Mike P. Nelson

Mike P. Nelson is an American filmmaker whose work includes the post-apocalyptic thriller *The Domestics*, the 2021 *Wrong Turn* film, and two connected segments of the horror anthology *V/H/S/85*. Across those projects, he has worked as both a writer and a director, though the films take different approaches to familiar horror premises.

Nelson wrote and directed *The Domestics*, released in 2018. Kate Bosworth and Tyler Hoechlin play Nina and Mark, a married couple crossing a United States devastated by a catastrophic event. Their journey brings them into contact with violent groups that have claimed territory in the aftermath. Rather than following the disaster as it happens, the film begins in a world where its consequences have already reshaped daily life. Its central conflict combines the dangers of the journey with tensions between Nina and Mark.

His next feature was *Wrong Turn*, released in 2021. Although it shares its title with the 2003 horror film, it tells a different story. A group of friends hiking the Appalachian Trail strays from the marked route and encounters the Foundation, an isolated community living in the mountains. Charlotte Vega plays Jen Shaw, one of the hikers, while Matthew Modine plays her father, Scott, who searches for her after she disappears. Nelson directed the film from a screenplay by Alan McElroy, who also wrote the original *Wrong Turn*. The 2021 film replaces the earlier movie’s cannibal-family premise with a confrontation between the hikers and a community that has its own laws and harsh punishments.

Nelson also contributed to *V/H/S/85*, a 2023 installment in the found-footage anthology series. He directed “No Wake” and “Ambrosia,” two segments whose stories are connected. “No Wake” follows young people on a lakeside outing that turns violent; “Ambrosia” revisits the consequences from another perspective. Presenting the events through purportedly recorded footage places those segments within the series’ defining format, while their connection gives Nelson room to reveal information across two separate chapters.

These credits show the specific shape of Nelson’s filmography through 2023. *The Domestics* is an original feature he wrote and directed; *Wrong Turn* is his direction of a new entry in an established franchise, using a script by that franchise’s original writer; and *V/H/S/85* places two linked stories inside a multi-director anthology. Each project uses a distinct setting and structure rather than repeating the plot of the last.