THE GHOST AT SKELETON ROCK
>>>>>> COMING FALL 2025
>>>>>> 2024 PRINCESS GRACE SPECIAL PROJECT GRANT RECIPIENT

In the summer of 1992, at the height of the AIDS crisis, 17-year-old VINNY is reeling after being with a boy for the first time. In the eerie Catskills town of Callicoon, New York—a place that feels both idyllic and off-kilter—VINNY’s only confidant is CHRIS, a ghost he’s been secretly channeling through a handmade Ouija board. In the aftermath of his charged hookup with GABE—a snarky goth camp counselor from the city—Vinny pours his confusion and fear into a sketchbook filled with obsessive, otherworldly drawings he can’t explain.

When the two meet for a second date, Vinny is consumed by a wave of terror and shame, fueled by a world where desire and death are interlocked. Desperate for answers about the first person he was ever with, Vinny brings out his Ouija board beneath the ruins of a crumbling bridge. A skeptical Gabe quickly learns that Chris isn't just a figment of Vinny's imagination—he has the power to twist reality into nightmares.

The Ghost at Skeleton Rock is a supernatural Queer coming-of-age thriller about the fears we conjure—and what happens when they turn on us.

WRITER/DIRECTOR: BOBBY ABATE
PRODUCER: TODD STEPHENS
CINEMATOGRAPHY: BRIAN RIGNEY-HUBBARD

CAST:
JORDI BERTRÁN RAMÍREZ (VINNY)
RIVER KNIGHT (GABE)
JACK QUINN (CHRIS)

IN POST PRODUCTION
SHOOT: FALL 2024
RELEASE: FALL/WINTER 2025

Vinny’s hand made ouija board.

>>>>>> DIRECTOR STATEMENT
The Ghost at Skeleton Rock is the film I’ve been waiting decades to make. It’s rooted in the summer of 1992, the year I came out as a teenager in a small conservative town during the height of the AIDS crisis. Back then, silence was survival—and the fear around Queerness was so thick, it felt supernatural.

This is a fictional story, but it’s haunted by real memories: frantic drawings, rambling journal entries, obsession, and horniness. It’s a coming-of-age thriller about shame, desire, and what happens when a ghost story turns out to be true.

What makes this film unique is that it captures a specific moment in Queer history that’s largely unknown to younger generations—the moment when every act of intimacy, even a kiss, could feel dangerous. The specter of AIDS was everywhere, and so was the misinformation. You could catch it from a toothbrush. From sweat. From looking too long. That kind of fear shaped how an entire generation experienced desire—not as freedom, but as threat. That moment defined how many of us learned to cope and survive. That’s the energy I wanted to bring to this film.

This history is vanishing, even as we see the same rhetoric and repression rising again. The Ghost at Skeleton Rock is about keeping that memory alive—about sharing stories so we don’t repeat the same silences.

Made with support from the Princess Grace Foundation and a community of backers who understand what’s at stake, this project turns that haunted past into something beautiful, unnerving, and real. This is the film I needed when I was 15. I made it for anyone who’s ever felt invisible—or worse, cursed.

I recently finished writing the feature version titled Psuedo-Realistic Monsters.

>>>>>> PRODUCTION STILLS