For One Filmmaker, a Ghost Story Is Really a Story About Growing Up During the AIDS Crisis

For Bobby Abate, making The Ghost at Skeleton Rock meant going back — to 1992, to the height of the AIDS crisis, to his own first sexual encounter, and to the paralyzing fear that followed.

The short film, which Abate wrote and directed, follows 18-year-old Vinnie, who turns to a Ouija board after a first intimate encounter spirals into fear and shame. It screens Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Calicoon Theater as part of the second annual International Gay Film Series, paired with Kansas 1989, another LGBTQ+ short directed by Clayton Dean Smith.

The screening is a special one: a works-in-progress showing, offering audiences a rare behind-the-scenes look at an unfinished film — and a chance for the filmmaker to gather feedback from his own community.

"It's a very special moment to be able to show that in Calicoon, where we filmed it," Abate said.

A True Story, Rooted in Misinformation and Fear

The film's supernatural premise is drawn from Abate's real life. As a teenager in Hamden, Connecticut, in 1991, he and a friend used a Ouija board to summon a spirit they believed could give people nightmares. When Abate had his first sexual experience shortly after, he woke up consumed by dread — not because of anything that had happened, but because of the AIDS crisis raging around him.

"I thought even kissing would get me infected," he recalled, "because there was just no way — we didn't even have the internet back then."

Without access to accurate health information, cut off from guidance by a church and family that offered condemnation rather than education, Abate found himself terrified that a moment he had long anticipated had become a potential death sentence. In the film, Vinnie turns back to that same spirit, hoping to use it to distance himself from the person he'd been with.

"What was supposed to be just a normal moment turned into a complete crisis," Abate said.

Echoes of the Past in the Present

Abate, who now teaches film at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, wrote the script in the period just before the 2024 presidential election. He sees the story's themes — misinformation, religious condemnation, and institutionalized homophobia — as urgently relevant today.

"I mean, I wrote this just before the election, but now we're seeing this — I don't even need to say what's happening right now," he said. "It is an amazing echo to bring the story back, to show what intolerance looks like and how it affects people even in the most important moments of their life."

When casting the film, Abate and producer Todd Stephens were struck by how unfamiliar young actors were with what it meant to live under the shadow of the AIDS crisis. During auditions, actors asked why characters didn't simply take the medications now available for prevention and treatment.

"Todd was crying in that last moment during the auditions," Abate said, "because just that fear — the way that we operated — just every time you were with someone, that fear that it was going to be met with some sort of a death sentence."

Why Calicoon

Though the story is set in suburban Connecticut, Abate — who lives in Calicoon — chose to film in the small Sullivan County hamlet for its singular atmosphere.

"Calicoon just has this beautiful mystique to it that no other place has," he said. "It looks like it's kind of in a different time zone altogether."

The Calicoon Bridge plays a central role in the film. Abate had hoped to shoot before construction began on the bridge, but found that the scaffolding and decay of the construction site added unexpected texture to the visuals.

In a layer of local connection that won't be lost on Thursday's audience, the Calicoon Theater itself appears in the film — meaning the venue will be hosting, quite literally, a version of itself on the big screen. Abate also noted that the previous owner of his home, Harold Miller, served as projectionist at the theater for 30 years. Miller's projector oil is still in the basement.

"There's all these layers of connectivity that are going to be exciting to see come together on the screen on Thursday night," Abate said.

A Moment of Resilience

Abate situates his film within the arc of queer history — the liberation of the 1970s following the Stonewall uprising, the devastation of the AIDS years, and the hard-won resilience that followed.

"It changed the world forever, but it's also about our resilience," he said. "After being battered in the 80s and seeing so many people die, that was the beginning of revolution — the beginning of reclaiming our identity."

It's a message he believes is once again needed.

"We are strong, resilient. We're not going anywhere. We won't be erased."

The Ghost at Skeleton Rock screens Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Calicoon Theater, paired with Kansas 1989 by Clayton Dean Smith. Abate and producer Todd Stephens will be on hand for an artist talk following the screening. Stephens is also known for directing Edge of Seventeen and Swan Song.