually tried for a more serious one with a hint of comedy, instead of a full comedy." The person who called it was his producer and wife. "My wife is not one to mince words, and she was very clear that the comedy wasn't working," he says. "It's always good to have someone in your corner who won't bullshit you."

Doing everything with two hands and one partner has its limits, and Torres is the first to say so. "Two people did everything on this short: myself and my wife. Going forward, it's not a decision I would make again, but hey, you do what you can with what you have." Next year, he says, he would like a proper cast and crew. This year, his one indispensable collaborator was easy to name. Asked who he wanted to thank, he didn't hesitate: "My wife Bella. She's my foundation and my inspiration."

The film's high point was also its biggest technical dare. "The whole climax of the movie was fun to film," Torres says. "I'm a sucker for one-shot scenes, but that requires a very specific 'dance' you have to do between actors and filmmakers. Lucky for me, my wife is brilliant and knows exactly what I wanted to do, and we got it all done in a single take."

Not everything was planned, and the film is better for it. In one shot, a convention-goer sits in the break room scrolling his phone while Torres's character is being murdered a few feet away. "We thought about reshooting it without him there, but it was so funny we figured it'd cut the tension and get a laugh out of the audience," he says. "Which it did, so mission accomplished."

As for the equipment that made it possible, there wasn't much. "I did everything on my phone," Torres says, "so shout out to Samsung." Give him six more hours and he would spend every one of them the way he spent the first six: "in the editing room, refining the voice effects, the music, the cuts, colorizing."

He also left something in the frame for the sharp-eyed. "In the climax, my 'doppelganger' is hiding behind the tent and disappears," he says. "Due to the lighting it's hard to see, but I think it looks pretty cool." Consider it a reason to run it back.

Torres is already counting down to the rematch. "I loved doing this," he told us, "and I can't wait to do it again next year." Until then, you can find him doing what his handle promises: he is TheStoryTimeGuy on TikTok and Instagram, and "Tlacatli (Mirror)" is the latest, and most decorated, of his stories.