Over the past decade, Canadian filmmaker Brandon Christensen has carved out a unique place in the horror genre, delivering creepy, atmospheric films that continue to resonate with fans. From psychological nightmares, slashers and supernatural chillers to found-footage terror, Brandon has built a varied body of work within the genre.
His 2017 feature debut, Still/Born, became a breakout success on streaming platform Shudder, launching a longstanding creative relationship with the service. Since then, he has continued to deliver a string of acclaimed genre films, including Z (2019), Superhost (2021), The Puppetman (2023), Night of the Reaper (2025), and his most recent feature, the found-footage horror Bodycam (2026).
In our latest digital feature, Brandon Christensen opens up about his career in horror, why the genre has always felt like home, the growing community of fans embracing his films, the creative process behind Bodycam and Night of the Reaper, and the advice that continues to shape his approach to filmmaking.
Exclusive photos for Popternative Magazine by Mike Ng
What’s it like being a horror filmmaker in today’s horror landscape, and did you always see yourself building a career in the genre?
Brandon: You know, it was always my dream to be a filmmaker. I didn’t necessarily come into this career wanting to be a ‘horror filmmaker’, but it’s what I always surrounded myself with. In the early 2010’s, I’d be making horror short films, I grew up watching it, and it kind of became a natural extension of what I was already doing. Horror has become this behemoth because of how flexible it is. There’s a reason so many big filmmakers come out with horror. Cregger, Barker, Peele etc – horror is such a great introduction for a filmmaker because of how director focused it is. You don’t need a million dollars to cast an A-Lister (it would certainly help!), but the idea, the gimmick and the root of your horror is what sells the picture.
Photography: Mike Ng.
Brandon: If you have a great idea, and a cool way to execute it – that’s all the audience wants. They’re not looking for anything beyond that, they just want to see fresh takes on what you as a director find scary. Sometimes it can work, sometimes it doesn’t – but right now there’s no other genre that allows that kind of freedom. So to come up loving this genre, it was such a natural fit to try my hand at it. And the community has been so welcoming that it’s incredibly addicting to want to keep trying to show them something new, to push myself a little harder each time. It can go away at any moment, so give it all you got while you can.
When did it first sink in that your films had become part of horror movie marathon viewing?
Brandon: Horror is such an interesting subgenre because the horror watching community is so ravenous for it. Each year fans of the genre builds lists of movies to watch during October, how many horror films can they see in 31 days? And to have some of my titles, older and newer, become repeat watches for people is incredibly humbling. It’s the same way I’d have my favorite rentals at my local Sasz Video back in the 90’s.
Brandon: There’s a festival in Colorado Springs called Six Feet Under and they’ve done two nights over the years devoted to screening some of my films. That’s such an insane honor as someone who is still outside of the cultural zeitgest, banging on the door as I keep trying to get in. At the end of the day, if I were to tell my 18 year old self that in 20 years I’d have a small group of people coming out solely to see my films – I’d say you were crazy. But somehow it happened, and it drives me to continue to want to make more to continue building an audience.
Photography: Mike Ng.
Found footage horror lives or dies by its sense of immersion. How did you balance realism with delivering the genre’s bigger horror moments in Bodycam?
Brandon: Keeping the aesthetic at the center of Bodycam was a big thing I didn’t want to compromise on. There were discussions early about incorporating other viewpoints to help, but I was firm on wanting to remain in the camera’s established in the first 45 seconds of the film. It created issues with certain moments when the officers split up where you knew you’d never see the reaction to something, you’d only be witness to it – the same way the officer would. And I think with first person videogames being so popular, most of the audience was able to get that. Instead of experiencing it through the character, you’re experiencing it yourself. Every dark corner getting exposed by the flashlight, there’s no compromising the tension of the moment by cutting – you’re just exploring a horrible space and hoping there’s nothing there. And when there is…well that sucks for you.
Brandon: The biggest difference for me was the balance of horror when you strip such a huge component in the music for the film. It was another thing I didn’t want to cheat with. If there’s music in the scene, it can be in the movie, but there wasn’t going to be any sort of score enhancing the tension of the film. So what happened is that my sound mixer and designer Joe Barrucco at Timeline Audio created these location sound scapes that filled in that space. So the hum of a boiler room acts as the score for the scene and slowly builds with the tension, he did such a fantastic job giving each space its own ‘feeling’ just with blending real world sounds. That was a big challenge, balancing how much you can push into the soundscape to drive some of the horror.
Night of the Reaper has such a nostalgic Halloween atmosphere. Was was it like blending that with slasher elements?
Brandon: Night of the Reaper has been a passion film of mine for years. I grew up watching films like When A Stranger Calls, Halloween, Scream – and with films like House of the Devil perfectly nailing the 80s babysitter vibe, we knew we had to subvert ‘the babysitter’ film in some way. That’s where the revenge story came from. Putting it in the 80s creates a purity to the story that you don’t get with cell phones, and the 24/7 online connection we all have. I wanted to put us in a situation where you’re in a remote house and you’re hearing creepy things. There’s no safety anywhere near you outside of a corded telephone, and only if you can reach it in time.
Brandon: So instead of the film just being ‘one thing’, we made it a lot of different things – with nods to some of those aforementioned films. Some of the nods blatant, some of them more in spirit. And it became kind of a melting pot of things I loved growing up (and continue to love) bleeding nostalgia and newer ideas into what it became. I will say that it’s certainly made me want to go all out and do an actual, proper slasher film though. Hopefully one day!
Photography: Mike Ng.
What is some of the best advice someone has ever given you about filmmaking?
Brandon: Honestly, the same advice I always received is the same advice I give. We live in a time when you can carry a cinema-quality camera in your pocket. There’s no technical barrier to making things anymore. If you want it, you need to go out and practice. Like anything, you need to practice because 99% of the time – your first attempts are going to be terrible. But you learn from it. You don’t sit down at a piano and just start playing perfectly. You need to try, try and try again. And then continue to try, continue to better yourself and learn from your mistakes.
Brandon: At the end of the day, there’s a million reasons not to do something. But if you truly want it, you have to be willing to try. You have to put yourself out there and just do it. That’s the advice I was given, and I strongly believe in it. To be a filmmaker, the tools are available, but the mindset of knowing the grind it will be has to be there. Age doesn’t matter, drive does. It’s never too late to start, so why not start now?
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Bodycam is streaming on Shudder.
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