If you're a fan of Stuart Gordon's films and/or modern indie horror, Barbara Crampton needs no real introduction. The actress continues to pair with talented filmmakers on incredible indie horror movies and she's at the Stanley Film Festival in support of multiple projects. Ahead of Stuart Gordon receiving this year's Master of Horror award during the festival, I caught up with Barbara Crampton to talk about Re-Animator, Sun Choke, and her role as a producer on Beyond the Gates:
You're here at the Stanley Film Festival for multiple films, including a screening of Re-Animator, which includes a Master of Horror award being given to Stuart Gordon.
Barbara Crampton: He's the person who made me who I am today by casting me in Re-Animator and I have the utmost thanks for that. He's an amazing filmmaker who's always interesting and never repeats himself. His stories are always cohesive, and the horror and gore is always spectacular.
It's hard to believe the movie was released nearly 30 years ago. Did you have any idea when you were making the movie that it would be something special and would be loved by horror fans around the world decades later?
Barbara Crampton: I don't think anyone is making something special while they're doing it. I read something recently. I can't remember who said it, but they said that you make a movie, have some kind of rough cut, and can kind of tell if it's a boy or a girl, but you can't tell how it will grow up. You never really know what you have. I've read fantastic scripts that didn't turn out very well. I've also read interesting scripts that turned into fantastic movies. There are so many voices that get heard during the making of a movie and you never know what you're going to get at the end of that.
That being said, we had so much fun making Re-Animator. It was Stuart's first movie and he came from the theatre, so we had lots of rehearsals and that really helped us. All of us had a theatre background, so that helped as well.
The characters were firmly rooted in a story of their own, from their own point of view and we all had a strong vision for our characters. There was also that sense of fun, which Stuart had written, but Jeffrey [Combs] brought so much to that movie. It would have been a very different movie had he not been in it. It's much like Bruce Campbell in the Evil Dead movies.
When we first premiered the movie, we did get some great reviews, from Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert, but it took time for the movie to be firmly grounded in the history of horror and for people to find it. It's really found its audience over time.
Sun Choke is making its premiere at the Stanley Film Fest and this seems like quite a different role for you. Can you give our readers a tease of what they can expect?
Barbara Crampton: It's a sad movie and I'm telling people that it's like Lars von Trier, but more depressed than he already is. It's a movie about loneliness and isolation.
There's a woman who's mentally unstable and I'm her caretaker. We don't really have outside friends and don't have a life outside of one another. How does that dynamic affect us in the long term? Sarah Hagan, who plays the main character, is wonderful in the movie. She gets a chance to go outside of the home environment and starts obsessively stalking a girl she'd really like to be. She looks at this girl and wants to be her, wants her life. I think she is well enough to go out and things deteriorate without me knowing it at first. That is where the horror really begins and that's all I'll say about it...
You have a really great track record for working with excellent actors and directors, especially with the recent indie horror releases you've been involved with. What is it that attracts you to a certain script or director?
Barbara Crampton: I think it all comes down to a good character. If there's something I can bring to the movie that's interesting, different, or has my personal take on it, I'll say yes. One of my first directors in school told me to tell the story as if it's my story, whether I'm the main character or not. Most of the time, I'm not. In Re-Animator I wasn't and definitely not in Chopping Mall [laughs]. Even in Sun Choke I'm not the main character, but the story has to live through my eyes. If I feel like I can bring a certain amount of commitment and tell the story through that character's eyes, then I'll say yes.
Another movie you're involved with is Beyond the Gates, where you're also taking on a producing role? Can we expect more from you on the producing side? Is there any interest to direct a film at some point?
Barbara Crampton: The director (Jackson Stewart) was one of Stuart Gordon's interns and he's written a lot of short films. He sent me this script, I read it, and I thought it was fantastic. He had already been through a few rewrites and he had a lot of the money already put together. I was one of the last people to come in.
It's a fantastic script that is firmly rooted in character. It's about two estranged brothers that need to find their father, who has been missing for a number of months. It's really about their relationship coming back and dealing with one another, while trying to recover their father. I gave them a few notes and helped a bit with the casting, location stuff, and money. I'm really looking forward to helping out during the editing process, and we'll see where that takes me.
Because I'm friends with Jackson, this felt very familial to me and that seems like a trend now. When I did You're Next, all of those guys knew each other. The horror industry seems more like a community now than it ever has been. It felt like I was doing something with friends when I said yes to help Jackson on this project.
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