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- Producer
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Producer/director Cirio H. Santiago is the son of Dr. Ciriaco Santiago, who founded Premiere Productions in Manila in 1946. He has two siblings. After starting out as a producer he started directing English-language movies in the early 70s. Santiago became one of the pioneers of the "Blaxploitation" genre by being one of the first to cast black actors and especially actresses as strong action heroes. Movies like TNT Jackson (1974) became instant cult classics. In the 80s, Santiago became known for his numerous low-budget Vietnam war movies such as Firehawk (1993) which gave him a reputation as the "master of the Vietnam war genre". A long running partnership with Roger Corman assured proper distribution of his movies in the USA. Many of today's hottest filmmakers such as Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante or Carl Franklin got their first directing jobs with Santiago. In 1995 he was named president of the Philippines Film Development Funds by President Ramos. The organization strives to uplift the quality of Filipino filmmaking to new, higher standards and to encourage production of foreign movies on location in the Philippines. Premiere Productions, headed by Cirio H. Santiago, still remains one of the biggest studios in the Philippines and went public in 1997.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
William Lustig was born on February 1, 1955 in Bronx, New York. During his teenage years, Lustig avidly watched a huge volume of lowdown trashy exploitation fare at numerous 42nd Street grind house theaters in Manhattan and also worked as a movie theater usher in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After graduating from high school, he took a few film classes at New York University.
Lustig began his film career in his mid to late teens, working behind-the-scenes in various minor production capacities on a handful of hardcore X-rated porno pictures as well as a production assistant on both "The Seven Ups" and "Death Wish." He made his debut as a director, producer and editor with the hardcore porn features "Hot Honey" and "The Violation of Claudia." Lustig directed both of these movies under the alias Billy Bagg.
In 1980, Lustig found himself at the center of a storm of controversy when he made the grim, gory and disturbing slasher sleaze splatter landmark "Maniac," which boasts an incredibly intense performance by the legendary character actor Joe Spinell as a vicious depraved psychopath and plenty of hideously graphic and gruesome make-up effects by horror genre icon Tom Savini. In 1982, Lustig followed up "Maniac" with the tough, gritty and exciting New York urban revenge opus "Vigilante." In 1988, he delivered another winner with the terrific "Maniac Cop," a violent horror action flick about an undead New York police officer on a killing spree which was the first of several cinematic collaborations with fellow maverick independent filmmaker Larry Cohen.
Lustig followed up with the 1989 stirring action item "Hit List" and the suspenseful serial killer thriller "Relentless" were likewise on the money excellent and entertaining offerings. However, the two "Maniac Cop" sequels were strictly hit-or-miss affairs: the second one was a worthy successor to the superior original and the third one was a regrettably mediocre entry in the series. Lustig's last film as a director to date was the nifty and enjoyable fright flick "Uncle Sam."
Since 1997, William Lustig went on to initially produce retrospective DVD documentaries for Anchor Bay and now currently runs the outstanding DVD label Blue Underground which restores and re-releases popular and little seen cult movies and other grind house action, drama, and horror films.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Tso Nam Lee was born on 21 March 1943 in Guizhou, China. He is a director and assistant director, known for Gui ma liang jin gang (1974), Xian shen (1984) and The Challenge of the Lady Ninja (1983).- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom. Drunken Angel (1948) was the first film he made without extensive studio interference, and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16 movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his international breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Rashomon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Jack Hill, sometimes referred to as a legendary cult film director, grew up around films - his father was a set designer for Warner Bros. since 1925 and later for Walt Disney Studios, where he eventually designed Disneyland's Cinderella's Castle. Jack went to the University of California to study film, where he was a classmate of Francis Ford Coppola - they worked together on student productions and later both apprenticed with Roger Corman, working on The Terror (1963), among other films. While Coppola went on to Oscardom, Jack continued with low budget exploitation films, several of which were highly profitable, especially The Big Doll House (1971), which started the short-lived women-in-prison film genre. His so-called "blaxploitaton" films, Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), were both major hit films. Nowadays his films are hailed as cult classics, thanks primarily to Quentin Tarantino who saw Jack's work as it made its way to video, with almost all of his films now available for viewing on various streaming channels, as well as on DVD releases.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
- Make-Up Department
- Director
- Producer
- Producer
- Art Director
- Editor
Joseph Guzman is known for Run! Bitch Run! (2009), Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010) and Back Alley Butcher.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Ilya Naishuller is a film director, actor, producer, screenwriter and the frontman of indie rock band Biting Elbows, founded in 2008. From 8 to 14 he studied in London, and later graduated from the British International School in Yasenevo. Naishuller dropped out of the Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting, then entered university in New York, but did not graduate. In March 2013, Ilya directed the Biting Elbows' "Bad Motherfucker" YouTube video with over 45 million views.
In 2015, Naishuller wrote and directed the action movie "Hardcore Henry" with Shalto Copley, Hayley Bennett, Danila Kozlovsky, Dariya Charusha and Svetlana Ustinova; and also produced and co-directed the TV series "Barvikha." He shot a video for The Weeknd's "False Alarm" in 2016, a video for the group "Kolshchik" in 2017, and recently directed the hit action-comedy "Nobody" starring Bob Odenkirk in 2021. Naishuller married actress Dariya Charusha in the summer of 2010.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
George P. Cosmatos was born on 4 January 1941 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was a director and assistant director, known for Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Leviathan (1989) and Cobra (1986). He was married to Birgitta Ljungberg. He died on 19 April 2005 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Menahem Golan was born Menahem Globus to parents of Polish decent in Tiberias, Israel, in May 1929. In his early years, he was a pilot for the fledgling Israeli Air Force, changing his surname to Golan for patriotic reasons in 1948. A few years later, he took the first step towards his future career by attending the Old Vic Theatre School in London. After returning to Israel, he produced for theater, until joining producer Roger Corman as an assistant on The Young Racers (1963). Golan's debut film in partnership with his younger cousin Yoram Globus was El Dorado (1963). The two cousins set up Noah Films to produce for the Israeli market. Golan's role was as producer and the creative partner, with Globus as the financial expert. The company was first recognized overseas when its production Sallah Shabati (1964) won an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and then won the Golden Globe in the same category in 1965. However, the cousins were desperate to break into the international market. Some of their films had been picked up for distribution in America, such as Kazablan (1973) by MGM, but this was not enough.
In 1979 the pair bought control of a failing production company, The Cannon Group Inc., from Dennis Friedland and Christopher C. Dewey, and it was this company that gave them international renown. Under their control, the Cannon Group grew from a small company making a few obscure pictures a year to a studio that produced 35 pictures in 1987 alone. They developed a large, independent, and international empire, with production, distribution, and exhibition interests across Europe. Golan and Globus hit their peak with Cannon in the mid-1980s, signing Sylvester Stallone for a record US$13 million in 1983 for Over the Top (1987) and purchasing the UK's Thorn-EMI Screen Entertainment in 1986. This last deal led to their ownership of the ABC cinema circuit and Elstree Studios in Britain. However, by 1987, the money was starting to run out. Many of their movies were not making enough at the box office despite the cousins' wide cinema ownership, and they had taken on a lot of debt during their rapid growth, making more expensive pictures in the process. They were initially rescued by Warner Bros., which took distribution rights to Cannon's better films--for example, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), based on a character that Warner already owned--and also took an interest in some of its assets. The end of Cannon came in 1989 when, virtually bankrupt, the company was bought by the now-disgraced financier Giancarlo Parretti and renamed Pathé Communications (after the new MGM-Pathé collapsed in 1992, Globus produced pictures with Christopher Pearce, which were released under a resurrected Cannon Pictures label. The last of these was American Cyborg: Steel Warrior (1993) before the company folded for good).
Golan fell out with Parretti and Globus, leaving Pathé, and starting 21st Century Pictures. He produced a number of films that received widespread distribution, such as Death Wish: The Face of Death (1994) and Captain America (1990), but by the mid-1990s this company had folded, too. Golan's name was later linked with other new companies, such as International Dynamic Pictures and Magic Entertainment, and he rejoined cousin Yoram for both. However, the two soon fell out again and went their separate ways, with Golan writing and directing for other producers in the interim. Golan's latest company is New Cannon Inc., and his recent works include Crime and Punishment (2002) and Return from India (2002). Unfortunately for his fans, it now seems unlikely that Golan will recreate the success of his heyday. Menahem Golan has long been criticized (sometimes unfairly) for an emphasis on quantity rather than quality. It's true that some of the movies he has produced have been laughable or unwatchable. However, now out of the limelight of a critical industry, some of his company's once-derided films have achieved cult status, such as Mona Lisa (1986), Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi (1988), and the "Lemon Popsicle" series. Golan's ongoing drive, energy, and past contribution to the world of cinema will undoubtedly and belatedly be recognized for the achievement this represents.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Noboru Iguchi was born on 28 June 1969 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for The ABCs of Death (2012), The Machine Girl (2008) and Mutant Girls Squad (2010).- Make-Up Department
- Special Effects
- Producer
Yoshihiro Nishimura was born on 1 April 1967 in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. He is a producer, known for Tokyo Gore Police (2008), Meatball Machine Kodoku (2017) and The ABCs of Death (2012).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Len worked in broadcast television for 6 years in Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Erie, Pennsylvania, mostly working in Traffic Management. Len holds a Bachelor's Degree in Communications from Gannon University and also an Assoicates Degree in Science from the University of Pittsburgh. He also works as a fight choreographer for many stage productions at the Erie Playhouse working with both the adults and also the children's theater , and has choreographed such plays as Carrie: The Musical, The Fantastics, Treasure Island and more.
First got into indie films by working as a "zombie extra" in the film Zombiegeddon directed by Chris Watson. Len & Chris have remained friends and talk often to this day and hope to collaborate on a film in the future.
Owns over 200 movie posters with most being "B-Movie" horror/action fare. Among his favorites in his collection are Death Race 2000 (signed by David Carradine), Hercules (starring Lou Ferrigno), and They Live (signed by Roddy Piper).
As a competitor in martial arts in the state of Pennsylvania, Len has earned 10 state titles (Pennsylvania Karate Ratings Association) . he holds titles in Black Belt fighting, Black Belt Weapons kata, Black Belt empty hand kata, and Mens Advanced Weapons kata. He also has captured 6 regional titles through competition organizations the Professional Karate Commission (PKC Region 4) and Tournament Karate Association (TKA). He eared the professional Karate Commission Region 4 "Competitor of the Year" award for the 2019-2020 competition season.- Art Department
- Director
- Producer
Henry Saine is known for Bounty Killer (2013), The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu (2009) and Wild Hogs (2007).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
A 25-year veteran in the Hollywood exploitation field, writer/producer/director Jim Wynorski is responsible for over 150 varied motion pictures in a myriad of genres. Leaving behind a successful commercial business in New York, Wynorski relocated to California in 1980 and soon found himself on the doorstep of his childhood idol, B-film king Roger Corman. "The rest was destiny," recounts Wynorski, who soon found himself hired by the renowned movie mogul to cut "coming attractions" for all of the company's new action and horror films. "It was like grasshopper learning from the kung-fu master," says Wynorski, who claims his six-months internship with Corman taught him more than four years at film school.
"It wasn't long after that Corman offered me the first of many writing/directing assignments. Some distributor wanted a flick about a killer in a shopping mall," recalls Wynorski, "and Roger trusted me enough to say 'come up with something good, and you can direct it." Well, a couple days later, the director walked in with the first treatment to a film called Chopping Mall (1986), and the rest was history. From then on, Jim Wynorski turned out an average of three to five films a year as a director, and even more as a producer/writer. Throughout the 1980s came a steady stream of wild exploitation titles like Big Bad Mama II (1987) with Angie Dickinson, Not of This Earth (1988) with Traci Lords and The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) with Heather Locklear. On into the 1990s, Wynorski continued to climb to the top of the B-Film mountain with flicks like Hard Bounty (1995) starring Kelly LeBrock, Point of Seduction: Body Chemistry III (1994) & Body Chemistry 4: Full Exposure (1995) with Shannon Tweed and Morgan Fairchild and Munchie (1992), which featured the first film appearance of the then-unknown 12-year-old child actress Jennifer Love Hewitt.
As the years peeled by and tastes changed, Jim Wynorski kept hip by innovating new special effects techniques that landed the director no less than seven world premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel. His credits there include films like Gargoyle (2004), The Curse of the Komodo (2004), Project Viper and Cry of the Winged Serpent (2007).
As for the future, the 59-year-old Wynorski feels the audience for alternative cinema made away from the studio system will continue to grow thanks to new advances in Internet and Cable technologies. In fact, he is in post-production on another thriller, Vampire in Vegas (2009). "And you can bet I'll be there," he offers with a big smile, "with some really fun stuff." Jim has a huge following in the MidWest and is beloved in Franklin, Indiana, Home of The B Movie Celebration.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Having written produced and directed around the world, Butler has created film and television programming in most countries including, Spain, Italy, Romania, Africa, the UK and of course the good old fashion U.S.
He most recently wrote "To Grandmother's House We Go" for Creepshow Season 4. Butler also wrote and directed the "Baby Oopsie" television series, airing on multi-platforms and garnering Amazon's highest VOD record ever as well as wrote produced and directed "Madhouse" for Lakeshore Entertainment and "Furnace" for Lion's Gate.
In the written word, Butler is also the #1 Best Selling Author of "Tawdry Tales and Confessions From Horror's Boy Next Door", which launched in May 2021. The book follows his insane journey from acting in virtually every major horror franchise to his current occupation as an independent film creator. Butler has won three Emmy Awards for excellence in writing. He's also a two-time winner for best director of World of Wonder's "Music Video of the Year" 2017/2018. In 2021 he was nominated by Film Threat Magazine for BEST INDY COMEDY for the "Barbie and Kendra" re-dub movie series he created. 15 Year veteran writer producer director for Disney Channel. 22 time Telly Award winner, Winner of the Dove Award for excellence in children's entertainment, The Kids First Award for excellence in writing. One time "Scream King" Butler is also the only actor in movie history to have appeared in features with Jason Vorhees, Leatherface, Freddy Krueger the Zombies from "Night of the Living Dead".- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Fred Olen Ray spent most of his childhood in Florida, where he was always a fan of horror movies on TV. He collected autographs of many of the actors in those films where he met Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. His early career was filled with low-budget horror and science-fiction films, but the market eventually dried up and he switched to producing softcore "T&A" videos of the type shown late at night on Showtime and Cinemax. His films rarely cost more than $500,000, and he has written under at least 30 different pen names; he was one of the first to fill time at the end of his films with outtakes, now a common practice in other comedy films. The outdoor sets are often CGI backdrops and many sets are in his own home or near it. Ray often can share credit for his softcore film success with the late cinematographer/director Gary Graver, big shoes for him to fill while working with an excess of tattooed and body-beaded new performers in this genre.- Director
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- Editor
Kiah Roache-Turner is known for Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014), Wyrmwood: Chronicles of the Dead - Teaser (2017) and Nekrotronic (2018).- Director
- Writer
- Actor
An independent film director for three decades, he has known how difficult it is to make a film with little financial backing and huge amounts of unasked-for advice. His passion for what he does has kept him moving forward in the face of staggering challenges.
Born in New York, Lee's father A World War two veteran and aircraft engineer moved the family westward when William was 6 years old, but not way out west, as in La La land (rumor has it that Lee's father was staunch New Yorker who hated phonies!), but the Midwest--The State of Ohio to be exact.
After seeing Kung Fu legend, and martial arts movie legend Bruce Lee on screen for the first time in 1974, Lee asked his father to purchase a movie camera so that he might replicate the famous martial artists' exploits--albeit on a smaller scale. Within a year of picking up a movie camera, Lee received his first film award at the Eye Music Festival of San Francisco. Since then, he has directed over 30 film projects.
Outside of the obvious controversy, Lee has found that black film making has come to a complete halt in terms of creativity. The era of "hood/ghetto/gangsta" films seems to keep hanging on, with the same tired plots and imagery. Lee has found it impossible to find funding because he steers clear of typical material.
Until his first major release Code: Black, in 2007, Lee had been virtually unknown. His films languished in obscure film fests,Midwestern film premieres, and on-line sites like Indieflix.com. Never quirky enough to interest Sundance, too action filled to be praised in major "refined" film circles, never peopled by major or even sub-major stars, financed totally from Lee's various day jobs, he has spent every year since 1974 chasing that dream. The dream that one day he could be seen for what he is. Not a black filmmaker, but a filmmaker who makes non stereotypical, well written action films with a message. Nothing more, nothing less.
Unfortunately, in spite of his growing reputation as a talented director, the color of his skin remained a problem as investors showed a lack of confidence in the ability of an African-American to direct a produce a money making film. He constantly had to turn to friends and family for financial backing.Determination and persistence are the heart and soul of William Lee. These qualities were ultimately tested by a challenge that would shatter a lesser man. As if what he had endured before was not daunting enough, Lee had to deal with something far worse than the usual backstabbing of the movie industry: life-threatening cancer-like Systemic Lupus.
Diagnosed in 1997, the disease required him to undergo surgery, treatment with experimental drugs, and chemotherapy for the better part of two years. In addition to substantial weight loss, Will Lee was forced to contend with a gaping hole in his side, and physical debilitation that resulted in lengthy periods during which a wheel chair was his only way of getting around. In spite of the intense pain and temporary setbacks, he eventually forced a miracle. The affliction that once placed his life in jeopardy is now in remission, and he is a fully functioning member of the community: a testimony to medical advances and his own desire to live. Having overcome the danger, but realizing there is no cure for the disease, this Lupus survivor today smiles at the memory of the experience.- Director
- Writer
- Production Manager
Talented, prolific and versatile writer/director Sergio Martino has made a vast array of often solid and enjoyable films in such diverse genres as horror, comedy, Western and science-fiction in a career that spans over 40 years.
Martino was born on July 19, 1938, in Rome, Italy. His grandfather was noted director Gennaro Righelli. Sergio began his cinematic career in his early 20s as an assistant to his writer/producer brother Luciano Martino and handled second unit director chores on Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body (1963), and made his directorial debut in 1969 with the mondo documentary Wages of Sin (1969). He really hit his stride in the early 1970s with several superior giallo murder mystery thrillers that usually starred popular actress Edwige Fenech (who was married to Martino's brother Luciano at the time): The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), They're Coming to Get You! (1972), The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) and Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972). Martino subsequently collaborated with Fenech on a handful of other projects, including the bubbly sex comedies Sex with a Smile (1976) and Cream Horn (1981). Other people Sergio has frequently worked with are actors George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov and Claudio Cassinelli and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. Sergio's other worthwhile movies are the gritty spaghetti western Arizona Colt, Hired Gun (1970), the terrifically trashy Torso (1973), the rousing crime thriller The Violent Professionals (1973), the entertaining action/adventure romp Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), the fun "The Island of Dr. Moreau" rip-off The Island of the Fishmen (1979) and the funky post-nuke sci-fi/action opus 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983). He has also directed various made-for-TV features and episodes of TV shows for Italian television.- Actor
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- Director
Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw his chance when a comedian suddenly fell ill, and he went on stage in the man's place. With a friend he formed the comic duo "The Two Beat" (his artist's name, "Beat Takeshi", comes from this period), which became very popular on Japanese television.
Kitano soon embarked on an acting career, and when the director of Violent Cop (1989) (aka "Violent Cop") fell ill, he took over that function as well. Immediately after that film was finished he set out to make a second gangster movie, Boiling Point (1990). Just after finishing Getting Any? (1994), Kitano was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that almost killed him. It changed his way of life, and he became an active painter. This change can be seen in his later films, which are characterized by his giving more importance to the aesthetics of the film, such as in Fireworks (1997) and Kikujiro (1999).- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Canadian filmmaker Jason Eisener directed, co-wrote and edited the sci-fi horror adventure "Kids vs. Aliens," his second feature film, inspired by his own childhood and shot on location near his hometown of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He made his directorial debut with the 2011 Canuxploitation vigilante epic "Hobo with a Shotgun," starring Rutger Hauer. The cult hit was adapted from his fake trailer of the same name, which won South by Southwest and Robert Rodriguez's international "Grindhouse" trailer contest in 2007.
Eisener is the co-creator, executive producer and director of the groundbreaking hit Vice TV documentary franchise "Dark Side of the Ring," now in its third season. Launched in 2019, the critically-acclaimed flagship series explores untold and controversial stories of professional wrestling and quickly became the #1 rated program in the network's history, spawning spinoff series "Dark Side of the '90s," "Dark Side of Football," and "Dark Side of Comedy."
He also co-created and serves as director and executive producer on the forthcoming Vice TV docuseries "Tales from the Territories," executive produced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Dany Garcia, premiering in Fall 2022.
Genre-obsessed since birth, Eisener's films include the segment "Y is For Youngbuck" for the horror anthology "The ABCs of Death," "Slumber Party Alien Abduction" for "V/H/S/2," the viral underwater horror short "One Last Dive," which was dubbed "The Scariest 1 Minute Movie Ever" and optioned by 20th Century Fox, and the Sundance award-winning Christmas horror short "Treevenge."