NICHOLAS PAYNE SANTOS | Writer/Director/Producer

Nicholas Payne Santos is a bi-racial (Black/white) filmmaker based in NYC. Santos received his MFA in Creative Producing from Columbia. In 2024, Nicholas produced the horror feature BLEEDING, which won Best Midnight Feature at Dances With Films and Best Screenplay at Grimmfest. His short STRANGE CREATURES played over fifty film festivals and is now available on Arrow, Crypt TV and Screambox. In ‘22, Nicholas produced the thriller BURY ME WHEN I’M DEAD which was selected for the 2023 Cannes Marche du Film’s Frontieres Market. In ‘21, Santos’ shorts MOTHER F**KER and HOLIDAY FEAR were also picked up by Arrow. His feature adaptation of STRANGE CREATURES was selected for Fantasia’s Frontieres Market. Santos’ screenplay YOU KILL ME was selected for Columbia’s Blue List in partnership with The Black List. And Nicholas produced the supernatural horror feature THE ARBORIST. In 20’ Nicholas’ feature directorial debut IT CUTS DEEP was released by Dark Sky Films. It World Premiered at Nightstream. The film’s currently on Tubi, previously on Showtime and Shudder. The feature UNCLE PECKERHEAD, produced by Santos, was released by Epic Pictures, currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

New England filmmaker Nicholas Payne Santos skewers toxic masculinity, sometimes literally, in this darkly funny debut, about a man named Sam (comedian Charles Gould) who returns home with long-time girlfriend Ashley (Quinn Jackson), only for his fears about getting married and having kids to spiral out of control. When a handsome childhood friend (John Anderson) turns up on the doorstep, Sam quickly dispenses with the pleasantries as he senses a possible rival for Ashley’s affections. What initially plays like Santos’ anxiety dream about commitment soon reveals itself to be deliciously self-aware and bloodthirsty; like Josh Ruben's recent “Scare Me,” on Shudder, “It Cuts Deep” actively reconsiders its male gaze in shape-shifting between mumblecore, slasher, and psychodrama.

- Isaac Feldberg, RogerEbert.com