All 7 Directors Of Shudder's V/H/S Beyond & Their Film Careers Explained (2024)

V/H/S/Beyond features segments directed by seven filmmakers with varied horror experience. The upcoming movie is the seventh installment in the found footage franchise, which kicked off in 2012. Typically, each installment features a wraparound segment featuring a character or group of characters discovering a collection of tapes that contain the anthology's short films, which are written and directed by different teams. One installment a year debuted before a hiatus between 2014 and 2021, at which point the streaming service Shudder began premiering themed installments, again at yearly intervals, with the theme of Beyond set as science fiction.

Over the years, the V/H/S franchise has featured segments helmed by quite a few up-and-coming directors including Pearl's Ti West, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's Adam Wingard, and Loki's Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as well as more established horror filmmakers such as The Blair Witch Project's Edúardo Sanchez, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and The Strangers: Prey at Night's Johannes Roberts, and Sinister and The Black Phone's Scott Derrickson. The upcoming V/H/S/Beyond is no different, featuring several horror luminaries of the 2020s in addition to debut filmmakers and up-and-coming indie directors with buzzy projects under their belts.

Justin Martinez

Segment: "Live and Let Dive"

Justin Martinez is the only director from Beyond who has participated in one of the previous V/H/S movies, having been the co-director, co-writer, co-producer, and co-cinematographer on the segment "10/31/98" in the original installment as part of the filmmaking collective Radio Silence. Although he left the group before they rose to prominence working on movies including Ready or Not, Scream (2022), Scream VI, and Abigail, he has worked as a director, producer, and visual effects artist on many horror projects both with and without the team. See select horror titles that he has worked on below:

Jay Cheel

Segment: "A Special Presentation"

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While Jay Cheel is not known as a horror director, he has a connection with Shudder, having written and directed their docuseries Cursed Films about movies with streaks of on-set bad luck such as Poltergeist and The Exorcist. He is a longtime documentarian, having also directed 2016's How to Build a Time Machine and the 2008 mockumentary The Goblin Man of Norway. Since 2005, he has also been the co-host of Film Junk Podcast, which is the world record holder for the longest-running movie podcast.

Jordan Downey

Segment: "Stork"

Jordan Downey has been embroiled in the horror genre from the very beginning of his career, including a stint as an intern working under A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream director Wes Craven. In addition to a variety of shorts in the genre, he has helmed the Thanksgiving-themed horror movie ThanksKilling and its sequel, a pair of comic cult films that he later followed with the more contemplative fantasy-horror title The Head Hunter in 2018. That movie, his most recent full-length release at the time of writing, was a critical darling, earning a near-perfect 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Christian Long

Segment: "Fur Babies"

Christian Long is the only filmmaker in V/H/S/Beyond who co-directed their segment. This is in keeping with the rest of his career, as he has always partnered with his older brother Justin Long on his directorial projects, which include the miniseries The Real Stephen Blatt and the 2021 comedy Lady of the Manor, which stars Melanie Lynskey, Judy Greer, Justin Long, and Ryan Phillippe. Christian also co-wrote those projects with Justin, as well as the screenplay for the 2013 rom-com A Case of You, which was directed by She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Marry Me's Kat Coiro.

Justin Long

Segment: "Fur Babies"

Although he has co-directed projects with his brother Christian, Justin Long is better known as an actor. In addition to starring in a series of Apple commercials as "Mac" opposite John Hodgman as "PC," he has appeared in a variety of movies and shows including the 2006 comedies Accepted and Idiocracy and the 2007 action sequel Live Free or Die Hard. He has frequently dabbled in the horror genre, beginning with an early role in 2001's Jeepers Creepers and returning with increasing frequency in the 2020s. See a breakdown of the most notable Justin Long horror movies below:

Long is also set to continue his horror acting streak in the upcoming Spin the Bottle opposite Final Destination's Ali Larter and Annabelle's Tony Amendola. It remains to be seen if his co-directing career will begin to include more horror as well, but it seems that his work with Sam Raimi and Kevin Smith in the late 2000s and mid-2010s may have ignited a stronger passion for the genre, as he has taken a rapidly increasing number of horror-related projects in the new decade, including the twisty genre hit Barbarian.

Virat Pal

Segment: "Dream Girl"

Virat Pal is a writer-director who has primarily worked on shorts, beginning with the 2014 sci-fi time loop story Doxpara. Pal followed that with the 2016 feature-length thriller Recapture, which centered on a blind man with a phobia that he is being followed. That blossomed into a career directing darker and darker projects, as his next three shorts were all firmly in the horror genre. Below, see a breakdown of the short films that Pal has helmed since 2014:

Kate Siegel

Segment: "Stowaway"

Kate Siegel is another V/H/S contributor who is better known as an actor, as she will be making her directorial debut with her segment "Stowaway," which was written by her husband and frequent collaborator Mike Flanagan. Flanagan, who is himself well known in the horror genre as the creator behind notable Netflix shows like The Haunting of Hill House and the director of several Stephen King adaptations including Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep, frequently casts Siegel in his work. See a breakdown of Siegel's roles in previous Mike Flanagan horror projects below:

Siegel is also set to play a role in Flanagan's upcoming The Life of Chuck, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. While most of her horror genre experience prior to V/H/S/Beyond comes from her collaborations with Flanagan, she also brings experience in the science fiction genre from her work with other creators. This primarily comes from her recurring role as Annette DeTamble in the Netflix series The Time Traveler's Wife, an adaptation of the 2003 Audrey Niffenegger novel of the same name starring Rose Leslie and Theo James.

V/H/S/Beyond

V/H/S/Beyond is the seventh entry in the long-running horror anthology series. V/H/S/Beyond is a collection of six different horror shorts with their own creative teams. Unlike other entries in the V/H/S franchise, V/H/S/Beyond focuses on horror that leans into sci-fi.

Director

Jordan Downey , Christian Long , Justin Long , Justin Martinez , Virat Pal , Kate Siegel , Jay Cheel

Release Date

October 4, 2024