What if showing fear meant certain death? For filmmakers Jake and Sam Lewis, the question presented an intriguing premise. The resulting short film, REMAIN CALM, starring Pauly Shore, Nick Swardson and Doug Jones, premiered on YouTube on October 12, 2026, and has since amassed more than eleven million views.
“The genesis of it came from a love of horror movies with one rule for survival,” Lewis explains. “Like A Quiet Place, you make a noise, you die, or Bird Box, you look, you die, or A Nightmare on Elm Street, you sleep, you die. These rules are impossible to follow, and if you don’t follow them, you’re dead. So we thought, wouldn’t it be interesting if the rule in our horror movie was that you’re not allowed to be afraid?” Despite its fourteen-minute runtime, REMAIN CALM is a production that demanded the same care, consideration and craftsmanship associated with a feature-length film.
The short follows two gas station attendants, played by Shore and Swardson, whose uneventful night takes a horrifying turn when an unnerving stranger, played by Jones, arrives with a warning: whatever happens next, they must remain calm. “I always knew I wanted Doug Jones to be the Grin Man,” Lewis says. “He was in the very first lookbook that I put together.”
Through a mutual friend, Lewis connected with Jones, who readily accepted the role. Jones plays a pivotal role in setting the film’s events into motion, delivering a chilling explanation of the danger at hand, all while maintaining an unsettling smile. For Lewis, the character’s appearance was carefully envisioned from the beginning, with the intention of misleading audiences about his true nature.
“The Grin Man was very clear in my head with Doug Jones and his smile because I wanted the audience to not trust this guy. I wanted him to be the red herring,” Lewis explains. “I always thought the scariest scene of the whole short was going to be the Grin Man telling the rules to our heroes. This towering, very gaunt man in a perfectly tailored suit walking in from the desert into this gas station just looks so out of place. It’s so eerie, him having to smile and tell them this horrific information so delicately. It was horrifying and a little funny.”
Production took place over three consecutive nights, with the cast and crew working from seven p.m. to seven a.m. The first two nights were spent filming inside an operational liquor store which required extensive set dressing to transform it into the film’s gas station. “We had to change out all the logos of everything,” Lewis recalls. “That vent wasn’t actually above the door. We had to build that vent above the door and then we had to reset it every morning because the liquor store would open.”
The third night of production moved to Reel Ghost Studios, a soundstage facility co-owned by Lewis and his partners. Although the studio houses several standing sets available to filmmakers, REMAIN CALM required an entirely new construction.
“The bathroom didn’t actually exist in that gas station. We had to build the bathroom on our soundstage,” Lewis explains. “The bathroom was very specific in the script. The vent had to be above the sink, so we had to build it very specifically. The ventilation system where Doug Jones is actually sticking his head up into was all built on the soundstage. It was propped up on scaffolding so that he could actually stand up and stick his head in there.”
Making two entirely different locations appear to be one continuous space presented another challenge. Lewis worked closely with cinematographer Emil Gurvin and production designer Alen Stubbs to ensure that the constructed bathroom matched the existing liquor store.
“I had to literally walk through the liquor store, figure out where the bathroom was in that space, and try to continue the space, see how it would make sense if there was actually a bathroom back there,” Lewis explains. “Make sure the paint matches, make sure the lighting matches.” The illusion was then completed in post-production, with editor Jenna Socha ensuring that the footage cut together seamlessly.
The short’s practical effects presented challenges of their own. One particularly difficult sequence involved pulling a body through an overhead ventilation shaft, a gag accomplished with the help of special effects company Gorgazma. “We had Gorgazma, who did our special effects, bring in a silicone replica of Doug Jones’s body. We rigged a rope to the top of it. The first couple of times, it would stop, and you could still see the feet dangling. At one point, the rope snapped because the shoulders were too wide and hit the sides of the vent. Eventually, we got it high enough and had enough crew members pulling on the other end of the rope that it completely cleared the vent.”
Beyond the physical demands of production, Lewis recalls the challenge of asking performers he had grown up watching to work through the night for a project he had envisioned years earlier. The concept for REMAIN CALM dates back to 2018, when Lewis and his brother first began developing the story. Although the premise initially struggled to generate interest, the brothers always believed in their story.
“We were hoping that this would be made into a feature because I just think it lends itself to that,” Lewis says. “It speaks to us as a society trying to find ways to cope with the constant horror and awfulness surrounding us all the time.” The filmmaker had previously found success in short films like The Court Jester. Those experiences helped him
understand how recognizable talent could draw audiences to an original concept, although nothing could have prepared him for the reception of REMAIN CALM.
“I had no idea that it was going to resonate and hit this hard,” Lewis admits. “I definitely thought it had a shot, but ten
million views in two weeks was beyond my expectations. It’s on another level than I could have ever dreamed.”
Whether REMAIN CALM eventually becomes a feature remains to be seen, but its fourteen minutes are the result of years of development, three exhausting nights of production and a crew determined to bring an ambitious idea to life.
REMAIN CALM is available to stream for free on YouTube.
