About.

I was born and raised in Toronto, living there for over 30 years, and currently reside in Montréal. I have also spent some years living in London, Madrid, and several months in Cairo.I am a Contributing Editor for ScreenAnarchy, a leading website for film news and reviews, with emphasis on fantastic genre cinema and independent film from around the world. I have written essays for Blu-ray and DVD releases of films such as Black Book (Paul Verhoeven, 2006), The House that Screamed (Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, 1969), The Krays (Peter Medak, 1990), Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003), and The Long Walk (Mattie Do, 2019). I have also written for Little White Lies, Fangoria, Broadview Magazine, Panorama-cinéma, and Clin d’oeil.I was Operations Director and Programmer for Toronto After Dark Film Festival, and the short film programmer for FrightFest for nearly 10 years. Currently, I am a programmer for Wench Film Festival in India, and on the programming team for Shorts Not Pants Film Festival in Toronto. I recently programmed a catalogue of fantastic genre films for AVA Library in Germany.I began script consulting several years with the Harold Greenberg Fund, and currently do freelance analysis and coverage for scripts, mainly focusing on horror and science fiction. I also consult on festival strategies for short and feature films.

I completed my undergraduate degree at University of Toronto in 2004, majoring in literary studies. I then went on to a Masters degree in cinema studies, also at UofT, with a thesis entitled “Children, The Fantastic & The Uncanny in Pan’s Labyrinth & The Devil’s Backbone”. I completed my PhD at Kings College London, with my thesis on the fantastic genre cinema of Spain. This was published as a book in 2016, The Spanish Fantastic: Contemporary Filmmaking in Horror, Fantasy and Sci Fi, with Bloomsbury. I have spoken at several conferences in Canada, the USA, and Europe, speaking on films and television shows such as Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972), [REC] (Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, 2007), The Good Place (Michael Schur, 2016-2020), and Yellowjackets (Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, 2021-). I have taught courses at University of Hertfordshire and University of the Arts, London.I worked with The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies for two years as Executive Director and Online Branch Director. I have hosted events at Southbank Centre, BFI London, as well as participated in interviews for documentaries on Italian and Spanish genre cinema.I have an intermediate level of French for writing and speaking, and a basic level of Spanish.

Film Writing.

Film Criticism

Reviews, 2021 - present, Contributing Editor (ScreenAnarchy)Hayloft Reckoning: Women Talking (Broadview Magazine, January 2023)Zombie Fight Club (Sight & Sound, October 2015)1971 (Sight & Sound, August 2015)Mad Max: Fury Road (Vérité, May 2015)Force Majeure (Vérité, April, 2015)The Tribe (Vérité, October 2014)Nightcrawler (Vérité, October 2014)My Life Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn (Vérité, September 2014)

Selected Journal Articles

L’horreur polie fait vendre : Cannibal Girls et l’époque du « tax shelter » (Panorama-cinéma, July 2023)Goin’ Back Down the Road : Première tournée du cinéma de l'Atlantique canadien Guest Editor. (Panorama-cinéma, November 2022)Pourquoi l’horreur? Les femmes et le cinema fantastique (Clin d’oeil, October 2022)Preview: Woodlands Dark & Days Bewitched (Fangoria, October 2021)The Dawn of the Hunter: Robert Mitchum & When Strangers Marry, co-authored with Simon Laperrière. (La Furia Umana, Issue 35)Review, Spanish Cinema 1973 – 2010: Auteurism, politics, landscape and memory, Maria M. Delgado and Robin Fiddian, eds. (New Cinemas Journal of Contemporary Film, September 2014)Don’t Miss a Bloody Thing: [REC] and the Spanish Adaptation of Found Footage Horror (Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, October 2013)Deleuze and the Time Image: A Cinema of the Virtual Mind (Philament 18, November 2012)

Book & Book Chapters

“Gargantuan” in Ailien Realms: Transdimensional Horror Movie Posters & Their Film Reviews, by Pat Tremblay et al.The Spanish Fantastic: Contemporary Filmmaking in Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi (I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2016)“Deadly Hybridity: Sexykiller, the Female Serial Killer & The New Spanish Horror Film.” In (Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema, edited by Duncan Wheeler and Fernando Canet (Intellect, 2014)

Blu-ray & DVD Essays

One Life Left: Where Survival Horror Films and Games Meet in You’re Next (You're Next, Second Sight Films)Desert Island Bands & Red Laces: Identity as Performance in Green Room (Green Room, Second Sight Films)The Horror That Screamed: La Residencia (The House That Screamed, Arrow Films)Time Does Not Heal All Wounds: Grief in The Changeling (The Changeling, Second Sight FIlms)Wandering Ghosts: Mattie Do’s The Long Walk (The Long Walk, Yellow Veil Pictures)Everybody Wants a Thrill: The Many Shades of Monster (Monster, Second Sight Films)Maximal Escape: Chema García Ibarra’s The Sacred Spirit (The Sacred Spirit, Arrow Films UK)Into the Woods: The Witch as Folk Horror & Fairy Tale (The Witch, Second Sight Films)The Krays: The Glamour of Fear (The Krays, Second Sight Films)A Cordial Animal? Gabriela Amaral Almeida’s Friendly Beast (Friendly Beast, Bildstörung Films)Return to the Homefront: Paul Verhoeven's Black Book (Black Book, 101 Films)

Conference Papers

"Migrating Ghosts: The Post/De-Colonial Gothic of His House" Gothic Trans / Iterations
17th Biannual Conference of the International Gothic Association
July 30-August 2, 2024. Halifax, Nova Scotia, CanadaGirls Who Run with the Wolves: A Topography of Survival in Yellowjackets
No Return: A Yellowjackets Symposium. Online, June 2022. Organized by BAFTSS Horror Studies SIG.“What We Owe to The Good Place”. OFF-CIEL X, Montréal, March 2019“Bastard Sons: Álex de la Iglesia and the Spanish Fantastic New Wave”. SCMS Annual Conference, Atlanta, March 2016“Don’t Miss a Bloody Thing: [REC] and the Spanish Adaptation of Found Footage Horror” El Congreso Internacional Hispanic Cinemas, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, November 2012“The Nation Fantastic: Contemporary Spanish Fantastic Film & The Question of National Cinema” Time Networks: Screen Media and Memory, NECS Annual Conference, Lisbon, June 2012“Deadly Hybridity: The Female Serial Killer & The New Spanish Horror Film”
(S)Movies: Contemporary Spanish Cinema International Conference, New York, December 2011“The First Person Camera in Contemporary Horror Film & Video Games: A Fictional Reality” 12th Annual Graduate Colloquium, Film Studies Association of Canada, Carleton University, Ottawa, February 2010"Exploring Rooms in Space: The Space Station in Solaris" Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries and Beyond Conference. Film & History Journal, University of Wisconsin, Chicago, October 2008

Selected Guest Lectures, Panels, & Interviews

Cinema at the Margins: Eloy de la Iglesia, Interviewee (Cannibal Man, Severin Films)From Metropolis to Mad Max: Kick-Ass Women in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Panel Moderator and Speaker. Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, October 2016. Organized by European Women’s Audiovisual NetworkEaten Alive: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Cannibal Film, Interviewee (Cannibal Ferox, Grindhouse Releasing)From Bram Stoker to Glam Stalker: Women in Horror, Panel Moderator and Speaker. Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, October 2013. Organized by European Women’s Audiovisual NetworkIda Be Thy Name, Interviewee (Motel Hell, Scream Factory)Luis Buñuel: The Early Paris Years, Guest Speaker. The Rest is Noise Festival, Southbank Centre, February 2013From Romero to Rome: The Rise & Fall of the Italian Zombie Film, Interviewee (Zombi Holocaust, 88 Films)Nightmares in a Lynchian Brain: Exploring David Lynch's Neurocinema, Panel Moderator. BFI Southbank, February 2012

Programming & Curation.

I have been programming for film festivals for over a decade. I began with Toronto After Dark Film Festival in 2006. While working as Operations Director, I pre-screened short films, which eventually lead to programming features. In 2014, I joined FrightFest in the UK, programming the short film showcase, During my tenure, we added showcases to the programming and doubled the submission rate.Both of these festivals gave me the opportunity to explore my love of fantastic genre film, and of short films. The latter allows for new filmmakers to hone their craft, and established filmmakers to try new ideas and stretch their skills. Fantastic genre film has become increasingly important in the 21st century, as more filmmakers embrace horror, science fiction, and the fantastic.Currently, I am a programmer with Wench Film Festival, the first festival in India dedicated to fantastic genre cinema by women and non-binary filmmakers. I am also a member of the programming team for Shorts Not Pants Film Festival, which showcases short films from around the world.I have also curated a selection of fantastic genre films for AVA Library, an SVoD service dedicated to providing independent films to libraries and universities in Europe.From 2021 – 2023, I was the Executive Director and Online Branch Director for The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. I curated and hosted lectures on the history, theory, and production of horror in cinema, literature, and art. I hosted instructors such as Tony Burgess (author, Pontypool), Leila Taylor (author, Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul), Tonia Ransom (author and podcaster, Nightlight), Adam Nayman (author, It Doesn’t Suck: Showgirls), and Robyn Citizen (programmer, Toronto International Film Festival).To inquire about my programming and curating services, please contact me.

Script & Festival Consultation.

I began providing script analysis and coverage with the Harold Greenberg fund, as a specialist in fantastic genre cinema. I have expanded my consultation services to include many film genres, as well as short films and television pilots, working independently and with Coverfly.With over 5 years of experience in advising on films at the script and post-production stages, as well as serving as a reader for film funds, we are uniquely placed to assist you with your film. I offer script consultation, both basic and in-depth. You can request a short coverage, or an analysis over several drafts, which include in-script notes and video consultations.I also provide consultations for films that will soon be submitting to festivals. I offer assessment and guidance on films in the post-production or finished stage, and overview of a film's festival potential and strategy.For further details and rates, please contact me."Shelagh is a careful and thoughtful reader. She presents her analysis in a clear, easily digestible format. I was quickly able to derive actionable notes to improve my script, in addition to receiving feedback that sparked deeper thoughts about the core of my story."
Becky Sayers, Screenwriter & Film Critic"Shelagh Rowan-Legg's feedback is concise, precise and immensely helpful. Her vast and deep knowledge of the genre world makes her a tremendous asset to any genre screenwriter; she speaks the same language and understands the subtleties of genre stories, something not easily found in a script consultant. I highly recommend Shelagh Rowan-Legg to ensure your script is on track, and guide it along the way." Elza Kephart, Writer and Director of Slaxx

Creative Writing.

I have been writing and publishing poetry and short stories since 1998. My work has appeared in such literary journals as Pottersfield Portfolio, The Cormorant, Tupperware Sandpiper, The Hinterland, and Gaspereau Review. I published chapbooks under Thirteenth Tiger Press, from 1999 – 2006, publishing authors such as Peter Darbyshire, Kate Sutherland, Michael Fraser, and Sandra Alland. Several of these books are houses in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.My poems have appeared in three book anthologies:Drifting Down the Lane, Moon and Mountain Studio, 2013Doom, Desire & Vice: A Canadian Collection, Wingate Press, 2005life, love, death and a side order of poetry: The Third Canadian Poetry Association Anthology, Broken Jaw Press, 1999

Poetry & Stories Available OnlineTalking About Strawberries All Of the Time, Spring 2023
* Restraint
* The Long Dark
* The Mirror Crack’d
* If time did not exist, what would happen to poetry?Schism The Windsor Review, Spring 2023I Will Provide New Poetry, Spring 2018You are Here Taddle Creek, Summer 2004The Snow Grave Taddle Creek, Summer 2002Where Have All the Johnny Cowboys Gone Taddle Creek, Christmas 2001

My love of gaming has led to creating two original games, now playable via itch.ioEscape from the Lab! A Multiplayer Board GameYou are scientists in a secret lab developing vaccines. There is an accident and a deadly airborne virus is released. The security guards have abandoned their posts and escaped, leaving only one hazmat suit behind. Only one person can leave safely. The first to reach the end will get the suit to leave, while the other will be left behind to die.The Last Way. An Interactive FictionIt’s the 29th century, nearly 1000 years since human’s most advanced civilization collapsed due plague and ecological disintegration. Civilization reverted to a pre-industrial state and clung to a small but stable existence for several centuries. But a new plague is plunging humanity into extinction. Rowmagh, a mercenary, has finally been caught by the Queen’s army. The Queen is convinced that a cure for the new plague, and the answer to making humans dominant on earth once again, lies beyond the farthest borders of her land, an area where very few have ventured, and none have returned. Holding Rowmagh’s son captive, the Queen forces the mercenary to travel to the edge to find this place and save humanity.

Thirteenth Tiger Films.

Thirteenth Tiger Films was established in 2015. We make independent films of the fantastical and experimental variety. Our first short film, Measure (2015) an experimental horror film that played at numerous film festivals.Our second project was a series of films for the online publication “A Glimpse Of”. The project, “A Thing Like You and Me” (2015-2016), is a multi-authored narrative in progress, featuring poems, films, plays, and essays on women as object. Rowan-Legg wrote and directed five short film-poems.Our third project, Flow, is an action-horror-comedy short. It has screened at over 20 film festivals around the world and won awards, including Best Director at Shawna Shea Film Festival and the Bronze Audience Award for Best International Short at Fantasia Festival.Our fourth project, the experimental poem film Heal Me, screened at festivals around the world in 2021, including Revelation Perth Film Festival, and Raleigh Film & Art Festival. .Our new short, Bigfoot, written and directed by Simon Laperrière, has been touring festivals for the past several months, including Festival du cinéma de la ville de Québec, Silver Wave Festival, and Revelation Perth Film Festival.We are currently in post-production on a new experimental short by Shelagh Rowan-Legg. Keep an eye out for those on the 2025 festival circuit.

BIGFOOT (2023)

ExperimentalA sunny summer day in the Québec Laurentiens. All is quiet in the forest, only birds can be heard in the absence of women and men. Yet, an undeniably eerie presence can be felt within the woods, one that has been lurking from civilization since the dawn of time.Written & Directed by Simon Laperrière
Produced by Tim Kirk, Simon Laperrière & Shelagh Rowan-Legg
Cinematography by Simon Laperrière
Edited by Andrew Todd

Festival du cinéma de la ville de Québec (Canada)Fortean Film Festival (UK)Silver Wave Film Festival (Canada)Revelation Perth Film Festival (Australia)

HEAL ME (2021)

ExperimentalA woman walks outside on a snowy day, trying to find the thoughts that will heal her troubled mind.Written & Directed by Shelagh Rowan-Legg
Produced by Simon Laperrière
Cinematography by Martin Blanchette
Edited by Pat Tremblay
Music by Sin/Red
Poster by Dru Phillips

Short. Sweet. Film. Fest. (USA)Revelation Perth Film Festival (Australia)Boston Short Film Festival (USA)Raleigh Film & Art Festival (USA)Monologues & Poetry International Film Festival (USA)Inheritance Festival (UK)

FLOW (2017)

Action HorrorWhen two women rebels are involved in a skirmish, they have more to argue about than the enemy...Written & Directed by Shelagh Rowan-Legg
Produced by Jennifer Handorf
Starring Jamie Birkett & Lucy Clements
Cinematography by Yana Rits-Cairns
Edited by Joanna Gil-Rico
Poster by Omar Hauksson

Fantasia (Canada)
Winner, Bronze Audience Award,
Best International ShortFrightFest (UK)Horrible Imaginings Film Festival (USA)Filmquest (USA)Shawna Shea Film Festival (USA)
Winner, Best DirectorApocalypse Later International Fantastic Film Festival (USA)Terror in the Bay Film Festival (Canada)Celluloid Screams (UK)Morbido Fest (Mexico)Cinepocalypse (USA)Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival (Canada)Abertoir Horror Festival (UK)POFF Shorts (Estonia)Boston Underground Film Festival (USA)Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival (USA)Underwire Festival (UK)

A THING LIKE YOU AND ME (2015-2016)

Part of ‘A Glimpse Of’ project, a multi-authored narrative, featuring poems, films, plays, and essays on women as object. The project was created by Dimitra Iaonnou.Of Nothing
Small Certainties
Valentine
Spring Cleaning
WishesWritten, Directed, Shot, and Edited by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

MEASURE (2016)

Experimental HorrorA woman contemplates how to end her relationship with her wayward partner.Written & Directed by Shelagh Rowan-Legg
Produced by Evrim Ersoy
Starring Victor Correia & Shelagh Rowan-Legg
Cinematography by Stuart Dye
Edited by Russell Would
Make-up & Effects by Jamie Birkett
Credits by James Pearcey

Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival (Canada)Eerie Horror Film Festival (USA)Morbido Fest (Mexico)Stranger with My Face International Film Festival (Australia)International Horror Hotel (Ohio)
Winner, Best Micro ShortScream Queen Film Festival (Singapore)Buried Alive! Horror Film Festival (USA)Shawna Shea Film Festival (USA)

Meet Me in the Bar at the Albert HotelThis is my blog where I will documenting the progress of my new short film, Dans les pins. And somewhere that I also keep any writings that I don't find another place for, or various musings I have on film, poetry, life, etcetera.

Contact.

Send me a message.(If you are interested in a review of your film on ScreenAnarchy, please contact editors[at]screenarachy.com)