Editorials
Watch 10 First Films by Great Horror Directors (Part 2)
When directors are asked for advice on how to break into the industry by aspiring filmmakers, their answer is in variably some version of, “Get a camera and make something.” And as unhelpful as that sounds on the surface, even the most successful directors got their start by doing just that: making something. Even if it was imperfect or flawed.
So, in what I will be an ongoing series, I’ve compiled the first endeavors of some of our favourite horror directors as a means to inspire anyone who might be facing some kind of creative paralysis. Because, as you’ll see, while many of these films do give hints of the great heights these directors would climb, they are all scrappy, rough around the edges and full of wonderful flaws.
Be sure to check out part one of this ongoing series.
James Wan (“Saw” 2003)
The reigning king of horror, James Wan has three bonafide franchises under his belt in Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring series. Add to that his work on blockbusters like the Fast and Furious and his move into the DCU and Wan starts to look like one of the most successful filmmakers working today.
But it all started with this nine-and-a-half-minute short he co-wrote with Leigh Whannell. Filmed in his native Australia, this rough version of “Saw” was originally used to pitch the full-length feature film to Lionsgate who picked the feature up. Saw would go on to become hugely influential to the genre and the most lucrative horror franchise of all time.
Jaume Balagueró (“Alicia” 1994)
It’s hard to explain the excitement surrounding Jaume Balaguero’s & Paco Plaza’s original [REC] to anyone who wasn’t tapped into the horror movie scene ten years ago. The anticipation for a foreign zombie movie was something rarely seen and found footage was still something of a novelty. Zombie media wasn’t nearly as mainstream as it is now, so in 2007 [REC] seemed immediately fresh and aesthetically exciting. And man, did it deliver. [REC] was so well received it spawned three sequels and an American adaption in Quarantine.
Balaguero’s first directorial effort is a decidedly NSFW experimental short called Alicia and while it’s the furthest thing from a found footage film, it’s guaranteed to get a reaction out of any viewer.
Greg Nicotero (“United Monster Talent Agency” 2010)
After the run he’s had on The Walking Dead recently, directing some of the show’s best and provocative episodes, not to mention his history as a visual FX artist, I simply had to include Greg Nicotero on this list. Plus, as you’ll see below, his first work as a director is an amusing retro ode to the famous monsters of old Hollywood that should be seen by all.
Mary Lambert (“Rapid Eye Movement” 1977)
There’s no question that Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary I & II were instrumental in forming my relationship with both Stephen King and horror movies. The first film was one of the first scary movies that truly terrified me and it’s also one of the first time I realized movies were based on books. Stephen King, I thought, must be a one scary dude.
Lambert’s first film is also super eerie, but for completely different reasons. An animated experimental narrative about people in a casino, the film’s style will likely remind viewers of popular animator at the time, Ralph Bakshi.
J.A. Bayona (“Mis Vacaciones” 1999)
Looking at Bayona’s first short film, Mis Vacaciones, it’s easy to see why A Monster Calls is getting such praise. Even as this early stage, the Spanish director of The Orphanage was well attuned to the whimsy and melancholy of coming of age storytelling.
David Cronenberg (“Transfer” 1966)
It’s taken years for Canada’s David Cronenberg to shake the reputation of being strictly a body horror director, but his early career certainly yielded some of the ickiest and most explosive examples of the sub genre. From Scanners to The Fly and even my personal favorite, Videodrome, his best work is both visually and thematically uncompromising.
His first film, Transfer, is a surreal tale of two people – a psychiatrist and his patient – at a table set for dinner in the middle of a field covered in snow.
David Slade (“Do Geese See God?” 2004)
Before helming 30 Days of Night, director David Slade’s first short film was the third in a series of five shorts released by Amazon as part of an “Amazon Theater” experiment.
In the film, which takes its name from a well known palindrome, actor Blair Underwood is beset by modern anxiety.
Sam Raimi (“Within the Woods” 1978)
Within the Woods is not Sam Raimi’s first short film, but it’s probably his most important early film as it stars Bruce Campbell and is now considered the progenitor of the Evil Dead series.
Like many first films, Within the Woods was made out of passion, but also to drum up interest and investment in a larger project.
Axelle Carolyn (“The Last Post” 2011)
Axelle Carolyn hails from the world of horror film journalism, having covered the genre for Fangoria and others before moving into acting and directing. The mind behind last year’s Tale of Halloween anthology as well as the stylish haunter, Soulmate, Carolyn’s debut was The Last Post, a short film about an aging woman reconnecting with her past through (perhaps) supernatural means.
Nimród Antal (“Insurance” 1999)
Before helming pulse-pounders like Vacancy and Predators, Nimrod Antal was studied film in Hungry where he made international waves with the stylish thriller Kontrol. Prior to that however, he put together this fascinating film called Insurance that remains a must see for fans of European cinema.
Stay tuned for part 3!
There’s a lot of reading left to do in 2026, between the glut of summer releases and the approach of fall, when horror titles get a special push from publishers, but this has already been an incredible year for horror literature.
Some of the biggest names in the genre have turned in outstanding work, rising stars have made their mark, and we’re only halfway through the year.
To celebrate the midway point of 2026, with plenty of horror books still to come, we’re taking a look back at the best horror books we’ve read this year so far, listed alphabetically by author.
If you missed any of these books earlier in the year, consider this your reminder to catch up.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
A student running from a crime he may or may not have committed escapes to his father’s country home in Japan, only to find himself haunted by strange apparitions, while in the past, a young samurai tries to find salvation for her family and finds a door to the future instead. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic begins with this dialogue between past and present, and then blossoms into so much more, a cross-time ghost story about old wounds and what it really takes to finally heal them. I got so happily lost in this one that I would have read at least 200 more pages.
Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
In this tale of shut-ins, sex workers, artists, and the horrors they both summon and recoil from, Aoife Josie Clements weaves something that feels less like a story to be experienced and more like a psychic wound to be endured, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Evocative in its prose and nightmarish in its imagery, Persona is a story of the masks we wear, and the understanding that not all of our masks are particularly pretty or even easy to breathe through. It’s a dense, literary, unnervingly vicious book, and while it’s already attracted an audience, it deserves a much bigger one.
Dead First by Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s latest novel opens with a throwing down of the gauntlet, a sequence that made me instantly think “How on Earth is he going to top this?” It’s a story that begins with a billionaire hiring a private investigator to determine why, despite trying in many brutal ways, he cannot die. That premise, and the scene which sets it all off, is so alluring and delightfully gruesome that you almost can’t believe it’s the way a book begins, and then Compton just keeps going, delivering a supernatural mystery that I could not put down.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
A woman grieving for the life she wanted visits a mysterious island renowned for the healing salt its residents harvest and sell, seeking renewal and relief. What she finds instead is a strange cult with a twisted history with surprising resonance in her own life, and a people who are more than willing to grant the relief she wants, for a price. Laced with beautiful prose and moments of profound realization alongside folk and even cosmic horror, this is vintage Sarah Gailey.
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
If you love horror film history and analysis, Partially Devoured is an essential. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus, the book is a deep dive into his favorite movie of all time, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead, complete with exhaustive research into the making of the film and passages of deeply moving memoir woven in. If you’ve ever wanted to know what the eerie music that opens the film is called while also bursting into tears at how horror movies can save your life, this is a must-read.
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Our reigning King of Extreme Horror, Eric LaRocca weaves books of uncommon beauty out of the most nightmarish parts of humanity, and Wretch is no exception. The story of a grieving man who longs for relief and searches for it amid a strange support group that might be a cult, Wretch is a brutal journey into the darkest part of us all, and explores what salvation we might find when we get to the rotten core of the world and peel back its layers. LaRocca’s on a tear of great work right now that few other genre writers can match.
Headlights by CJ Leede
A mystery, a serial killer horror show, a tribute to Stephen King‘s The Shining. All of these things describe CJ Leede’s Headlights, and yet they don’t begin to cover the full breadth of horror awaiting you in this novel. The story of a former FBI agent drawn back into the cold case that haunts him most, it’s a shocker brimming over with vivid moments that’ll live behind your eyes. CJ Leede has now published three novels, and they’re all bangers, so it’s time to get on board if you haven’t already.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo has been one of our finest genre writers for years now, but It Came From Neverland is my favorite thing she’s written, and it’s not even close. A dark take on Peter Pan from the perspective of an adult Wendy Darling living in World War I-era London, Pelayo’s book works as both a satisfying horror narrative and a rich exploration of what it really means to never grow up. The horror never loses its potency, but it’s the search for the meaning behind the Peter Pan phenomenon in our own lives, and what we can do about it, that sticks with me most.
Filth Eaters by Ito Romo
Ito Romo’s Filth Eaters is a slim volume, one you can read in just a couple of hours if you’ve got the inclination, but it has the feel of a generation-spanning epic. The story of a breed of vampires born in Central America, the European vampires who encounter them, and the offspring they eventually produced, it spans centuries and packs loads of juicy lore into its pages while never losing its grip on character and narrative drive. I would read hundreds more pages of this world, but I’ll settle for this uncommonly grand-scale novella for now.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
A former pro gamer gets a job at a tech company to pilot a brain-dead human body across the country, and so Paul Tremblay’s sci-fi-horror juggernaut begins. Indebted to Philip K. Dick, the primal snarl of Harlan Ellison, and the quirky comedy of The Big Lebowski, and yet wholly original, this is a towering and ambitious novel by one of horror’s most respected voices. What starts as a high-concept tech thriller soon becomes a startling meditation on the value of stories, who gets to tell them, and what happens when we cede too much control to machines we don’t understand. It’s a stunner.
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