Advisor Studio: Crafting Bone-Chilling Horror Beat Sheets with Beth Bruckner O’Brien
About this Advisor Studio
In Advisor Studio sessions, film and television industry professionals share field experiences and insights into their specific areas of craft, including writing, directing, and producing for TV and film.
What makes an audience scream, squirm, jump, or hold their breath in dread? In this Sundance Collab session, veteran producer and development executive Beth Bruckner O’Brien pulls back the curtain on the architecture of cinematic scares.
Beth guides writers and filmmakers through the process of choreographing scares on the page—from jump scares and slow-burn tension to the subtle rhythms of dread that keep audiences hooked. Participants learn how to build suspense using horror beat sheets, mapping out the precise moments of shock, unease, and release that shape unforgettable horror films.
Beth has held senior positions at Millennium Films and Solstice Studios, where she developed thriller and horror titles such as Unhinged, Bullet Head, Leatherface, and Texas Chainsaw 3D. Her other horror credits include the SAW franchise, House at the End of the Street, and Frozen.
With a slate of new horror, thriller, and action projects currently in development, Beth brings industry-tested insight into what makes scares effective not just on screen, but also in the marketplace. This session is designed to help creators at every level sharpen their craft and design horror stories that leave a lasting impact.
Advisor StudioTeam
Beth Bruckner O’Brien
Beth Bruckner O’Brien is currently an independent creative producer operating under her development and production banner “Big Moody Curve Productions,” specializing in thrillers, horror, and action across film and television. BMC’s aim is to tell high concept entertainment with thematic resonance and profound character transformations.
Most recently, Beth led the drama team at the newly relaunched Fox Entertainment Studios, where she drove development on a slate of bold 1-hour, character-driven, scripted series for Fox Network and third party buyers.
Previous to Fox, Beth spent the better part of two decades shaping over 36 films as the head of development at Solstice Studios and VP, development and production at Millennium Films, including genre-bending thrillers, prestige dramas, and wildly entertaining popcorn hits. Credit highlights include Hypnotic (Ben Affleck, dir. Robert Rodriguez), Unhinged (Russell Crowe), The Hitman’s Bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson), The Paperboy (Nicole Kidman, dir. Lee Daniels), Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard), Bullet Head (Adrien Brody, John Malkovich), Criminal (Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman), Mechanic: Resurrection (Jason Statham, Jessica Alba), and franchise powerhouses like Olympus Has Fallen, The Expendables, SAW, and Texas Chainsaw.
Beth began her career at ICM before holding senior roles at Solstice Studios and Millennium Films. She got her start in development at A Bigger Boat/GreeneStreet and has also taught producing and “the business of screenwriting” at both UCLA and USC. Additionally, Beth serves as a judge for the Austin Film Festival screenwriting competition.
Big Moody Curve takes its name from a notorious hairpin turn on Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains—known for its beauty, danger, and the thrill of not knowing what’s around the bend.
Soheil Rezayazdi
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Soheil Rezayazdi is a Digital Course & Event Producer at the Sundance Institute, where he produces multi-session courses, master classes, filmmaker Q&As, and other digital programs for Sundance Collab. Prior to Sundance, Soheil served as the Nonfiction Programs Manager at the Gotham Film & Media Institute. He oversaw the Gotham’s core documentary programs: the Documentary Feature Lab, the Spotlight on Documentaries project market, and the Documentary Development Initiative in partnership with HBO Documentary Films. Soheil has worked with emerging filmmakers since 2015, when he began a seven-year tenure at the Columbia University MFA Film Program. At Columbia he managed the Columbia University Film Festival (CUFF), the Dr. Saul and Dorothy Kit Film Noir Festival, and the Carla Kuhn Memorial Speaker Series.
Soheil is also a freelance writer on film and pop culture with articles in Indiewire, McSweeney’s, Vice, Filmmaker Magazine, Documentary Magazine, Paper, Paste, and elsewhere. He has also served as an external reviewer for artist programs operated by Creative Capital, Kartemquin Pictures, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and the International Documentary Association. A native of Iran, he holds an MA in journalism and a BA in film studies from the University of Iowa.