C. Robert Cargill

Christopher Robert Cargill (born September 8, 1975) is an American screenwriter, novelist, podcast host, and former film critic known under the pseudonyms Massawyrm (on Ain't It Cool News) and Carlyle (on Spill.com). Cargill currently resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife. He is known for writing the films Sinister, Sinister 2 (2015), Doctor Strange (2016), and The Black Phone (2021). He is a frequent writing collaborator of Scott Derrickson.

Early life Cargill was raised in a military family, growing up on army bases around the United States. He held several jobs prior to writing, including video store clerk and travel agent.

Career Film critic Cargill wrote his first article in 2000, when he volunteered to write a review of the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for a website called "Guerilla Films." His article managed to get the highest amount of traffic of over 50,000 hits, "a HUGE deal" at the time, which secured him the job to write more reviews.

While working for Guerilla Films, Cargill began spending time with Ain't It Cool News' Eric Vespe (AKA 'Quint' on the site), which landed him a job on Ain't It Cool's "Indie Indie Column," a previously abandoned post. He began writing for Ain't It Cool News under the name Massawyrm in May 2001. His first review for the blog was of Jon Favreau's movie, Made. In 2011, he told Jordan Gass-Pooré with Slackerwood that it was getting "tougher and tougher" to write movie reviews because of his relationships with people in the movie industry. and Hollywood.com (the site that owned Spill.com).

On the 26th of February 2013, Cargill released his first novel, Dreams and Shadows, an urban fantasy story of folklore and mythology, which also follows three modern characters from childhood to adulthood. Subsequent novels included Sea of Rust and Day Zero.

Screenwriter The idea for his first film came to fruition when he met up with a fan and friend Scott Derrickson at a bar in Las Vegas where he pitched his idea for Sinister. Derrickson, showing great interest in this concept, contacted producer Jason Blum who particularly liked the simplicity of the concept and understood the urge to make it as fast as possible before it could be made by anyone else. Shooting of the movie started in September 2011, 6 months after Unlike its predecessor, the sequel was critically panned. Many criticisms were aimed at the overuse of jump scares, horror cliches, story, and heavy amounts of excessive violence and gore. Cargill and Derrickson were working on a movie adaptation of the Deus Ex video games. They both left the project after Kevin Feige hired them to work on a film adaptation of Doctor Strange in 2014, which would become the 14th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Cargill, along with Derrickson and Jon Spaihts, worked on the script for Marvel's Doctor Strange (2016). The film received positive reviews from critics and audiences, With praise being aimed towards the acting, special effects, and musical score. It grossed over $677 million worldwide. Cargill and Derrickson were set to return for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness but left due to "creative differences". Sam Raimi was hired to helm the project after they left. More recently, the writing duo of Derrickson and Cargill signed a deal with Blumhouse Television.

Cargill, under the pseudonym of Kit Lesser, wrote a biopic about FBI agent William Hagmaier (played by Elijah Wood) and his relationship with serial killer Ted Bundy. "There have been a lot of movies and a lot of media made about Ted Bundy, and one of the things that bugged me a lot was that it's all kind of selling the myth of Ted Bundy and kind of glorifying him in a way," Cargill told Jordan Gass-Poore, the host of the horror-comedy podcast, Pod of Madness. "And the deeper you dig into the story you realize there's nothing to mystify here, there's nothing amazing about him." The film was released in 2021 as No Man of God.

Derrickson's departure from directing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness led him to The Black Phone, a project he and Cargill had already planned on making. It is an adaptation of Joe Hill's short story of the same name. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 25, 2021, and was theatrically released by Universal Pictures on June 24, 2022. It has grossed $157.2 million and received generally positive reviews from critics for its performances and faithfulness to the source material. It received praise from Joe Hill. In October 2023, the sequel was officially announced by Universal Pictures with a scheduled release date of June 27, 2025. The following month, it was reported that Hawke, Thames, McGraw, Davies and Mora would reprise their roles in the sequel. Derrickson and Cargill also returned to write the script.

Cargill and Derrickson will also team up to write the script for The Outer Limits, a movie based on the influential 1960s television show of the same name. The film, produced by MGM, will be adapted from a single episode of the classic show, "Demon with a Glass Hand."

Podcasts Cargill co-hosts the film podcast Junkfood Cinema with critic Brian Salisbury, and the writing advice podcast Write Along with author David Chen.

Filmography Actor Year Title Role Notes 2002 The Rules of Attraction Bus Station Townie Uncredited 2005 Last Days of America Breakdown Guy 2006 Pathogen Janitor 2007 When Is Tomorrow Stephen 2009 Zombie Girl: The Movie Himself

Writer/Producer YearTitleWriterProducerNotes 2012 Sinister 2015 Sinister 2 2016 As They Continue to Fall Doctor Strange 2019 Into the Dark Episode My Valentine2021 No Man of God Credited as "Kit Lesser" Shadowprowler Short film The Black Phone 2023 V/H/S/85 Segment "Dreamkill"2025 The Gorge Black Phone 2