Jake West

Inspired by Sam Raimi's tongue-in-cheek horror classics "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead II," Jake West has become a successful independent horror director in his own right. After dropping out of film school in 1992, West leveraged his editing talents on several small projects to work up the money and experience necessary to put together his first feature, the low-budget horror movie "Razor Blade Smile." The film, which West wrote, produced, and directed, won a small but devoted fanbase for its story of a latex-clad vampire (Eileen Daly) who works as a contract killer in modern-day England. Since then West has written and directed several successful indie films: "Evil Aliens," a slapstick horror film that follows a hack news reporter on the trail of real-live aliens; and "Doghouse," a comedy thriller about four friends who go on a drinking holiday only to be met with crowds of man-hating female zombies. In 2006 he wrote and directed the TV movie "Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes," the third in the supernatural horror franchise about a vengeful demonic creature. In addition to his feature-length work, West has also edited and directed numerous DVD extras for films like "Scanners II: The New Order," the sequel to director David Cronenberg's sci-fi thriller "Scanners," and the cult 1979 fantasy horror movie "Phantasm."