Justin Benson

Justin Benson

Date of Birth: June 9, 1983

American director, writer, producer and actor Justin Benson was born in San Diego, California and first met his future filmmaking partner, Aaron Moorhead, while the two were interning at RSA, Ridley Scott’s commercial production company. They bonded over their shared love of filmmaking and had a mutual respect for each other’s work ethic.

Benson was just starting his internship and Moorhead was just finishing, but they hit it off and paired up as creative collaborators. They divide the work equally among themselves by co-directing their pictures and sharing the duties of producing and editing. Individually, Benson is the screenwriter and Moorhead is the cinematographer.

The team first gained recognition with their massively low-budget festival-hit horror film Resolution (2012). The film’s budget was so micro that the film didn’t have any score. In spite of this, it gained critical acclaim and the two were awarded Best Director at the 2013 Macabro Awards. They also won Best Director at the 2013 Fantastic Planet film festival and at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, the film won four awards, including for Best Screenplay.

After the success of Resolution, Benson and Moorhead followed up with another independent horror film titled Spring (2015), this time with a much larger budget. The two were named "Directors to Watch" at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2015 and earned high praise for their film from such prominent filmmakers as Guillermo del Toro.

They also had their short film “Bonestorm” featured in the anthology horror film V/H/S: Viral (2014).

Variety listed Benson and Moorhead as part of their “10 Directors to Watch” feature in 2015. Their latest project was the supernatural thriller The Endless (2018), in which the two starred as brothers Aaron and Justin who have escaped from a “UFO death cult” but return to visit it years later.

On his writing process, Benson has revealed he will often lock himself in his apartment for upwards of 12 hours a day to write. He cites reading lots of comic books such as Preacher as also being part of his process. The directors and filmmakers that inspire Benson include Peter Jackson, Richard Linklater and Zack Snyder, among others.

Filmography:
The Endless (2018)
Spring (2015)
V/H/S: Viral (segment “Bonestorm”) (2014)
Resolution (2012)