Thanks again to the Winnipeg Film Group for hosting me + Don McKellar for a screening of THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM before David Gregory's THEATRE OF HORRORS (both from @severinfilms.bsky.social), we had a ton of fun, arrived in the middle of a blizzard, and even stayed in a haunted hotel!

A special short film gets some love from @stephenbroomer.bsky.social in this month's NORTHERN LIGHT. I think I first saw it projected onto a wall on Winnipeg's Main Street, where it is set.

Happy New Year everyone! Here's my list of fave new films of 2025: AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE INVENTION IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU LEVERS THE ICE TOWER REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND GOOD BOY MOTHER OF FLIES CAMP BRING HER BACK

I tried to keep the animation in THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM a secret for a long time, but now that it's out I want to give a massive shout-out to my animator Anna Malina Zemlianski! Follow her brilliant work at www.annamalina.com Here's an outtake from the animated sequence.

Tomorrow in Kansas City! The last screening of my film for the season ❄️

Some of you may remember MAINSTREET SOLDIER from @severinfilms.bsky.social OUT OF THE BLUE disc because it's by OOTB's original director Leonard Yakir (whose creative influence, I would argue, is still very much present in the finished film). New ep of video essay series Northern Light drops Jan 1

Watch the delightful short ROGER IS A SERIAL KILLER featuring @barbaracrampton.bsky.social over at @fangoria.bsky.social if you need a quick holiday pick-me-up. www.fangoria.com/roger-is-a-s...

So this happened last night! I wasn't interviewed by Ted Koppel but I did appear on ABC's NIGHTLINE briefly for a holiday horror segment on Christmas Eve, which included a mention of my @severinfilms.bsky.social series THE HAUNTED SEASON on @shudder.com ! See here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxrh...

I bought this shower curtain for my friend last christmas as a joke gift and very happy to see she's actually using it

Watched the new Ghost Story for Christmas, Mark Gatiss' adaptation of E.F. Benson's "The Room in the Tower," definitely one of his best!! Loved the added framing to the story (which I hadn't read til today) and it had some surprising crossover with mine! Also I will watch Tobias Menzies in anything.

Adam Scovell’s marvellous mission to investigate how the locations of A Ghost Story for Christmas look now.

TONIGHT at The Beacon in Seattle my film plays w/ the rarely-screened SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER (1979) one of several terrific seasonal ghost stories that surrounded the original BBC series A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS and were subsequently adopted into the canon. thebeacon.film/calendar/mov...

I love Ben's choices of favourite ghost stories

Happy Solstice everyone! I took this picture of Boscawen Ros in Southern Cornwall earlier this fall, but on winter solstice five years ago, in 2020, it became the subject of a film by Christopher Morris documenting a yearlong vigil. In 2026 I'll have some exciting news to share about this film. 🖤

David Gregory's doc THEATRE OF HORRORS about Paris' notorious Grand Guignol theatre (which I co-produced) in today's @winnipegfreepress.com thanks to @freepking.bsky.social! (Also mentions Don McKellar's live appearance to intro my short playing beforehand) www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-lif...

My world is made infinitely more interesting, weird, surprising and beautiful by the work and unique perspectives of trans and gender non-conforming youth. Let's keep supporting the trans kids and ditch those other clowns who contribute nothing to the culture whatsoever.

I loved this movie

Tickled to have a piece on The Gong Show Movie (a movie I so love) in The Robert Downey Sr Reader edited by @kierlajanisse.bsky.social and @clintenns and it's chockful of so many essays by a wide range of smart folks all about this unique film maverick. Get your copy at spectacularoptical.com

With Christmas drawing near, it's time to share my annual thread of Ghost Stories for Christmas Eve... 👻🎄❄️ Starting, somewhat self-servingly, with my own THE DEAD OF WINTER, which is now available to watch on Amazon Prime as part of this ShortsTV compilation: watch.amazon.co.uk/detail?gti=a...

Gift Link: www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/16/c...

I could have probably listed a hundred cinematic influences, but these are the big ones that were top of my mind.

A big thanks of gratitude to @kierlajanisse.bsky.social for making this happen! 🙏 As a fan of Downey Sr's irreverent style of independent filmmaking for many years, I'm over the moon this underappreciated artist is finally receiving his due. #FilmSky #BookSky

The cultural impact of Rob Reiner cannot be understated. Legend isn't big enough a word. It goes to 11. You can't handle the truth. As you wish. I'll have what she's having. I'm your number one fan. You guys wanna see a dead body? The very idea of a bucket list. The West Wing. All from his movies.

Today is the 13th anniversary of Sandy Hook and it is gut wrenching that this country learned absolutely nothing from that horrific tragedy. It is just one tragic piece of news after another today. I am tired. We are all tired. It’s just never ending grief.

New xmas tree ornament, bought at the @celluloidscreams.bsky.social market in October!

Just over a week til the inaugural Winter's Wake - a celebration of the seasonal ghost story on Pender Island, BC, Canada - featuring the gulf islands premiere of THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM. Few tickets remain: share.google/BGJvVgsrTHQl...

This is a classic example of the need to reclaim the means of production. Academic publishing should be a workers’ cooperative that pays all its contributors and re-invests any ‘profit’.

BLOG POST: Another batch of spooky stories, mostly made for TV, that I think capture something of the vibe of the Lawrence Gordon Clark era of BBC ghost stories for Christmas. precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/12/11/a...

It might seem ridiculous to have a 300pg book about the Black Emanuelle films in that massive "Sensual World of" boxset, but it ends up that it has some of the most thought provoking essays exploring feminism in exploitation that I've read. Great job editor @kierlajanisse.bsky.social !

With Severin Films’ THE HAUNTED SEASON: THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM now streaming on Shudder, we spoke with director Kier-La Janisse all about festive frights and Christmas ghost stories.

New at @dreadcentral.bsky.social, I reviewed @kierlajanisse.bsky.social's excellent narrative film debut, THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM, a fantastic Christmas ghost story you can watch on Shudder right now! www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/5508...

UPDATED SCREENINGS! More screenings for THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM added: Dec 6th at @triskelartscentre.bsky.social w BLACK CHRISTMAS, Dec 23 at the Beacon in Seattle w A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS, and Dec 30 at Stray Cat Film Center in KCMO w/ Sean Hogan's "To Fire You Come at Last"

So many talented Austin friends make up this picture's amazing cast and crew. If you missed #ManFindsTape on its festival run, you can rent or buy the film via VOD this Friday (and it's available for pre-order on a few platforms already)!

This Giving Tuesday please send @scarecrowvideo.bsky.social cold hard cash from your bank account. Support physical media, you won't regret it. Thank you for keeping us going. 📼 ❤️ (also send your fav youtube hosts presents) scarecrow.app.neoncrm.com/forms/giving...

THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM is an excellent ghost story for Christmas and one of the best examples of the genre in recent years by a long way - both traditional and innovative work from @kierlajanisse.bsky.social If you have access to watch it, I highly recommend it!

🚨ONLY 20 TICKETS LEFT!🚨 Tonight at LF3 / @analogdirectory.org: join us for a special @severinfilms.bsky.social double feature of THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM & THEATRE OF HORRORS. Come early for the Severin Pop-up Shop onsite. 🎟️: tinyurl.com/mj69u5ep

MJ's @themeatispeople.bsky.social says, "THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM is the sort of film that is haunting in the truest sense, its chill settling deep in the bones." Check out @kierlajanisse.bsky.social first narrative outing streaming on @shudder.com #theoccupantoftheroom #nowstreaming #shudder

Look who got a section on the @arrowplayer.bsky.social this month! I got to pick whatever films I wanted out of their catalogue - I limited it to ten films, and some won't be available in all territories, but you can read the full list of what I chose here: www.arrow-player.com/kier-la-jani...

NEW episode of @stephenbroomer.bsky.social 's video essay series NORTHERN LIGHT is up! This one exploring the tragic tale of George Melford and Lewis Varick Frissell’s The Viking (1931) spectacularoptical.com/video-essays...

"an Alpine traveler possessed by a previous hotel guest’s dark despair": @kierlajanisse.bsky.social's 'Ghost story for Christmas' THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM (2025) is on Shudder from today. projectedfigures.com/2025/10/23/t...

I buy a lot of books. TOO MANY BOOKS. But if you care to know which non-fiction books stood out to me most this year, I've whittled it down to ten choices, which you can read about on my website here:

Very excited that my first narrative film is not only premiering on @shudder.com tomorrow, but that it's also getting so many screenings!! Being a 30-minute film I didn't expect it to get any theatrical play, so the fact that all these venues programmed it to support features is a huge deal to me.🖤

Udo in my living room circa 2001, holding the blow-up doll from Jorg Buttgereit's SCHRAMM (that's Ant Timpson on his right) Thanks to my friend Dave Pikker for unearthing the pic

THE FUTURE IS CANCELLED! Check out this cool bundle you can get with the @severinfilms.bsky.social blu ray/UHD of THE FINAL PROGRAMME plus @pulpcurry.bsky.social + Iain McIntyre's essential Radical SF lit companion DANGEROUS VISIONS AND NEW WORLDS - Black Friday at severinfilms.com

A while back I was on @severinfilms.bsky.social BluRay of “Viy”, talking about Russian/Soviet horror & scifi. Here’s a @letterboxd.social list of the films I mentioned, plus more. It’s still very incomplete, so I might expand it, but it’s a sort of starter pack to the subject. boxd.it/QjiKI/detail

Udo took a chance on my rinky-dink festival in Vancouver back in 2000 - he went on TV interviews with me, carried 35mm film prints up stairs, went to get me coffee and even live-dubbed Giancarlo Giannini's voice when BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA showed up without subs. RIP Udo, you were a star 🌟

The Ghost Story for Christmas Eve this year is M R James's "An Episode of Cathedral History". It'll be livestreamed at 7pm (UK) but available to watch anywhere, anytime after that. Simply register and pay-what-you-can here christmascathedralghosts.eventbrite.co.uk art by Paul Lowe

One of two @severinfilms.bsky.social Black Friday titles I produced, featuring a new interview with author Michael Moorcock, the original UK hardcover book art by Mal Dean as a limited edition slipcase, and new art by Jacob Rolfe (illustrator and TRAILER PARK BOYS star) for the wrap!

Guess where we spent the night courtesy of @kierlajanisse.bsky.social ‘s kind wedding gift 🎁 ? clue is it’s a famous mansion from a great old horror movie!!

CHICAGO! Here's a chance to see my short film THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM on the big screen, in support of the gorgeous, snowy sequel THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE. What an inspired pairing! Sunday Dec 7th at 6:45pm at the historic @musicboxtheatre.bsky.social