After making short films as a student at Saint Catherine's High School for class projects, Collum received his first paid film job as the writer /director of the horror sequel Mark of the Devil 666: The Moralist (1995) for Moore Video. He made two additional films, 5 Dark Souls (1996) and 5 Dark Souls, Part II: Roots of Evil (1998) (V) for Moore, and also worked as a writer, producer and director of commercials (some of which he acted in as well) for TCI Television/Warner Cable.

Collum moved to West Hollywood in 1998 where actress Brinke Stevens (Isto É Spinal Tap (1984)) introduced him to J.R. Bookwalter and David DeCoteau. He went on to work on a series of films for both directors, and also continued to direct and write other indie films. His short film, Julia Wept (2000) (V), became a popular cult success, leading to big screen showings at numerous film festivals.

In 2001, he moved to Chicago to work at Femme Fatales and Cinefantastique magazines in editorial positions. When the magazines were sold to a new corporation in October 2002, the Chicago staff was not kept. Over the ensuing months, he worked on several new LA-based films, wrote the book "Assault of the Killer Bs: Interviews with 20 Cult Film Actresses" (McFarland, 2004) and wrote/directed the horror actresses documentary _Something to Scream About (2002) (V)_. In June 2003, Collum became the Publicty Director for Tempe Entertainment.