Horror Favourites – Paul Bickel

Filmmaker Paul Bickel has spent a lifetime working in creative spaces – first as a child making stop-motion shorts in Indiana, then as an award-winning commercial director and art department veteran on hit shows like New Girl and Shrinking. But with Our Happy Place, his unsettling feature debut premiering at Raindance Film Festival this June, Bickel fully steps into the horror arena, crafting a dark and dreamlike tale that explores isolation, trauma, and buried secrets through an eerie, slow-burn lens.

Written and filmed during the height of the pandemic, Our Happy Place blends supernatural tension with psychological breakdown, drawing influence from Bickel’s own love of cerebral, atmosphere-driven horror. Starring opposite real-life partner Raya Miles, Bickel also delivers a quietly haunting performance in the lead role, anchoring the film’s descent into the surreal with sincerity and restraint.

Below, Paul lets us know about his horror influences – from twisted werewolves to deadpan zombie slayers – and shares the films that have stayed with him, shaped him, and helped inspire his own journey into the genre…

Horror Favourites – Paul Bickel

I’ll start with Jacob’s Ladder. It is a film that should be taught in film school. It’s incredibly atmospheric – both real and surreal – blending dream and reality in a way that’s seamless and haunting. The dual narratives keep your mind constantly engaged, pulling you into Jacob’s unraveling world without ever giving clear answers. What makes it unforgettable isn’t jump scares or gore, but how deeply it lingers. It gets under your skin with subtle tension and disturbing imagery. It sticks with you.

Some of my other favorite horror films are those that lean into intellectual dread- slow-burning stories where fear grows from within. Rosemary’s Baby is at the top of that list. The betrayal in that film is one of the most chilling in cinematic history. It’s not just the horror of what happens to Rosemary, but the quiet, creeping realization that the people closest to her – her husband, her neighbors – have all conspired against her. It’s paranoia made flesh. Then there’s The Shining, which lives and breathes atmosphere. For me, that film is about the quiet moments: long hallways, distant echoes, the sense that something is horribly wrong just out of frame. It plants you directly inside the Overlook Hotel and traps you there. The horror isn’t loud – it’s the slow unraveling of sanity, of space and time, of identity itself.

But as much as I love intellectual horror, I also enjoyed zombie films, which come in every tone imaginable. Three of my favorites couldn’t be more different. The Return of the Living Dead (1985) is just hilarious—punk rock zombies, chaos, and some of the most quotable lines in horror comedy. “MORE BRAINS!” Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004) takes a completely different approach: fast zombies, high stakes, and relentless tension. And then there’s Shaun of the Dead, my favorite of them all. It has the best of everything – it’s heartfelt, it’s sober, it’s funny, it’s subtle, it’s over the top. It’s everything.

I also have to mention Let the Right One In – the original Swedish version. That film has a creep factor you just can’t look away from. It’s haunting, quiet, and strangely tender. And one of my all-time favorite horror films is An American Werewolf in London. It was the first time I saw a horror film that blended straight-up gore with realistic, deadpan humor. Finally, there’s The Thing. Everyone now says it’s the greatest horror film of all time – but when it came out, it bombed. I was one of the lucky ones who saw it opening weekend in the theater, and it blew me away. The isolation, the tension – you could feel the cold. Real snow, real helicopters, real effects. They’ll never make another film like that again. Unless, of course, I get the chance to make the sequel.

With Our Happy Place marking his first foray into feature-length horror, Paul Bickel steps fully into the genre he reveres – one haunted by atmosphere, driven by dread, and never far from emotional truth. Whether he’s drawing on Cronenberg-esque body horror, classic paranoia thrillers, or punk-fuelled zombie chaos, his favourites reveal a filmmaker attuned to every shade of fear.

Our Happy Place screened at Raindance Film Festival on 20th June 2024.

Our Happy Place trailer