THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS: Profile of Director Nick Simon

The Girl In The Photographs has the distinction of having one of the creepiest film stills in this year's Midnight Madness programme.

So who is the man behind this creepiest of film stills? Nick Simon.

Inspired by a short film he made at the AFI, writer/director Nick Simon's feature debut, Removal, got a lot of positive buzz in 2010. The story of a burned out man whose carpet-cleaning job is the only shred of normalcy in his troubled life, resonated with genre fans that enjoy twisty thrillers centered on unreliable narrators. And of course, it resonated with genre fans that enjoy a lot of blood (those carpet cleaners get called in for a reason, people).

After that, Simon worked on the script for. 2013's Cold Comes The Night, a gritty, low-key suspense film starring Alice Eve (The Raven) and everyone's favorite Heisenberg, Bryan Cranston. Directed by Tze Chun (who, along with Removal actor Oz Perkins, also wrote the script), Cold Comes The Night was also a crowd-pleaser.

That's the smile of a man who knows his movie is going to scare the hell out of you.

Simon's latest film, The Girl in the Photographs (one which he wrote and directed), is screening at the Festival this year as part of the Midnight Madness programme. Here's the scoop as to at least part of what's behind that creepy film still:

Colleen (Claudia Lee), a bored young woman in a sleepy community called Spearfish, starts receiving photographs of brutally murdered young women. Are they real or staged? The culprit is either a serial killer or some creep with a sick sense of humour, not that the cops are doing much about it either way.

But when news of the twisted photo campaign hits the internet, famous LA-based celebrity photographer Peter Hemmings (clearly a tip to David Hemmings' shutterbug character in Blow-Up, and played to hilariously arrogant perfection by Kal Penn) decides to take a trip back to his hometown, Spearfish, to investigate

Once again, Simon has collaborated on the script with Oz Perkins. Legendary cinematographer for John Carpenter, Dean Cundey (Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York), shot the film, while another horror legend, the recently departed Wes Craven, served as an executive producer.

Call us impressed! To find out the mystery of The Girl In The Photographs, you'll have to catch a screening, and you're in luck: there are three at this year's Festival.

THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS Screening Times:
Mon, Sept 14, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Wed, Sept 16, 5:00 PM SCOTIABANK 1
Fri, Sept 18, 9:15 PM SCOTIABANK 3