Note: This story was updated on Oct. 17, 2025.

Philadelphia has close ties to some notably spooky films and TV shows, so it should come as no surprise that Temple has produced its share of horror film and TV directors. From directing reboots of horror classics to introducing their own bone-chilling creations, these alumni are making an impact in the horror industry. 

Monica Suriyage, TFM ’14 

Monica Suriyage has quickly made a name for herself as the newest addition to Temple’s roster of alumni horror directors. She received praise for her debut short film, Black in Red Out, which led to her being featured in the documentary Horror Noire alongside renowned horror director Jordan Peele. Her latest horror short, La Ciguapa Siempre, premiered at the 2021 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and was included in the 2022 Philadelphia Latino Film Festival. The short film earned a 2023 Oscar award consideration after winning Best Narrative Short at the 2021 Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival.  

Dan Trachtenberg, TFM ’03 

Dan Trachtenberg burst onto the horror scene and made his directorial debut with 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016. The film was a success with critics and at the box office, and Trachtenberg earned a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding Directing—First-time Feature Film for his directorial work. He also directed the 2016 Black Mirror episode “Playtest,” about a man testing out a futuristic, augmented reality video game. He directed and co-wrote Prey, the fifth installment in the Predator series, which was released in July of 2022. Predator: Badlands, the follow-up to Prey, hits theaters soon on Nov. 7, 2025. Trachtenberg co-wrote and directed the film. 

Gary Dauberman, TFM ’02 

Fans of the Conjuring horror film series will be familiar with Gary Dauberman’s work. The series currently includes eight films, beginning with 2013’s The Conjuring. Dauberman made his directorial debut with 2019’s Annabelle Comes Home, the seventh film in the series, and he served as a writer for Annabelle, Annabelle Creation and The Nun—the series’ second, fourth and fifth films, respectively. He also co-wrote the screenplay for It (2017), based on the iconic Stephen King novel of the same name, and was the sole screenwriter for the sequel, It Chapter Two (2019). He added another directorial credit with 2024’s Salem’s Lot, and more recently he wrote and produced 2025’s Until Dawn. Next up, he’ll be producing the upcoming sequel to 2019’s The Curse of La Llarona, titled The Revenge of La Llarona. 

Ben Semanoff, TFM ’01 

Ben Semanoff has a long (and terrifying) resume directing thrillers and horror for TV and film. He’s earned director credits for series like Ozark, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Candy, One of Us Is Lying and Yellowjackets, which follows a high school girls soccer team that survived a plane crash in the Candian wilderness. He earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for Ozark season three episode “Su Casa Es Mi Casa,” and his latest project was as director on Netflix’s Black Rabbit. 

Stephen Cognetti, TFM ’04 

After a brief stint making comedic short films, Stephen Cognetti found his true calling: horror. Fast forward to now, and Cognetti is known for his work directing the Hell House LLC series of movies. The most recent of these, Hell House LLC: Lineage, drops on Shudder just in time for Halloween: Oct. 30, 2025. Earlier this year he also released 825 Forest Road, the first non-Hell House LLC work in his filmography.