Apnea (2026): Cast, Story and Release Details

Prepared by Movies Dock Editorial

Apnea is an eight-minute horror short about Alina, a sleep-deprived woman who records herself at night to investigate a suspected visitor. Her footage instead captures a frightening encounter involving an unknown entity, placing insomnia, sleep paralysis and found footage at the center of the film’s premise.

Apnea is a 2026 horror short written and directed by David C. Nelson. Running eight minutes, it follows a woman whose attempt to document a nighttime presence produces evidence of a much more disturbing threat.

The film uses a compact found-footage setup built around insomnia, sleep paralysis and an unexplained creature. Its story is centered on what Alina’s camcorder records while she is asleep, or attempting to sleep, and keeps the source of the danger deliberately unknown.

Apnea movie details

Story without spoilers

Alina is exhausted from a lack of sleep and believes that something has been visiting her at night. To establish whether the presence is real, she sets up a camcorder to record herself while she sleeps.

The footage changes the nature of her investigation. Rather than simply proving that an intruder or monster exists, the recording reveals Alina experiencing a frightening form of suffocation at the hands of an unidentified entity. The premise places the audience close to her uncertainty without explaining more than the supplied story allows.

What to expect

Apnea is a brief horror film with a focused premise rather than an expansive narrative. Its eight-minute runtime and found-footage framework point to a story built around a single recording, a confined nighttime situation and the tension of not knowing whether the threat is physical, supernatural or connected to sleep paralysis.

The keywords also identify a monster, insomnia and sleep paralysis as central elements. Viewers can expect the film to emphasize a disturbing nocturnal encounter and the unsettling gap between what Alina suspects and what the camera captures, without relying on a long setup.

Cast and creative team

David C. Nelson serves as both writer and director. Suzana Norberg plays Alina, the sleep-deprived woman at the center of the story, while Sara Levy is credited as Creature. The film’s small cast suits its tightly contained horror premise.

• Suzana Norberg as Alina
• Sara Levy as Creature

Release and production context

Apnea is listed as a 2026 horror short with a runtime of 8 minutes. Its release date is September 29, 2026. The production company is All Trades. No country or spoken language is specified in the supplied information.

Production companies: All Trades

Reported production figures:
Budget $1,200

Apnea official trailer

Watch the official trailer on YouTube

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With its short runtime, camcorder premise and focus on an unexplained nighttime entity, Apnea presents a concentrated horror setup. The film’s story is driven by Alina’s attempt to verify what she believes is happening to her, and by the troubling evidence that emerges from that recording.

Film data:
TMDB · IMDb