Benjamin Ashford|Why is 'Brightwood' going viral now? Here's what's behind the horror sensation

It's blowing up! It's going viral! Noooooooooo!

Popularity,Benjamin Ashford in the age of social media, can sound like a horror movie. Though possibly a cruder one than "Brightwood," a COVID-era, Jersey-set indie thriller that has suddenly − and thrillingly − gained traction on TikTok and Instagram.

"What's happened is a kind of dream-come-true scenario for a filmmaker," says director-writer Dane Elcar, 40, who shot his $14,000 movie during one month in the 2021 pandemic, released it to the festival circuit in 2022 and 2023, and is only now seeing it inexplicably take off online.

"Somebody on TikTok, some random person, started sharing 90-second clips of the film, and they all started taking off," Elcar says. That was on July 11. A few of the posts now have more than a million views.

Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

"My distributor (Cinephobia Releasing) sent me an email saying, whatever you're doing, keep doing it, because the numbers are going up," he says.

So Elcar took the same clips and re-shared them on Instagram − and they went viral all over again.

"People are talking about the movie again," he says. "What you clearly want, as a storyteller, is you want your story to resonate with people. I'm just very excited to see all of that happen."

The popularity of 'Brightwood' explained

What is it about "Brightwood," shot largely in Rockaway, Morris County, N.J., that seems to have touched a nerve?

Possibly, it's the cleverness of the premise − clever both as an idea, and as a money-saving maneuver. "Brightwood" is a two-person film. The two people are a young husband (Max Woertendyke, also the producer) and wife (Dana Berger, of "Orange Is the New Black") who go for an ordinary jog around an ordinary pond. Only − as Rod Serling would say − they're jogging straight into the Twilight Zone.

"As they run around, they find themselves trapped in a loop," Elcar says. "They literally can't find their way out of the trail. So what this does, as the movie unfolds and it becomes crazier, it forces these characters who are already in a kind of bad place, a rut, in their relationship, to deal with each other."

And that, Elcar says, may be why viewers connect to this film.

The stuck-in-a-loop fantasy is actually a metaphor about relationships. The kind we all have, sooner or later.

"We all know what that feels like," he says. "If you've been in a long relationship, that's not a very healthy one, you simply feel like you're stuck doing the same things over and over. Much as those 'Twilight Zone' episodes are sometimes these simple stories that are open to a grand metaphor, I thought there was potential for something like that here. It becomes a metaphor for the cycles in a relationship."

There's more to the film than that − but we won't spoil it except to say that there may be other people on that jogging path.

See the trailer for surprise horror hit 'Brightwood'

For the record, Elcar is in a very happy relationship with his own wife, Karen. They have a 7-year-old daughter, Ibelia, and have been together for almost 18 years. His wife, he says, loves the film. "She thinks it's funny," he says.

"If you've been with someone a long time, a lot of things happen, and you go through a lot of ups and downs," Elcar says "One of the things you can do as a writer, you can take that all up to 11. You can ratchet it up. Whatever you're feeling, you can cathartically get it out on the page."

The film had a nice jog around the indie circuit in 2023, including the Big Apple Film Festival, the Salem Horror Fest in Massachusetts, the Another Hole in the Head Festival in San Francisco, and the Other Worlds Film Festival in Austin, where it had its U.S. premiere.

But the internet has given "Brightwood" a second wind. And Elcar is certain it's the idea behind the idea that has made audiences run with it.

"It's almost borderline absurd," he says. "A couple getting stuck in a loop. Well, maybe there's more to it. Maybe that's why, even with that small budget, it's found such a large audience."

How to watch the movie 'Brightwood' on streaming

See it free with ads on Tubi. Or rent it ad-free on Amazon.