Before tackling Moon Knight alongside Mohamed Diab, directing duo Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson made a name for themselves by creating original and brain-twisting science fiction horror stories. Often working with low budgets, the directors are bigger on ideas than spectacle. Now, with their help in directing two episodes of Moon Knight, Moorhead and Benson will surely be able to grow and receive a chance to showcase their filmmaking abilities in front of a broader audience.
Like the best directing duos, the pair of longtime friends seem to always be on the same page for their films. While both of them share the directing and editing duties, Benson is the one that writes the scripts, and Moorhead works the cinematography for each film. Another benefit of working with a companion, Moorhead and Benson seem to be using their partnership as a way of constantly pushing one another to top themselves. Whether it's time loops or extraterrestrial visitors, it’s clear that the two share a fascination for heady science fiction themes, and they aren’t worried about their ideas being too big for their films’ budgets. Here are all of their films made before Moon Knight, ranked from worst to best.
5. V/H/S: Viral - Segment “Bonestorm” (2014)
In the third entry for the V/H/S found footage franchise, Moorhead and Benson direct a segment about skateboarders recording their dangerous jumps. Trying to find a fresh area to perform their tricks, the skateboarders and their videographer travel to a remote spot in Tijuana, Mexico. When the crew accidentally stumbles upon a cultist summoning ground, the skateboarders find themselves having to fend off hordes of cloaked cultists in order to survive.
Using the trademark found footage aesthetic of the series, Moorhead and Benson cleverly interweave handheld camera shots with footage from the action camera strapped to the helmets of the skateboarders. The editing is particularly effective during the fight sequences as the tight framing of the actions cameras enhances the claustrophobic feeling of the skateboarders being surrounded by cultists. The segment stands out among the others in the film, but the amusement offered isn’t nearly as interesting as any of the ideas presented in the pair’s full-length features.
4. Synchronic (2019)
Getting a bigger budget to play around with for Synchronic, Moorhead and Benson use that money to cast some big-name actors like Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. The two stars play paramedics who learn about a new synthetic drug that causes users to travel through time. After a young girl gets trapped in the past, Anthony Mackie’s Steve begins testing with the drug to plan a course of rescue. As he experiments with the time-bending substance, he quickly learns that time travel mileage varies depending on the color of your skin.
Moorhead and Benson may not be the first filmmakers to explore race through a time-travel premise – Men in Black III tackled the subject with surprisingly nuance – but they certainly earn points for ambitiously exploring their topic with a comparatively smaller budget. In each of their films, one of the most laudable aspects of them is that the ideas never feel suppressed in order to fit within the constraints of their budget. The duo will always err on the side of biting off more than they can chew, but in Synchronic, when they actually get a bigger budget to play around with, they seem to be paralyzed by the possibilities. Beyond the initial cleverness of the premise, the film fails to expand or truly make something memorable out of it. The film feels like a timid first step out the front door of the micro-budget indie house. The potential is still there, and they will surely embrace the open air for Moon Knight.
3. The Endless (2017)
Benson and Moorhead star as the two leads in The Endless. After escaping a death cult when they were younger, the directors play brothers who return to their old home years later. Moorhead plays the older brother Aaron, who prides himself on safely getting him and his younger brother out before anything tragic happened. Benson, playing the younger brother Justin, is fed up with living his life according to his older brother’s wishes and begins to believe his brother lied about their cult upbringing.
Undoubtedly the duo’s most brain-melting film, The Endless is also their most character-based entry. When the two arrive back at the camp, they reunite with people from their upbringing. Hal (Tate Ellington) and Anna (Callie Hernandez) are two people they knew growing up, but when they return, many unresolved questions come back to the forefront. The film thrives in its objectivity to the material. The film doesn’t pick a side between the brothers or the cultists, and by the time everything is revealed, none of that really matters anyway.
2. Resolution (2012)
Working with a microscopic-sized budget, this directorial debut quickly announced the arrival of Moorhead and Benson’s idiosyncratic brand of science fiction and horror. The story follows Michael (Peter Cilella), a man who forces his junkie friend Chris (Vinny Curran) through a week of sobriety by handcuffing him inside a cabin. Over the course of the week, strange events start to happen to the two of them. Some of the events can eventually be explained away, but others are inexplicable.
With its minimal cast, the weight of the story falls squarely on the shoulders of Cilella and Curran, and the two of them are stellar. Their banter can go from hilarious to heartbreaking in the span of a few minutes. Together with Moorhead’s unnervingly voyeuristic cinematography, the performances help the film remain grounded even as the mysterious events begin to border on the supernatural. Resolution is one of the best debuts of the 2010s and immediately signaled great things ahead for Moorhead and Benson.
1. Spring (2014)
When you think of Lovecraft, your next thought may not be “love story,” but that’s precisely the direction Moorhead and Benson go with their sophomore feature. Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) has just lost his mother and feels his life is spiraling out of control. He flees to Italy where he meets an alluring young woman named Louise (Nadia Hilker). The two hit it off immediately, but when Evan hopes to get closer, Louise clams up, fearing that a dark secret she harbors might cause him harm.
Sure, it’s hard to make the rustic Italian countryside look unappealing through a camera, but Moorhead’s marriage of the green foliage with his warm color palette is a gorgeous combination. Among all of the films the duo has directed, Spring stands out because it feels like it is an idea that finally fits comfortably within the confines of the film’s budget. Though that’s not to say it's unambitious. The camera certainly does not shy away from any opportunity to enhance a sequence with an eerie use of special effects. But as a whole, Spring feels like the directing pair’s most complete and realized film. Romantic and terrifying in equal parts, it may not be a tale as old as time, but it’s a tale that will stand the test of time.