From Video Store Dreams to Big Screens: Tom Jolliffe on Writing, Producing & Crafting Horror Hits

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Tom Jolliffe is a screenwriter, producer and film journalist, known for Renegades (2022), War of the Worlds: The Attack (2022), Cinderella's Revenge (2023) and The Baby in the Basket (2024).
He grew up in Marlow, England with a passion for cinema that began in the video store aisles. After studying film at university he focused more on writing film reviews including some guest reviews for publications like Aint it Cool and Moviehole, before becoming a regular contributor (and still remains so) for popular UK film site, Flickering Myth.
With an interest in screenwriting, he began focusing increasingly on trying to get scripts made, coming close to selling a number of shorts and features (which fell at the final hurdle). He then took to producing to take more control over the outcome and co-produced Out (2015) an award-winning short film starring Shone Romulus (Top Boy) and Joerg Stadler (Saving Private Ryan).
After successfully following up with a number of award-winning short films, he transitioned to features writing low-budget horror films, including Amityville Witches, Jurassic Island and Jack and Jill, which have all been released worldwide on DVD and VOD.
In 2020 he signed on to write the star-studded revenge film, Renegades (2021), starring Lee Majors, Danny Trejo, Michael Pare, Tiny Lister, Billy Murray and Ian Ogilvy. In 2022 he signed on to work with Mark L. Lester (Commando) on Cinderella's Revenge (Natasha Henstridge) the first of four horror adaptations with Lester as producer.
He continued to write regular features, jumping between several genres before looking to produce his own films. After working with long-time friend, Nathan Shepka on the critically acclaimed When Darkness Falls (2022), the pair collaborated once again on The Baby in the Basket (Maryam d'Abo, Paul Barber) joined by Gary Collinson, the editor-in-chief of Flickering Myth for whom Jolliffe has written articles since 2010.
He also began working on the Singaporean production, The Hungry One based upon Chinese folklore, as well as ghostwriting several projects. In April 2024, the film Cinderella's Revenge was released in US cinema, with more international theatrical releases following. He also has several projects in development with LA-based producer, Jane Chua including the psychological horror, Psykhe and apocalypse horror, Demon Hunter.
The future will see Jolliffe continue to work for hire, (but more selectively) whilst producing his own films, beginning with the psychological drama, We Go Again.
Turned down writing Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey due to a schedule conflict.
Plays guitar and has composed several of his own films.
Has had three films feature on Red Letter Media (a show he's a fan of). Mega Lightning was reviewed on an episode of Best of the Worst. Amityville Witches and Ouija Hosts are both referenced in the episode, Beyond the Black Void: Watchbait.
Also writes scripts for Youtube videos, particularly on the subject of soccer. The videos have accumulated 10s of millions of views.
Comes from a musical family. His uncle Steve is a former member of Tangerine Dream. His Uncle John was in a band called Big Big Sun, which had one album released in the US and featured on Baywatch (1989). His cousin Ben was in the British rock group, Young Guns whose song Bones was used as entrance music by The Undertaker (WWE) once.

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