Everyone at Imagine Fantastic Film Festival is mad about genre (right?). For our new interview series Faces of Imagine, our special guests, crew members and volunteers tell us all about the fantastic fiction they love.
Added to the list: writer Heidi Honeycutt, who was at the festival promoting her book on women directors in horror – I Spit on Your Celluloid, The History of Women Directing Horror Movies.
Hi Heidi! Are you a genre nut?
‘I am a total genre nerd. In fact, I’ve spent the last 20 years researching and writing a book about women directing horror movies. Nobody would do that unless they’re absolutely out of their mind, right? I also spend the rest of my time writing about other horror movies, programming horror movies for festivals, watching other people’s horror movies and then sometimes I just watch them at home, by myself, on my couch, in my pyjama’s. So I’m just a giant, giant genre nerd.’
Why did you become a genre author?
‘I became a genre author and film programmer because I honestly didn’t know what else to do with my life. I got a couple of useless degrees, I learned a lot and I’m good at reading things, but nobody wanted to pay me to do that. So I needed to find something to do, that I would get paid for, so that I wouldn’t starve to death. It seemed that the only place where I fit in, where I’m actually able to contribute in a meaningful way, is in the film community and specifically the horror community. I’m eternally grateful for that because otherwise I’d be working at the mortgage company or something like that, and I’d be so bored and so tired and unhappy. Instead, I have a life where maybe I can’t always pay my rent, but I know some really inspiring artists and have seen so many wonderful things, and to me, that’s priceless.’
What’s your favourite genre?
‘My two favourite fantastic genres are horror comedy and tragedy horror. We all know what horror comedy is, right. My favourite horror comedy is Dead Alive by Peter Jackson. Things that are absolutely crazy, out-of-control funny, but also horrifying. But I also like movies where horrible things happen to people, where they almost die because of how horrible it is, and then they don’t. That’s when you get to kind of be a masochist and feel their pain. I’m talking about movies like Pet Cemetery, or Hereditary, where you leave the movie feeling like you want to stab yourself in the stomach.’
What’s your favourite scary movie?
‘Oh gosh. When people ask me that, about ten or twenty different movies instantly hit my brain, and I want pick all of them. But I can’t pick all of them. So what I’ll do is pick the movie that encompasses what I think we all mean by ‘favourite’, which is the one that I consider The Best – cinematically, story-wise, and in terms of accessibility to the audience and profundity when it comes to storytelling as a whole. And then I’d have to pick The Thing by John Carpenter. If that’s not your top 1, it’s in your top 2, and if it’s not in your top 2, it’s in your top 3. It’s just the best horror movie ever made. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say: The Thing? Nah that’s just not very good.’
What’s your favourite movie character?
‘This is easy. It’s Brenda Meeks from Scary Movie. She’s the funniest character in the world. Me and my best friend quote each other Brenda all the time. She’s amazing, she’s life, she’s God, she’s everything. And if they don’t put Brenda in the new Scary Movie 6 that’s coming out, I’m not gonna see it.’
What is your favourite genre film quote?
‘Whenever my best friend and I want to complain about somebody that’s bothering or annoying us, we like to quote Brenda from Scary Movie 1, and we like to go: ‘Out of my face, out of my face’, like that. Or ‘This is all on me up in here.’ Because it is! We always ask ourselves: what would Brenda do? And whatever Brenda would do is what I want to do, always.’
In which fantasy world would you like to live?
‘Oohh. Ok. Probably in Rainbow Valley, from the original My Little Pony animated tv series. I know that sounds awful but if you think about it, it’s this beautiful place filled with rainbows and cute ponies, who are all really lovely and cuddly and sweet, and there’s lots of grass and flowers which I like, and most importantly you can be ten years old forever. So that’s my ideal fantasy place.’
Would you rather be a super hero or a master villain?
‘I would rather be a master villain, and I think a lot of people here will answer that because we’re all sort of dark and we like spooky things. As a master villain, you can get away with things a super hero can’t. A super hero is held to this really high moral standard, and that’s hard. It’s hard for me in my normal human life, so I really wouldn’t want to deal with that as a super hero. I would then rather be an exaggerated version of myself, which I think would make me villain. Maybe I’d be Poison Ivy, just growing plants all over City Hall because I like plants more than people. Or…I really like cats, so I’d surround myself with cats and I guess that would then make me Cat Woman. To me, some of the villains seem like better people than the heroes. For instance, Batman’s a billionaire, right, and Gotham City is filled with people living in poverty. And he thinks the best way to handle that is by dressing up and going out at night and beating people up. But I’m like: what about giving all of your money to Poisin Ivy and Dr Freeze, so they can work on climate change and make the world a better place? I think that would be better use of the money. So… anyway: villain.’
Foto: Jamie Korbee
