Director Biography - John Ainslie

John is a 2020 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist for his feature screenplay SHE CAME KNOCKING. He also placed in the second round at the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Contest the same year for his screenplay TRESPASS.

In 2021 he wrote an episode of THE HAUNTED MUSEUM for Executive Producer Eli Roth and directed two episodes as well as writing one for ELI ROTH’S GHOSTS RUINED MY LIFE MY LIFE. Both anthology series for Executive Producer Eli Roth streaming on Discovery+. Following that, he went into production on his sophomore feature as director from a script he penned, DO NOT DISTURB which had been selected by Fantasia's Frontières to pitch at Ventana Sur's Blood Window Market in 2015.

John’s first feature was the horror/comedy JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER. His screenplay was nominated for a Fangoria Chainsaw Award and the film premiered at Sitges International Film Festival where it won Best Midnight Film before screening at Fantasia and selling to Anchor Bay at Slamdance. In 2012, John attended Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre Writer’s Lab where he wrote the short film COLD FEET that screened numerous festivals including Fantasia and sold to AMC-IFC Networks.

In 2014 John wrote and directed his first feature film – the award winning THE SUBLET. It premiered at Whistler Film Festival and won the awards for Best Actress and Best Cinematography at Blood in the Snow Film Festival in Toronto. John followed that up with the intense thriller short SHE CAME KNOCKING. It was awarded Best Short at the Canadian Film Festival in Toronto where it premiered. It also won Best Short and Best Actress from the NSI Online Film Festival as well as a Platinum Remi at WorldFest-Houston and an Audience Choice Award in his home town of Miami at the FilmGate NOLA Film Festival.

Prior to writing, John won the Borsos prize of Best Cinematographer at the Whistler Film Festival for his work on the feature SK8 LIFE, which also screened at Sundance.


Director Statement

Ten years ago I wrote the words: couple develops cannibal sex fetish on honeymoon down on a piece of paper and have been pitching it ever since as Do Not Disturb.

The concept developed into a relationship story using cannibalism as an allegory for emotions. After being selected by Fantasia’s Frontières to pitch at Ventana Sur’s Blood Window Market in 2015, I realized that while the carnage and gore were important, it was the couple’s relationship that connects the film to the audience. The idea that being in a toxic relationship is like being eaten alive was something people easily identified with.

With Do Not Disturb I drop the viewer into the lives of a newly married couple going through relatable, almost mundane issues and slowly pull them into a fantasy world induced by narcotics and play with their minds as an unreliable narrator. The bizarre becomes easy to digest, because it creeps up on you.

Both in terms of style and story, Do Not Disturb is a film that can satisfy the visceral demand of a horror audience as well as translate over to a broader audience with its relationship story.