Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are horror filmmakers, cinema fans, and jacks of all trades. The future of our beloved art lies with people like them.

The names Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead probably don't mean much to the average viewer. However, fans of inventive and witty indie cinema at the intersection of horror and science fiction have long noticed this duo, which formed during an internship at Ridley Scott's company.

Benson and Moorhead are filmmakers madly in love with cinema, who independently write scripts, direct, handle cinematography, create special effects, and act. In short, on set they can do literally everything. We believe that the future of modern genre cinema lies with people like them.

A Unique Path

In 2012, Benson and Moorhead released their first feature film, Resolution, about two friends, one of whom tries to help the other overcome drug addiction.

As is often the case, the debut film was featured at an independent film festival, where it received mostly positive reviews. There was no dizzying success or Hollywood-style rise to the top echelon of directors and blockbuster productions. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead chose a different path.

Notably, Resolution later became the starting point for the duo's most famous film to date, The Endless. The filmmakers themselves joke that, being broke directors at the time of shooting Resolution, they never thought about creating their own cinematic universe. Yet the world of their debut work lingered with them for a long time. They discussed it in bar conversations and during breaks from other projects, jotting down ideas and concepts, which ultimately allowed them to make The Endless. The main condition Benson and Moorhead set for themselves was that the new film should be watchable without any connection to Resolution.

In between the two films of the same universe (by the way, check out an interesting article on DTF about the interconnection of the films), Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead participated in the anthology V/H/S/2 and made another unconventional horror film, Spring. Online, you can find descriptions of this work such as "body horror," "scary fairy tale," "a new variation of Beauty and the Beast," "a twist horror," and so on. All these descriptions are not far from the truth, because in this film, despite the typical horror wrapper under which the film was "sold" to audiences, the duo worked at the intersection of several genres.

The plot follows an American guy who goes on vacation to Italy, where he meets an incredibly beautiful woman with whom he instantly connects. The American quickly notices that his new flame is hiding something...

Spring, like other works by Moorhead and Benson, is conceptual cinema. It is based on an interesting reflection on where physiology ends and chemistry (read: love) begins.

After Spring, the film The Endless was born, which centered on several questions at once — time loops, family relationships, fear of the unknown. What sets Benson and Moorhead's work apart is their inventiveness. It would seem, what original can be told within a story focused on trapping characters in a time loop? What if you make several such loops? What if they have different durations? What if the characters do not resist this phenomenon but accept it as a blessing? These and many other moments in the film are precisely what the great originals Benson and Moorhead raise.

The duo themselves admit that after The Endless, interest from big studios noticeably increased, but they are in no hurry to accept the first offer that comes along. With your permission, here is a verbatim quote from the filmmakers that vividly reflects their stance on making big movies:

We see films being released — quite a lot of them, actually — that were offered to us or that we could have tried to make, and I'll be honest, saying "no" wasn't too hard. If the film isn't very good, the temptation is small. Two years of agony and shame at the end — what's there to dream about?

The duo did get to participate in a serious and notable project. They became part of the reboot of the famous series The Twilight Zone, directing one of the episodes of the show's second season.

Inventiveness in Details

The films directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are distinguished by a creative approach in literally every scene. This is due not only to the duo's creativity but also to a simple lack of funds for creating large-scale special effects or using expensive sets.

Yet the filmmakers do not wait for a windfall; they achieve worthy results with improvised means, excellent cinematography, and clever techniques. Just like many current film masters did in their time, from Steven Spielberg to Robert Zemeckis and Ridley Scott himself.

Often, they leave many episodes off-screen, which creates gripping and memorable scenes. Take, for example, the moment with the rope hanging in the sky from The Endless. The duo applies the same approach to producing, as they have recently started helping other aspiring filmmakers. For instance, in the film After Midnight, the monster is constantly outside the protagonist's door, which only adds to the fear of the unknown.

Benson, Moorhead, and New Hope

The work on inventive scenes combined with strong scripts gives Benson and Moorhead's films an additional charm of auteur cinema and instills hope that as long as there are such enthusiasts, interesting and original films will continue to delight audiences against the backdrop of multi-million dollar soulless studio creations.