Bryan Stumpf

- Writer

Born in a borderland of United States and Canada, in the frozen skullcap of New York State, Bryan Stumpf was destined for long winters of cabin fever and movie-watching. Then one afternoon, whilst an 8-year-old Bryan was being babysat by a perhaps irresponsible aunt, he was set in front of a TV and a DVD player was set to “PLAY.” The movie? Jaws. The seafaring horror movie changed Bryan in two ways: One, it made him almost-forever terrified of the lake that almost-totally surrounded his hometown (thanks, aunty); and two, in Bryan’s mind, it set the standard for what all movies should be. Jaws was the first movie that mesmerized Bryan from start to finish. The hook was set. He became a nearly daily watcher of movies.

Fast forward 20 years, Bryan had grown exponentially disappointed by the pablum being churned out of Hollywood. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to do something. And so he doffed a cape, seized a laptop, and Movie Malcontent was born: a film reviewer, nay CRUSADER, that asked, nay BEGGED, movie watchers to stop encouraging Hollywood’s blandening with their ticket buying. Movie Malcontent fought valiantly, but he was only one critic in a sea of cinéaste blowhards. He needed a bigger harpoon. He retired from his seemingly fruitless film criticism and dove into filmmaking.

Movie Malcontent remained on hiatus while Bryan honed his screenwriting skills. Of course, his first screenplays were nearly shot-for-shot retreads of Jaws. And unfortunately, he had earned degrees from universities known more their basketball programs than their film programs, Michigan State and Syracuse University. But fortunately, Bryan was able to get his screenplays into the hands of screenwriters who knew what they were doing, and they all suggested he work on film sets, get some hands-on experience in film production.

Bryan’s first film job was a P.A. for the movie Cold Comes the Night. Though his initial duties on Cold’s set often amounted to coffee wrangling for gaffers and best boys, he got to meet its lead actor Bryan Cranston. And blessed with a head that had kinda similar features to Mr. Cranston’s head, it was decided that Bryan was to be Mr. Cranston’s body double for the film. Working alongside Mr. Cranston and the film’s writer/director Tze Chun, Bryan learned a lot about the craft and business of screenwriting. Inspired by the experience, Bryan went on to write screenplays that received awards, and he also plunged into producing and directing, with a horror comedy he wrote, Annulment, about a recently divorced couple who must “make nice” and get along to survive hordes of zombie-like humans, infected by a pandemic. The script was partially based on Bryan’s real-life experiences…more the divorce part than the zombie part.

Whilst surfing for web-sites that might promote Annulment, Bryan stumbled across the U.K horror site The Slaughtered Bird. He was so impressed by the web-site, he reached out to the friendly founders of the site, and a quick, easy rapport was established, over similar views on horror films and Bryan having briefly lived in the same general area in England as the founders. Loving the site’s movie reviews, Bryan asked The Slaughtered Bird crew if he could possibly be one of the site’s contributors. With their blessing, Bryan dusted off his Movie Malcontent alter ego, and began writing reviews again. Ever grateful to The Slaughtered Bird crew, Bryan plans to regularly contribute to site, while continuing his filmmaking pursuits.

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