Neil Marshall currently holds the title of one of my all-time favourite directors, as I have yet to see anything that he’s directed that I didn’t enjoy from start to finish. His track record is impeccable. Inspired to become a filmmaker when he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, Marshall spent his early years making Super 8 movies. He attended film school at Newcastle Polytechnic and worked as a freelance editor for eight years following his graduation. In 2002, he directed his first film, Dog Soldiers, which he also wrote. In 2005 he wrote and directed The Descent, which I consider to be one of the best horror movies of all time. He then went on to write and direct Doomsday – a film I think is HIGHLY underrated, and in 2010 he wrote and directed Centurion, starring Michael Fassbender, which was one of the first movies I reviewed on The Back Row. His next director credit will appear on episode 9 of season 2 of Game of Thrones! And he’s got a heap of movie ideas in the works, too, including a zombie movie set on an oil rig, a film described as Unforgiven by way of H.P. Lovecraft, and Burst 3D, his self-described “exploding head movie”. Neil Marshall turns 42 today.