2024 Milestones

2024 has been a very busy year, for which I am eternally grateful. What follows is a round-up of my working achievements.

Moderating

After dipping my toe into hosting some Q&As and panels in 2023, 2024 saw this aspect of my career strengthen. During August’s 25th anniversary of FrightFest I was asked to host and introduce the screenings of Azrael and So Unreal. I also got to host and interview the talent behind FrightFest films The Last Podcast, The Daemon, From Darkness, Ghost Game, and the short film, Stereo-Vision.

Following positive feedback from my stint as host at FrightFest, Signature Entertainment asked me to host the UK Gala screening of Terrifier 3. At this event I introduced the film, and then conducted a post screening Q&A with writer and director Damien Leone, producer Phil Falcone, stars Elliott Fullham and Samantha Scaffidi, and cinematographer George Steuber. I then worked for Signature again at FrightFest Halloween, hosting two Q&As for the film Magpie. In attendance were the film’s producer and lead, Daisy Ridley, director Sam Yates, writer Tom Bateman, and producer Kate Solomon. During the FrightFest Halloween event I also served as host for FrightFest TV on the media wall.

Post FrightFest Halloween I was asked to host a special UK screening of Jane Spencer’s South of Hope Street at The Prince Charles Cinema. During the post screening Q&A I spoke to writer and director Jane Spencer, and stars William Baldwin, Craig Conway, Tanna Frederick, and Angelo Boffa about the project.

My final moderating gig of the year was for the film Dinner in America. Having fallen in love with the film on first viewing I have been pestering The Prince Charles Cinema to put on a screening. This year, after a surge in popularity of the film due to some TikTok videos, the screening finally happened. Even better, the cinema reached out and asked if I’d be interested in hosting a post screening virtual Q&A with Dinner in America writer and director, Adam Rehmeier, to which I immediately said yes!

New Bylines

Bill Skarsgård in THE CROW. Photo Credit: Larry Horricks for Lionsgate

As a freelance writer it can be incredibly tough to get outlets to commission you, especially with the influx of new writers caused by the closure of several places. With this in mind, I was overjoyed each and every time that someone allowed me to contribute to their site, and this year I was fortunate enough to unlock a few new bylines.

First up, I joined Movie Marker to make my case for why the then forthcoming The Crow film had the potential to be great. I also was able to write reviews for Despicable Me 4 and Speak No Evil.

Next I got to write about why horror is thriving for the newly-started film-focussed branch of Soundsphere, Screensphere. To round out the year I returned to discuss the horror journey of Bill Skarsgård in the lead up to his turn as Count Orlok in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu.

My final new byline of the year was for Dread Central(!). For them I was commissioned to delve into my childhood as I explore exactly which Point Horror books deserve to get the film or television adaptation treatment.

Physical Media

After making some inroads in 2023, I continued to contribute to a selection of home entertainment releases. I absolutely love getting to dig into a movie to write these essays and hope to continue in this arena in 2025, so if anyone out there is in need of an essayist, please do drop me a line.

This year I appeared in a video essay discussing the career of Guy Ritchie for the Arrow release of The Man from U.N.C.L.E , in addition to writing essays for Second Sight’s releases of The Sacrament and Late Night with the Devil, along with another title that is yet to be announced. It has also been announced that I have an essay in the forthcoming Arrow release for The Last Stop in Yuma County (and might have a few other things in the works).

The Indies

At the start of 2024, Ben Umstead of Slamdance asked me to join the inaugural selection committee for new awards body ‘The Indies’. In this role I screened around thirty films that were in contention. From there, based on the scores and feedback of myself and my fellow committee members, we whittled down all of these films to a handful. We then created awards categories and voted for which movies should be nominated. A jury of judges subsequently selected the winners and the awards ceremony took place in the Directors Guild of America building in Los Angeles in December. As a big champion of independent film, it was an absolute honour to be involved with this project this year, and I look forward to starting the process all over again in 2025.

IHS 666 Film Challenge

Over the summer, I was one of three jury members who helped pick the winners of this year’s Independent Horror Society 666 Film Challenge competition. Challengers had 66 hours and 6 minutes to write, film, edit, and submit their film, which was to be between 1 and 6 minutes long. My fellow jury members included Evolution of Horror’s Mike Mercer and filmmaker Josh Lawson. Together we voted for our favourites in various categories, including Overall Film, Best Death, and The Neo-Fright Award.

A Nightmare on Elm STREET 40th Anniversary Conference

This year, I branched out into the realm of academia, delivering a paper at Nottingham University’s 40th Anniversary A Nightmare on Elm Street conference. The two-day event featured fascinating panels and lectures about Wes Craven’s classic with people delving into the themes found within it and the subsequent series. My paper was presented as part of the legacy panel and looked at how David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows is actually a modern-day reworking of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Horror Critics Group

In 2022, critic Andrew Pope spearheaded the creation of the Horror Critics Group, an awards guild that celebrates the very best in horror and genre cinema. I immediately joined as a member, but this year I stepped up as one of the five chairs as the organisation expanded. With more of us involved behind the scenes, the hope is that we can hold regular mixer events that will enable our members to network with genre-focussed filmmakers and PRs. For more information, head to the website.

All of Us are Lost Podcast

After having guested on a ton of Uncut Network episodes together, myself and Andy Connor have joined forces to host our own podcast – All of Us are Lost – for The Geek Show. The idea for the podcast came from Andy, and being a big fan of Lost, I jumped at his call for a co-host. The podcast is essentially chronicling our rewatch of Lost twenty years later as we slowly unpick the many mysteries of the island.

Episodes are released every second Sunday and can either be watched on The Geek Show’s YouTube channel, or accessed via all the usual podcast platforms such as Spotify and Apple iplayer.

Bucket List Interviews

I’ve been interviewing for over a decade now. Along the way I have been fortunate to speak with some brilliant talents, and several all time favourites. In 2024 I was able to tick off some people that have been on my bucket list since I started writing. Towards the start of the year I did a video interview with Emile Hirsch, whose work I have loved since Lords of Dogtown. Then I was able to snag some time with Adam Rehmeier for Snack Shack after missing him during the Dinner in America press.

Finally, for the biggest of them all, FILMHOUNDS commissioned me to speak to a personal hero of mine, Gale Anne Hurd, about one of the films that raised me – The Terminator. This was a real pinch-me moment as The Terminator and Terminator 2 are two movies that are very dear to my heart. The 40th anniversary chat about The Terminator can be found in Issue 22 of FILMHOUNDS, which can be purchased digitally for just £1 here.

Festivals

A big portion of my reviewing comes out of films seen out of film festivals, and this year I added even more festivals to my already long list. In date order, here are all the festivals that I was able to cover in 2024.

Most of these were virtual, but I was able to attend Sundance London, FrightFest (summer and Halloween editions), London Film Festival, Celluloid Screams, and Soho Horror Film Festival. If you’ve never been to an in-person film festival, I would highly recommend both Celluloid Screams and Soho Horror as they are great gateway festivals with really well-built communities and excellent line-ups. These two festivals are also more contained (i.e. within on screen) than the sprawling expanse of the likes of FrightFest and London Film Festival.