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Interview – Torie Hague

How did you get involved in FX Makeup and body paint?

I had just moved to Fort Bragg, NC and I went from having three jobs to having no job at all, which was extremely difficult for me as a workaholic. My depression didn’t help much either. I had been watching Mykie, aka Glam&Gore, on YouTube and wanted to give FX a try to help pull me out of my depressive rut and I ended up falling in love with it.

My love for bodypainting started when my friend Maverick asked me to paint a Ouija board on my chest to try to freak out my husband, Levi. Levi doesn’t like horror at all, especially Ouija boards or anything that deals with messing with the dead so I thought this bodypaint was PERFECT. He wasn’t scared, however I continued to bodypaint because I had finally found a way to express my creativity since I can’t draw to save my life.

FX and bodypainting combined turned into my favorite art which is character creation. I love creating characters that no one else has done or seen before. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride because I did something out of the ordinary. It takes me away from the hardships of life, giving me a chance to be something/someone else for a little while.

 

Do you have a favourite piece that you’ve worked on?

Quite a few. My Weeping Demon face paint has been the makeup that I’ve re-done the most; my haunt boss loved it so much that she wanted me to be that character for the video that we had playing outside of our haunt this past season. I like to inflate my own ego and say that the Weeping Demon became the “face” of the haunt.

My Dark Rot makeup, inspired by Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, is my most liked makeup on Instagram to this day.

My Spider Queen was my most recent character that I created that definitely made it close to the top of my list. I had formed her in my mind and instantly fell in love with her. I’m so happy with how she came out.

 

Where do you draw inspiration from when you’re working on different
pieces/canvases?

Usually my ideas come to my mind suddenly out of nowhere. Sometimes they take a while to form in my brain. I don’t like to recreate “trends” that have already been done over and over, which can limit me sometimes but I always make up for it with what I produce.

Being a band nerd, music gives me a ton of inspiration. There’s some music that I’ll listen to set the mood for haunt-worthy makeup, some music for characters, so on so forth.

 

Any advice for people thinking about getting into FX?

People will think FX is gross and weird, that maniacs and psychopaths are the only ones willing to mangle Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant because they must be disgusting in the head. It’s okay to be gross, weird, and not a part of the norm. It’s fun to be different. KEEP BEING GROSS AND WEIRD!

Don’t stop doing FX because you think you’re terrible at it. I was crap at FX starting out but I knew that I wouldn’t be a pro overnight. Two years later, I’m still not a pro, but my bruises are now better than the bruises that I used to make.

 

You co-host a podcast. Where did the idea for that start?

The Podcast Is Coming From Inside The House, or PICFITH, actually wasn’t my idea! It was the idea of two of my co-hosts, Patrick and Leigh-Anne. They asked me for my thoughts on their podcast that they wanted to start and I encouraged them to do it. They ended up asking me and my 3rd co-host, John, to be a part of it so that we had a variety of interests such as my love of gore, John’s love of classics, Leigh-Anne’s love of murder mystery, and Patrick’s love of…whatever horror he loves, I’m still unclear on what he likes.

 

We used to do podcasts but I found the editing process took too much out of me, I’m also not that great when it comes to talking to people  haha. How long does it take for an episode to go from recorded to  completed?

We recently recorded our pilot episode, called Episode 0, January 13th. Recording took about five hours, including setup time, figuring out how the equipment worked, and waiting for the dogs to stop barking.

Editing so far is taking a couple of weeks. To give an average on how long an episode takes to put out, I’d say three weeks to a month, however I’m sure that we’ll be better and faster at it once we really get started.

 

When can we expect to hear the first episode?

Expect to hear Episode 0, hopefully, within a week or two. Episode 1 should be out not too long after that! (NOTE FROM SHAWN : It’s available now)

 

You co-directed a film called The Dying Curse, what can you tell us about it?

First off, I have to give credit to my co-director and the writer of this whole film, Jason Setzer, for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this project in the first place. I can’t thank him enough for giving me this chance of growing my makeup skills and my newfound director skills. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to work for and with him and with the amazing cast that we have. I’m taking this movie wherever I go and I’m not just saying that because I have a tattoo dedicated to this movie, I swear! I’ll always remember The Dying Curse as where I truly got started along with the Devil’s Playground, the haunt that has my heart.

Without giving away too much, it follows a cryptozoologist and his students searching for a creature in the woods of North Carolina, but something isn’t right about the situation. The film stars my PICFITH co-host Patrick as the professor, Peter. Alongside him stars Isela Gomez, Dravi Otis, Sean David Henderson, and Cassandra Biddle, all good friends of mine, however not everyone in the film is listed or else that list would be a little long. Even I have a small role in the film!

It’s basically a psychological sci-fi horror take on a search for a creature like Bigfoot (except it’s not Bigfoot, we’re too low-budget to hire Bigfoot.) There’s gonna be some gore, there’s gonna be death, AND there will be a character that I’ve been given free reign to create!

We’re currently still shooting the film and hopefully we can be done shooting before I have to move to Hawaii in June. You can expect The Dying Curse to be released at the end of this year or early 2019!

 

How can we support your work?

You can support in a bunch of ways:

For my makeup, follow my page JoRave Special Effects on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @joravesfx, especially Instagram since that’s where I spend most of my time when on social media, and share my work with your friends like wildfire!

For PICFITH, follow our page The Podcast Is Coming From Inside The House on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @PICFITH, as well as Instagram @picfith so that you don’t miss any updates on when we release our pilot episode. Also follow us on the podcast app for iOS, Spotify (I think?), or any other podcast broadcasting source that you may listen to so that you don’t miss a single episode.

For The Dying Curse, follow our page The Dying Curse on Facebook for behind the scenes photos, cast interviews, our first trailer, a release date, etc. We will be starting a crowdfunding page with rewards for donations soon so keep an eye out for that. The movie will be released on Amazon and YouTube.

ALSO if you’re in Fayetteville/ Fort Bragg or in a neighboring town, please please please go to the Devil’s Playground during haunt season! Like I said above, that haunt has my heart and I will absolutely be working for them again when/ if we return to the area.



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International Women’s Day – Silvia Brown

Before I was aware of International Women’s Day and the women’s rights movement, the 8th of March meant only one thing to me. My gran’s birthday.

Grandma Montse was the matriarch of our family and the reason I became a horror writer. She never learnt to read nor write but was a gifted storyteller that spooked young and old with creepy stories passed down through generations. Given the opportunity, I believe she’d have been a reader and a writer.

Grandma passed away when I was 12 years-old. I watched it all happened from my hiding spot under the living room table as my family set up her death bed in the same room she used to tell me stories.

It’s hard to lose someone so important so early in life. Gran was the one person that accepted me for who I was and encouraged me to keep doing what I loved: Reading and writing. Grandma Montse would have been 85 years old today. She taught me to be brave and to embrace the darkness in my soul.

A darkness I share with my peer women horror writers. Emerging and established writers from all over the world thriving and leaving a path for the rest
of us to follow. Grandma would be proud I look up to such strong women. Today may be International Women’s Day and last month may have been Women in Horror Month, but to me, you ladies should be celebrated every day.

 

-Silvia Brown

 

Silvia is a member of the Australasian Horror Writers Association. You can find her on twitter here and on her personal website here

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Interview – Jennifer Allanson

So, what about horror specifically made you think ‘This is the genre I want to make films in’?

When I was a little kid (about 4 or 5) I used to stealthily watch scary movies from behind the couch, which is pretty creepy on its own. My older brother and cousins would watch scary movies and I wanted in – so this way I got to see saw Child’s Play and The Nightmare on Elm Street without anyone being the wiser.

Instead of having nightmares, I wanted more.

I got my own video store rental card when I was 14 and went to work. I had a good list of what I’d already seen by this time, but I got to rent some great classics on my own. Halloween, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, Black Christmas, Slumber Party Massacre and Carrie were among my favorites.

They all had one common element – Female presence. Our hero often was a woman – something sorely lacking in many other genres.

I love the flexibility of what Horror actually means. I absolutely feel that people who think they don’t like horror just haven’t found the right style for them yet, there is definitely something there for everybody.

 

I’ve talked about your short film Time’s Up on this website before. I enjoy movies that feature hauntings that are just as sombre as they are scary. What were some of your influences for this one?

I pitched the idea to my husband (amazing Director Kristian Lariviere!) of doing more of a ‘slow burn’ horror film. Which seemed really impossible since I had to try to keep it under 15 minutes. I had just seen House of the Devil, which I really enjoyed. I loved the idea of letting fear seep in slowly.

There’s something really terrifying about the silence around seemingly normal tasks, on a normal day. I’d like to explore that more in the future – that was one of my favorite scripts to write.

 

You produced and acted in the short film Puritans which has won some awards. What was it like to get recognized for that film?

It was amazing. We won Best Film and my husband Kris won Best Director at the Digi 60 Film Festival in 2013.

We were feeling overwhelmed at the time. When we signed up for the festival, it felt like was the real start to the still seemingly endless wave of news stories about women constantly being violated in horrendous ways by men.

Feeling disappointed and disgusted with the world really made us want to write a story to symbolize these stories and start a good fight. We did it and we were so proud when people responded the way they did.

The film is available on Amazon Prime and YouTube. People still love it – although, there is the occasional chauvinist pig that likes to criticize the story as being man-hating and religion hating. Those people make me feel even better about putting it out there. If it threatens you, then maybe you’re on the wrong side of this story!

 

Do you have any projects coming out that you can share with us?

Do I ever! Our first Horror Feature, Hens Night is going to be available for rental and purchase on February 16th 2018!

Hens Night was experimental for us. The first Feature I’ve ever written.

It doesn’t hang on to any old tropes. We cast actors that people can relate to, and we really wanted you to understand them before any horror happened upon them. I wrote it for the women out there that don’t “like” horror. I want them to give this a chance. You don’t get any horror with this one until you have an opinion on our characters. Whether you love them or hate them, I wanted our viewer to feel something for them. There’s a tragic love story in there too, but not the kind of you’re used to.

Check http://www.hensnightfilm.com/ to find where you can see it now!

 

How can our readers support your work?

Watch what we can do, write to us, share with your friends!

I’ve already talked about the launch of Hens Night on February 16th, but if you’re short on time, we have a few shorts available that you might want to see.

Time’s Up:

Puritans:

Additionally, we completed our second feature, a Christmas Horror Anthology called ‘UNHOLY NIGHT’. This one is being submitted to film festivals worldwide at the moment and we are in distribution talks!

 

So if you’d like you can take a look at the trailer and send us your good vibes!

UNHOLY NIGHT trailer:

 

We’re both from Ottawa which is often known as ‘The City that fun forgot’, when you first started out making films here, what were your expectations for the horror community?

I didn’t really have any expectations – I didn’t have a clue how many people are part of this community! I was really surprised and happy. I finally found my tribe. Every time I meet someone new who shares my interests I’m so excited. The support has been so wonderful.

And I have got to defend our city. Sure, if you just go to work and retreat back to your chosen suburb and stay there day in, day out…then Ottawa is definitely no fun. But if you get out there, anywhere central, you’ll see that Ottawa is a lot of fun. We have places like the Mayfair Theatre, House of Targ, Art & Film festivals all over the place. Incredible food scene too. People just have to be willing to…you know…leave their homes!

 

Do you have any fun/nightmare stories to share from the set of one of your films?

We shot our wraparound storyline for ‘UNHOLY NIGHT’ over the course of two overnight shoots in an abandoned wing of a hospital at the wonderful Gallipeau Centre in Smiths Falls.

It used to be known as the Rideau Regional Hospital. It used to house children and adults with cognitive disabilities, and some physical. At times, from what I’ve read about it, they exceeded their capacity by thousands. It closed down in 2009.

A few crazy things happened during that shoot. One of our cast members saw an apparition at the end of a hallway that seemed to mimic her body movements.

My husband was on the bottom floor and heard children giggling. He was white as a ghost when he returned to the holding room to see that we were all there.

I felt the tiny hairs stand up on the back of my neck a few times, and saw a figure in a black hoodie watching us film when no one else was actually in the building.

I’m so thankful that we had the opportunity to use the hospital as our location. It really was a character in its own!

 

What have your experiences been like being a female producer/director so far?

Nothing but 100% positive. I did my Directorial debut with the Digi60 Film Festival with a 3 minute long short film you can see here called Retention. It was a great experience, it really got my feet wet. It’s far from a horror project, but still really fun!

Then I co-directed Time’s Up. The feedback has been incredible. People have been nothing but encouraging. I’ve made some Incredible partnerships and friendships with other creatives in the community.

I’ve been really passionate about trying to support women-led projects. Recently my friend Lana Bateman and I came up with a project that we are really passionate about. A project that we hope will encourage women to embrace, and get involved with, horror filmmaking. I have to be vague about it for now, but we are hoping to announce our project in the spring!

 

Any advice for people that want to get started making horror films?

Watch as many as you can, read the scripts and get out to any one of your city’s film events to make some connections. Use the resources available to you and just do it! All you really need is a good script, at least one good actor, and one location. The less complicated, the better.

—

Jennifer Allanson can be found on twitter here

 

 

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Archives Poetry Women in Horror Month

Is Anyone There – A Poem by M.C. Adams

I can’t hear anything I can’t hear anyone The silence is not only deadly but deafening I’m screaming for help But no- no one is listening I’m afraid of the blackness Not darkness because that’s just the start of the black First the chill that runs down the spine is clinging to my back like a demon in the night trying to attach its spirit to mine; A shadow always creeping behind every step I take. I fall. Can someone answer the call, the ringing in my ears is too much to bear. I wanna run but I’m scared. My feet are stuck like roots steady trying to uplift the soil sinking around me like quicksand pulling me further and further in. The feeling of loneliness and longing linger in the air like frozen droplets of precipitation surrounding my dispair like looming clouds hanging in the sky which is where I usually turn mine eyes but they are blinded by the nothingness that consumes my every heartbeat. Thumping like a drum my fear quickly becomes this beast that is awaiting to be released. Feeling the red rage take over the monster shows its face but as I look closer its just the reflection of the beast and it is me. My enemy is my friend and my friend is my foe. Woe, is me and the reflection is cast upon a wide lake that I feel is my soul and my inner dark place. The lake begins to rise and the wave hits me in my blindside; blind sided by the crash the climax hits and its choking me now. My airflow is cut off as I gasp for oxygen feeling my heartbeat grow thin but at the same time its racing like a stallion doing the triple crown competition. I gasp once then twice then start to feel my eyes roll back into my head suddenly I’m alone in my room on my bed. The sweat rolls down my back and the chill from the fan creates a whirl wind. Tumbling down the walls to instill within me that I am yet again alone and that triggers me; I hang my head and ask the question once agai why do I have to go through the anxiety that is high? My heartbeat is still thumping and I know its temporary but the pain that lives inside me brings a tear to my eye that I usually hide, but as it slips down my face I wish for a different life, knowing even if it was so it would somehow bite me in the ass, so I take a deep breath and prepare to face the day and try to not show this ugly demon that lives inside of me.

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How I found Horror….for women in horror month

A short introduction of how I found Horror

I was 8 years old, it was a sunny afternoon. I was walking home from school with some friends when my Mum and Dad shouted me over from their car, they were going to visit my Grandma and they had missed me walking out of the school. I started to cross the busy road, when I misheard my friends’ older sister say, “go now”. I started to cross and was inadvertently hit by a car, I bounced across the bonnet and into the windscreen, hitting the road with a bang. My school satchel went one way and one of my shoes went another. The road was silent, my little brother was screaming in the back of the car and my Mum and Dad looked on in obvious horror, I stood up off the floor and limped over to my Mum and Dad in shock. My poor friend at the other side of the road had thought I was dead! The lady driver was screaming, and my Mum had to calm her down!! I got into the car and then decided I couldn’t move my legs, my Dad drove us to the hospital where I was checked over, they said I was lucky and didn’t have anything other than a huge bruise across my hips and legs, and arms where my tiny 8 year old body had impacted with the car and then the road.

That night every time I closed my eyes I saw a car driving towards me and I would sit up panicking. It was around the late 80s when this happened, so I don’t really think they treated PTSD very well back then! I went downstairs to be comforted by my parents, I sat on my Dads knee and cried. I know you are thinking “what has this got to do with Horror?” but this day was the first time I was introduced to Freddy Krueger.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Robert Englund, 1984, (c) New Line/courtesy Everett Collection

 

Let me explain! My parents had friends round, and they happened to be watching Nightmare on Elm Street on video, because I had appeared in the room so upset, the film was still playing. I remember as I was sat cuddled up on my Dads knee, calming down and wiping my tears away, I sneakily began watching it, and I wasn’t scared, I was intrigued. I think once my Dad realised I was starting to notice what was on TV he said ‘this film isn’t for your eyes Sarah’ and I responded with “its ok, I’m not scared I quite like it!” obviously the grown ups laughed, and I was taken back to bed

 

By age 10, along with my best friend Antony I was watching every horror film I could get my hands on, back in the day of video stores, we used to beg our parents to let us pick a scary film to watch, as long as they weren’t ‘rude’ they agreed (probably just to shut us up) and gradually we began to watch all the classics; Hellraiser, Poltergeist, more Nightmare on Elm Street, Amityville, Pet Semetary…to name but a few!!! Then one day, a man we referred to simply as ‘The Video Man’ who used to drive around with a van full of videos, park up and charge for rental, and come back the following week to swap around, appeared with a ‘banned’ film. It was called ‘Evil Dead’

My friends Grandma happened to be babysitting that night, so we set the video up, fizzing with excitement and apprehension about what we were about to watch, back in the late 80s – early 90s two kids wouldn’t have seen any trailers about films like this, and we certainly didn’t have google. So we literally were going in blindly, not even knowing what the film was about.

Antony’s grandma sat there obliviously knitting by lamplight whilst we got our pop and crisps out, and switched off the ‘big’ light, got cuddled up in front of the TV set and pressed play. It was amazing. It was the scariest most horrifying thing we had ever seen, several times we screamed and covered our eyes, and as things escalated I remember we submitted and shouted to Grandma to ‘turn it off turn it off!!’ she did and eyes wide we discussed how good it was but far too scary to watch the rest. I think I had nightmares that night. We would only completely watch the rest of Evil Dead when we were 16.

So Horror was my life now, whether it was sitting religiously every week, watching the latest horror-based TV programme, or reading the latest horror fiction, researching true ghost stories, or watching the latest Horror film as soon as it came out. Horror was my true love and it would never go away.

 

30 Years later I am still obsessed, a couple of years ago I suffered with my own mental health, and had to take time off work. I eventually went to see a counsellor, and one session covered how I should take time out for myself, and do something I love. I told her, felling a little embarrassed, that I loved nothing more than to watch a good horror (or a bad horror – I would still give it a try) I kind of expected her to say ‘oh no, that’s the last thing you want to do – you need to start meditating or going for a run’ but she didn’t, and to my surprise she responded with ‘Horror is a great outlet for you, if its something you love and enjoy then it cannot be doing you any harm, keep doing it’

So I did. I regularly get told by my Mum that I should watch something, fluffy and nice, something about love, or romance or a feel-good film. (please note I do love thrillers, comedies and other genres too) but I tell her, NOTHING beats a Horror film, nothing beats a scare or the goosebumps on your skin when you watch a film that scares the hell out of you.

It was other people who commented that I should review the Horror that I watch (because I watch so many) and share it on social media, which is how ‘Little Psycho’ was born. A way I could briefly give my opinion to whoever may be reading, about horror/thrillers that I got to see. I have always dreamt of writing and I have thought about many ideas for a good book over the years, covering a range of topics. However, as the saying goes….’write what you know’ and one thing I certainly know….is what scares me!! Maybe one day that horror novel/story will come to me and I will be able to share it with the world, maybe not. However nothing, and nobody will quell my passion for the genre. I am a proud woman of horror, and even when I am 100 I will still be loading up whatever device may exist, with the latest Horror film, popcorn in hand, scaring myself silly.

 

 

 

 

Sarah

@Illberightbackk

Little Psycho