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The Yale Student Film Festival hosted a screening of “In Our Blood,” a new thriller feature film co-produced by Yale alumni Aaron Kogan ’00 and Steven Klein ’98 and directed by Pedro Kos ’01, on Monday night. 

The idea for “In Our Blood” was conceived at Yale during Kogan’s undergraduate days, he said, and it returned to Yale just three days after its release to the United States on October 24. 

“It’s very exciting that this movie is premiering just a few days before we’re bringing it to Yale and that the producers and director are coming,” YSFF co-director Reese Weiden ’27 said in an interview before the screening. 

Following the screening, attendees had the opportunity to engage with the filmmakers during a question-and-answer period moderated by Daniela Woldenberg ’27, the YSFF special events coordinator. Kogan, Kos and Klein discussed the film’s origins, development process and central themes, reflecting on the full-circle moment of returning to Yale for the screening.

“Pedro and I met right there,” Kogan said in an interview after the screening, gesturing towards the doors of the auditorium at 53 Wall St., where the two worked together.

Kogan said he was inspired to create a horror film that captured the authenticity of an actual documentary during a conversation in his Yale dorm about documenting a road trip with his friends. Nearly ten years later, he brought the idea to Klein and Kos, who played key roles in transforming the script into its final form. 

The “found footage” style film follows Emily Wyland and her cinematographer, Danny, as they travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to reconnect with Emily’s estranged mother. After Emily’s mother goes missing, the two must unravel clues about her whereabouts, gradually revealing the dark and insidious truth woven into the Las Cruces community.

“The best genre films for me are really a hypercharged look into our own world, which is really exciting,” Kos said. His previous documentary work earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award for outstanding picture editing for a nonfiction program. 

“I saw an opportunity to continue exploring the work that I do in my documentary work,” Kos added. 

YSFF co-director Florence Barillas ’27 met Kogan at a Yale in Hollywood event in Los Angeles over the summer, and the two discussed the possibility of screening the film at Yale, she said. Barillas added that the horror film’s screening is “perfect timing for Halloween.”

The filmmakers agreed that their experience at Yale had an influence on the film’s development. Kogan recalled Kos’s skilled approach during the creation process, saying, “that mindset and those habits were things that Pedro didn’t just learn here, but actually exhibited here and took a much more evolved and sophisticated version of those into this film so many years later.”

“I hadn’t directed fiction in this way since college. But it was like riding a bike again after so many years,” Kos said.

“In Our Blood” was shown in Las Cruces on Oct. 17.

Update, Oct. 29: The photograph for this story has been added.