To my Rebels and Renegades:

Here’s a tribute to all my accomplices in the making of horror flicks, from the actors slathered in fake blood to the directors who have every single member of their extended and extensive family playing extras in the zombie apocalypse…I have ALWAYS loved the passion that it takes to even begin the embryonic germination of an idea that propagates into some of my favourite underground flicks. So many of them are barely seen in mainstream theatres and simultaneously thrive in festivals all over the world for years… They end up with Fandoms and Followers that can quote all their favourite scenes! Cosplay! Framed Collectors Posters! Signed Limited Releases! You name it, it’s out there! There is a PASSION for those with PASSION. These films above have been some of my most special little darlings to make! Some were like the brooding silent types, simmering and dark and a little too antisocial to take home for dinner with the Fam on Sunday. Others started off experimental, then kicked off the training wheels and developed into the “Little Bombastic Dynamo That Could” and is STILL making rounds on screens in Brazil of all places! O Brasil é lindo maravilhoso!

It takes the special souls and the lifeblood of some pretty ingenious mavericks to devote themselves to this special genre – typically out of their own pocket and usually without the padding of a studio to help you along when things go sideways – which they always do. Sometimes, we take stories we have illuminated in our own dark psyches and, just as often, we turn to the dark(er) fringes of Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelly or H. P. Lovecraft.  It was in my truly haunted, fire-licked basement – in the midst of shooting “Re Animator” – that I found myself surrounded by people who would become my DEAREST lifelong friends and most original inspiring sidekicks in the ongoing quest to never stop making our art our way. People who recruited their extended and extensive family, quit their day (and night) jobs and made a film would be celebrated for body count and originality in said body count death scenes. I humbly accept the “JOE BRIGGS DRIVE-IN AWARD” for one of my character “Charlie”s  line: “Should we cut him up first?“.  My best pal and fellow actress won for being my “Scissor-wielding best friend”…

Now how many folks can claim the same? True story indeed…And so, these films remain my most favourite onset experience hands down for many reasons….

So cheers to be so convinced in your creativity and passion, that against any or all opposition, you WILL make this movie!!  It shows the deepest, most desirable and  powerful human characteristic of all: COURAGE. The courage to bank on yourself and your imagination…. not to mention Integrity, Intelligence and a deep sense of Self-Awareness. Without these qualities, your horror film would remain a great campy story to be told over and over but never touch the silver screen! Cheers to YOU my fellow Ghouls and Zombies, Vamps and Vampires, Slashers and Scream Queens! Cheers to all your fake, splatter-y, death scenes and gory exits! Cheers to the teams behind the terrific screams and ‘fade-to-blacks’… the ones that had to bring their own sandwich to set and those who had to perform scheduling acrobatics when we had to go another day past the shooting schedule.

Cheers to all of you … and especially to you, you crazy writer/directors with that mad light of genius behind those sleep-deprived eyes… A toast to my Rebels and Renegades!!

Source: Before These Actors Become Stars, They Got Killed in Slasher Flicks