Megan Riakos
Writing
Biography
Megan is a filmmaker with 18 years experience in the screen industry, culminating in her debut feature Crushed. Crushed screened at festivals around the world including Montreal World Film Festival, Miami International Film Festival and Napa Valley Film Festival before completing a successful limited theatrical release in Australia and acquisitions by Channel 10 and Qantas. She combines her filmmaking with her role as co-founder of Women in Film & Television Australia where she is a vocal advocate for women in the screen industries. In 2017, Megan launched Hemlock & Cedar Films, a production company that merges these two fields of advocacy and creativity by focusing on female-led screen content. The Australian women’s horror anthology Dark Whispers Vol. 1, is the first project to be launched under the company, screening at festivals in Australia, including Cinefest Oz, Monsterfest and ScreenWave Film Festival as well as international screenings at the upcoming Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival and Final Girls Berlin Film Festival in 2020. Megan is also the writer/director of an episode of the online horror series Deadhouse Dark, due for release in 2020. Megan is a graduate of the Australian Film Television & Radio School and has completed the Professional Screenwriters Program at UCLA. She is an innovative, collaborative and driven filmmaker, speaker, teacher and advocate, with an infectious enthusiasm for the art and craft of filmmaking.
Known For
A cybercrime investigator tracks a man suspected of force-feeding women to death.
Feed
In six interconnected short tales of terror, a woman receives a ‘mystery box’ from the dark web. Each item within will gradually reveal a dark and troubling truth.
Deadhouse Dark
A young man tries to make things right again in his relationship after he and his girlfriend get in a fight.
Spider
After her father dies in an eerie accident at the family's winery, Ellia returns home from the big city to tend to the remaining members of her disaffected family. The death is eventually ruled a homicide, with Ellia’s mother emerging as the prime suspect. Ellia takes matters into her own hands, compelled to discover the true story behind her father’s death. But the family and small-town secrets that emerge are more than she bargained for. Australia’s stunning wine country is the backdrop for this thrilling murder mystery from Director Megan Riakos.
Crushed
When Clara discovers her deceased mother’s revered ‘Book of Dark Whispers’, she can’t stop reading the strange stories within its mystical pages. Each weird tale reveals a new facet of the twisted human psyche… or the not-so-human, as the case may be. From the horror of grief to sharehouse living disaster, from existential dread to right-swiping vampires, there’s something for all tastes; as long as those tastes are twisted!
Dark Whispers - Volume 1
A sexy and lethal female mercenary takes on an international syndicate of weapons smugglers run by the Russian Mafia.
Lethal
If a drum beats, a Dancer must dance.
The Eye of The Beholder
THE TUNNEL is hands down the greatest Australian found footage feature and this tenth anniversary documentary not only gives you a look behind-the-scenes at the production of the film, but also insight into its impact and enduring legacy.
The Tunnel: The Other Side of Darkness
Follows Nellie Cameron, a real life prostitute famous on the streets of Sydney in the 1920s and 30s. Nellie is enjoying the perks of her world, the drugs, the money, the fame but in her game she can't afford love.
50-50
An alcoholic man on the hunt for booze stumbles across something frighteningly familiar in his back shed.
The Shed
A young woman finally seeks help for what is ailing her.
Blue Bird
Amber Lawrence is a country music singer who spent her childhood not on the stage but at the running track. And one thing running taught her, is practice makes perfect.