Paul Campion

About me:

Paul is an award winning short filmmaker with a reputation for entertaining storytelling coupled with rich visuals.

His latest film Eel Girl is a provocative and unsettling science-fiction horror short, that combines stunning visuals with the dark and visceral undertones of H.P Lovecraft. Shot on 35mm by New Zealand Director of Photography Richard Bluck (Black Sheep, Lord of the Rings), the film features special makeup effects by Oscar winning Weta Workshop. Eel Girl is currently showing at film festivals worldwide including Fantastic Fest, Fantasia,Rushes Soho Shorts, and PiFan, and has so far won 13 awards and been nominated for a further 7 awards.

Paul’s previous short film, Night of the Hell Hamsters, a cautionary and bloody little tale about the dangers of mixing the occult with small furry family pets opened on the festival circuit in 2006 to rave reviews, and a handfull of awards. The film has played at over 40 film festivals worldwide, is now listed on several cult film databases, and is distributed by Ouat Media.

Paul Campion began his career aged 4, hiding behind the sofa, both terrified of and addicted to Dr Who. Despite a very happy childhood he developed a love of horror, science fiction and fantasy films at far too early an age, and ended up as professional illustrator, producing illustrations for magazines, computer games and book covers, but specialising in horror illustration.

In 1999 Paul completed a Masters Degree in Computer Animation at Bournemouth University, before moving to New Zealand to work at Weta Digital on the visual effects for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy where he was responsible for creating the look of digital creatures such as the Balrog, mumakil, fell-beast and Shelob.

He has since worked in San Francisco as a matte painter on Constantine and Sin City, and recently as a texture painter on 30 Days of Night, The Waterhorse and The Dambusters remake. He is also the author of 2 best selling instructional DVDs on Digital Texture Painting from the The Gnomon Workshop.

Paul is currently in development on several horror feature films, Charnel House, written by British Fantasy Award winning writer Paul Finch, and Terminal, based on the novel by best selling US horror author Brian Keene.

When not working, Paul, an accident prone adrenaline junkie, can be frequently found falling off surfboards, snowboards, mountain bikes, and the occasional bridge.

Watch Night of the Hell Hamsters!








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