Ryan J. Matta is a writer and visual storyteller based in New York City.
His original screenplay The Complex—a dystopian neo-western set in a collapsing urban future—has received recognition in several national screenplay competitions and film festivals. While his professional career is grounded in motion graphics and 3D animation, writing remains a core creative pursuit, reflecting his enduring interest in cinematic storytelling and character-driven worlds.
Screenplay by Ryan Matta
‘The Complex’ is a Neo-Western set in a dystopian future. Joseph Deese, a battle-scarred war veteran, is the marshall and landlord of Complex 44, a crumbling government housing tenement in the ghetto of Frontier City. The building interior is divided physically by a fence that stretches across the atrium, separating the law-abiding tenants of the lower floor from the violent gangs that roam above. Deese’s efforts at maintaining law and order are thwarted by Zero, a disfigured, drug dealing, pornographer who controls the floors above and is seeking to expand his fortune and sphere of influence with the help of the hedonistic gang, The Misfits. As Deese and Zero engage in a lethal power struggle for control of the building, the arrival of Jason Christopher, a fellow soldier from Deese’s past push the conflict to its explosive conclusion.
Story by Ryan Matta
When a strange sound—heard simultaneously by every person on Earth—leaves humanity unable to sleep, modern civilization begins to collapse with terrifying speed. In the days that follow, governments fail, infrastructure disintegrates, and the line between waking life and madness dissolves.
At the center of the unraveling is Trace, a war veteran struggling to repair his fractured marriage and reconnect with his young daughter while managing the psychic scars of interrogation work overseas. As sleeplessness deepens into hallucination, Trace becomes haunted by Alvin, a sadistic prisoner from his past who may be memory, delusion, or something far worse.
Part psychological descent, part apocalyptic nightmare, The Wake is a literary sci-fi novella about trauma, guilt, and the terrifying possibility that the end of the world may begin inside the human mind.
