Van Poynton

Director of unsparing horrors and thrillers

About

Multi-award-winning Dublin-based af director, etc, of “ominous… intense… virtuoso” genre cinema

Surreal psychological horror IN (3 minutes) will premiere at the 20th Abertoir Horror Festival, Wales, in Nov 2025
Watch the trailer

Dark psycho-horror Spillage (5 minutes) will premiere at the tenth edition of Nightmares, the “Cannes of horror,” in Columbus, Ohio, in Oct 2025, before hitting Georgia for the 19th Atlanta Horror Fest
Watch the trailer

Brisk psycho-chiller To the Marrow (8 minutes, 2023) competed for the prestigious Méliès d’Argent — the leading award for European genre cinema — at multiple fests between 2023-24, with Hard:Line, Germany, declaring it:
“Ominous… intense, suspenseful and aesthetically virtuoso” 
Watch at Crypt TV
Watch the trailer

Macabre crime thriller Make Room in Hell (82 minutes, 2019; as producer, co-writer, cinematographer, colorist, sound designer, title designer, etc);
Stylishdark… hardboiled… gritty… fascinating… unsettling… ominous… bold and unexpected” — Film Threat
Watch on Prime in UK or US or Tubi (US only)

Bizarre psycho-thriller The Nightmare of My Choice (80 minutes, 2016);
Stylishdark… beautiful… compelling… captivating… startling… genuinely remarkable… ultimately brilliant” — UK Film Review
Watch on Prime in UK or US or Tubi (US only)


Apocalyptic thriller The Late Men (79 minutes, 2013) won a “Special Award for Innovation in the New Cinema” and Best Actor at the 14th Melbourne Underground Film Festival — “Mesmeric… haunting… we invented a new award just for this… most daring film” — and was nominated for Excellence in Title Design at SXSW, Texas
Watch the SXSW-nominated title sequence


Horror Where the Monsters Go (12 minutes, 2009) premiered at Raindance, London, and played genre fests across the UK and US before scooping the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short from the seminal 3rd Babelgum Online Film Festival, earning it a special screening at Tribeca 2010
“Haunting and spooky and filled with authentic childhood memories” — William C. Martell, author of ‘The Secrets of Action Screenwriting’
Watch on Vimeo

Occasional, and occasionally competent, cinematographer, colorist, editor, graphic designer, photographer, sound designer, and title designer…

Developing a number of stylish and dark features.

Behaves ridiculously around animals.

Berlinale Talents alum.

Bald.