Chase Infiniti has signed on to lead the cast of "Portrait of God," a horror-thriller being set up at Lionsgate, according to an exclusive report. The project pairs the rising actress with director Dylan Clark, who also wrote and directed the original short film on which the feature is based.
The original "Portrait of God" was released on August 28, 2022, and runs just seven minutes. It was produced in Hollywood in English. Its logline centers on a religious girl who is forced to reckon with her faith after she begins analyzing a provocative painting of God. That deceptively simple premise - a believer staring down an image of the divine that refuses to behave the way she expects - is the engine that drove the short, and it is the same engine Lionsgate is now betting can carry a full-length feature.
A Short Film That Made an Outsized Impression
Despite its brevity, the 2022 "Portrait of God" assembled a sizable ensemble. Sydney Brumfield played Mia Reilly, the girl at the center of the story. Clark himself appeared on screen as the figure inside the painting, a casting choice that suggests how personally he treats the material. The supporting roster included Juha Kizilbas as Jeremy, alongside voice work from Ali Dusinberre, Anthony Misiano, Carina Gouws, John Martin and Kristina Molina.
That structure - a small number of physical performers and a broader cast of voices - is one explanation for how the short packed a religious crisis of faith into a seven-minute runtime. Whatever the approach, it clearly left enough of an impression on Lionsgate to justify expanding the concept into a theatrical vehicle.
It is worth noting that the short currently carries a 0/10 rating on TMDb. Studios rarely treat a sparse audience score as a dealbreaker for a micro-budget short, and Lionsgate's decision to move forward indicates the company is valuing the concept and the filmmaker's execution over any aggregate number attached to a seven-minute release that most viewers have likely never encountered.
Why Chase Infiniti Is the Get Here
Casting Infiniti in the lead is the clearest signal yet of how Lionsgate intends to position the film. Horror has become one of the most reliable genres for launching and consolidating young talent, and handing the central role to an actress on an upward trajectory gives the adaptation a marketable face before a single frame is shot.
The part is also demanding in ways that go beyond standard genre work. Mia Reilly's arc is not about surviving a masked killer; it is about a young woman's interior collapse as her belief system is tested by an image she cannot unsee. That requires a performer who can hold the screen in stillness and let doubt do the scaring - a different skill set than the one that drives most slasher leads.
For Clark, meanwhile, the move represents a promotion of sorts: he is stepping from a self-contained short into a studio-backed feature at Lionsgate, with the added credibility of having originated the material himself. Directors who come up through their own short films tend to arrive on set with a fully formed visual vocabulary, and the original "Portrait of God" - with its single charged image at the center - suggests a filmmaker drawn to the psychological end of the horror spectrum rather than jump-scare mechanics.
What Lionsgate Gets Out of It
Lionsgate has spent years building a horror slate that leans on elevated concepts and distinctive filmmakers, and "Portrait of God" fits that template almost exactly. It is a contained idea with a strong central image, a first-time feature director graduating from his own short, and a lead actress the studio can build around. Those are the ingredients of a cost-controlled genre play with genuine upside.
Details beyond the casting remain under wraps. There is no release date yet, and no word on who else will join Infiniti in front of the camera. Fans of the original short will be watching closely to see whether Clark retains the voice cast that populated the 2022 version or rebuilds the ensemble from scratch for the feature.
What is already clear is that the project gives Infiniti a rare kind of lead: a horror protagonist whose antagonist is not a monster in the shadows but an idea - and a painting - that will not stop looking back at her.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
