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First of all, could you introduce yourself to those who don't
already know you?
Hello all of you dumpster divers! Congrats you have run into my trash,
I am a scream queen in the B-genre of horror films. I wear alot of makeup,
sparkly things, and severed human remains... but only after labor day. At the moment, you have an amazing
number of upcoming films (and many of them have terrific titles). What can
you tell us about Scream Queen Campfire? Thank you!
I am big on marketing, so something that really can sell me on a project
is the title. Scream Queen Campfire is an anthology series about a
bunch of girls on their way to a horror convention when their car
breaks down. Since of course they are in the middle of nowhere they set up
camp and decide to tell scary stories to pass the time. Each story they
tell is a short film starring a scream queen. This project has been getting
a lot of attention, I think Jon Moody really had a great idea with this
one. So far Rachel Grubb, Tara Cardinal [Tara
Cardinal interview - click here], Scarlet Salem and myself have
been cast. Rachel and I have already shot most of our films, she is what
really moved me to come on board. I enjoy working with her. Another
great title is Nude Nuns with Big Guns. A few words about that one? Yah,
this is another film I thought the title was hilarious. When i read the
breakdowns during casting i decided it was not quite the right material
for me. But they called me about 1/2 way through filming with a guest role
so i came out to make a little cameo in it. It is a 70's style grindhouse
film, so that was kind different from what I have done in the past. The
cast and crew were really cool people to work with and I had been wanting
to team up ever since hearing about their first film Run Bitch Run.
Nude Nuns should be hitting festivals and limited theaters later this year.
You also were in Creep Creepersin's Orgy of Blood and the
wonderfully titled Ding Dong Dead, and will be in the Final Girl
movies [Creep Creepersin
interview - click here]. What can you tell us about those?
Orgy of Blood was a sexy vampire film that was doing
reshoots right when I met Creep Creepersin. He invited me to be part of it
and gave me a little scene in the beginning of the film. If you're into
blood, insane amounts of nudity, sex and maybe a hint of a plot
followed by more sex then it's going to be your favorite
film.
Ding Dong Dead is a PG13 style flick which was orginally
made with the intention of a television market. I can't say it's my
favorite, I enjoy a lot more gore and extreme material in my films. But it
was a fun learning experience and at least I finally have something I can
show my younger brothers. It is about a group of teen girls who ding
dong ditch people in their neighborhood. When one of their victims has had
enough they find themselves on the other end of the game.
The Final Girl film is the first of a trilogy that is still
currently in pre-production. It is one of my favorite scripts I've read this
year and I really like my character Lori Keena. The films touch on some of
the basic principals found in horror films so I really am looking forward
to being involved in it. More on that when production starts.
Could you talk about Craig McIntyre's The Los Angeles Ripper
for a bit [Craig McIntyre
interview - click here]? Honestly, I am probably
going to lose a lot of credibility for this film because it has no budget
and at first glance is going to look very amateur. However, I am very
proud of this film. I learned a lot on this set because it was a different
style of filmmaking than I have really experienced. This is an art film.
The camera angles, the colors used, the free flowing of the script and
the violence in it is what the filmmaker Craig McIntyre is demonstrating
as horror art and expression in the making. The set of my torture scene is
going to be put on display in a museum setting. I am looking forward to
the premiere.
You are also in
Return to Yucca Flats: Desert Man Beast ...
Yah, this film might get removed from my resume haha. I filmed it over
3 years ago right around the time of my first film The Lonely Ones.
I went out to meet the director because a mutual friend was in this and it
was kind of a mess. They still have it being listed as in post production.
It really irritates me when filmmakers just sit on a project. You
have a small role in Piranha 3D. A few words about the movie, and
how does work in a decently budgeted movie like that one differ from low
budget, independend productions? I have been getting this
question a lot. Doing large studio pictures was not really my interest,
but just like many of you out there, I was curious about the difference
between my little indie films and what you can get for 30 million dollars.
The simple answer is everything is bigger. Sets, stunts, actor names,
special effects, paychecks - it's all just bigger. Everything runs like
clockwork too, its 12 hour days with a huge crew managing a cast of almost
1000. At the end of the day it is a bunch of people making a horror movie.
I even heard rumors about running low on funds so the studios face many of
the same problems that we do and it is a lot of the same elements. One big
difference I noticed, and the reason I target indie projects is because
everyone on set was clear on the fact that they were only there
for a paycheck. Indie sets, especially indie horror sets, are full of
passion, drive and the love of creating something great. Of course I have
a huge crush on Alex Aja, so sitting a few feet from him for 2 weeks
straight helped to make up for that. And then there's of
course Legend of the Red Reaper
... Oh
Legend of the Red Reaper,
this is not my film it's Tara Cardinal's film [Tara
Cardinal interview - click here]. But I am almost as proud of
it as I am of some of my big upcoming works. Tara is a dear friend and
partner-in-horror-crime. I have watched her work her ass off to put
this together and it is turning out amazing. I was originally cast in a
role that was opening the film but due to other movie commitments I was
not able to shoot during the time those scenes were filming. She has
written me a new scene with another favorite of mine, Lloyd Kaufman.
Deedee Bigalow and Florida's diva Babette Bombshell will be in there as well.
It will be a little Troma tribute in the middle of a fantasy action film,
and the scene is really funny. I think the fans are going to like it.
Devanny Pinn and Tara Cardinal |
With Tara Cardinal [Tara
Cardinal interview - click here], star, producer and co-writer of Legend of the Red Reaper, you also do a web-show, Scream Queens Uncut.
Could you please tell us what this show is about?
Certainly. Scream Queens: Uncut is a talkshow that is hosted by Tara
and I for the horror world and beyond. It is in the same realm as The View
or the Tyra Banks Show. We noticed that fans kept wanting to know about
our world because frankly when you are a scream queen even day to day life
is different from other people. So the show is dealing with real issues
and topics from the perspective of horror girls. To give you a taste, some
of the segment topics are The Casting Couch: Hollywood Prostitution,
Real
Life Horror: Stories and Survivors of Trauma, Fantasy in Reality:
Lifestyle Vampires, Witches and other Alternative Living, and
One Day on Death Row.
The show will feature everything from celebrity guests and
interviews, film reviews, event coverage, and musical performances. We are
very excited about the progress it has been making.
Are
there any other current or upcoming projects you'd like to talk about? We
are gearing up for February as it is Women in Horror Month. I, along with
several other ladies in horror, will be showing our support with a variety
of events. Coming up is the Bleed for Women in Horror Blood Drive.
Most of the locations are in Canada, but we are working to bring
many more to the States. I personally will be assisting with the Los
Angeles Blood Drive so if you are in the area please come by to donate.
Also during the month of February you can vote for the Women in
Horror Awards! Tara Cardinal and myself will be hosting the awards
show so be sure to check it out. Let's
leave the future behind for the moment and move forward into the past.
What got you into acting in the first place, and did you ever have any
formal acting training? Um...ahem... no. I suppose you
could technically count my musical theater background, but i don't because
it is a completely different type of acting. However I study my craft. I
watch horror films and the actors in them with great detail and have
formed my style based on what I find to be the best performances. It is
probably for this reason that I am not a brilliant improv actor, however
when I have time to develop my character then I can steal the show. I
am very blessed that I have been given amazing support from critics and fans
for my performances. I get complimented often for my very real,
very scary deliveries. I prefer to study people, not
techniques, and I think that is why I have been given as much favor as I have. Acting in horror is hard, and a lot of trained actors do not know
how to prepare for it. This is why many times mainstream actors do not act
well in a scary movie, because their classes can not prep them and
they are so used to cookie cutter methods that they end up lost or looking
very rehearsed. Basically, I am not going to appear on Gossip Girl, so do
not try to dodge the chainsaw. Thanks. Is it true that you are a
trained classical/opera singer? Yes, actually. I started
ballet dancing and singing in music theater at the age of 3. As I got
older I started singing classical and opera music. I actually got a
scholarship to study voice in college and was pursuing musical theater
when I got cast in my first horror film. You can imagine my mother's
reaction when she found out her sweet little choir girl was ripping people
open and eating their intestines with a smile.
You have also played leads in various musicals and performed in pop
bands, right?
I have done musicals my whole life. I thought there was nothing better
in the world then being on stage, until I found the film camera. I did a
music review of Phantom of the Opera where I played Christine for a
TV-station in Arizona, and shared the role of Eva Peron in Evita shortly
after. After hearing my voice and my musical ability I got recruited to
sing in a pop girl group. I was backup for it because my voice has a
strong classical quality that does not sound very Britney Spears,
but I can harmonize to anything on the spot, sometimes without even ever
hearing a song so they kept me around to write the harmonies and help the
other girls with their parts. I had a lot of fun with that, we dressed up
and had big dance numbers and played shows all over. We even got
shopped by Jive and Universal, but the girls were always flaky. We must
have gone through 30 replacements by the time I quit. Everytime
we started to get big, someone would not be sure if they wanted that
life. I knew that I did, so I broke out on my own. Since then I put
music on the backburner to pursue a film career. I still sing sometimes in
church :)
You broke into movies and into the horror
genre with The Lonely Ones. What can you tell us about this film?
It was a huge deal to me for a while. It was my baby, the film that
changed the direction of my life and allowed me to discover my blood lust.
Now I can see a lot more of its flaws and shortcomings, but I still have a
soft spot for it and my character is still one of my roles in film.
It is low budget, but has a wonderful story that trumps the lack of
funding. It was a month on location filming in northern Arizona. I learned
the basics of filmmaking and acting from wonderful people who loved their
crafts. I still keep in touch with some of the cast and crew.
12-24 |
You were also in 12-24. A few words about that one?
This is the first film I did this year after deciding to do horror full
time. It is the first ever holiday zombie flick and was a lot of fun to
shoot. I still haven't seen it, but it has a huge following and is
supposedly a solid film for new filmmaker Anthony Colliano. It was cool
for me as the youngest scream queen to work under Tiffany Shepis who is a
veteran of our field. WCW's Maestro was in some of my scenes too so that
was a blast. Any
other films you've done you want to mention?
If it ever gets completed, The New Face of Fear is a pretty cool
project. Victoria Demare, Bianca Barnett and myself host trailers and
clips of the top indie horror films of the past few years. Each segment
has us inside different types of horror films about to be hunted down and
then it stops so we can tell you about the next film preview. It's pretty
cool.
I've got a film coming up that im excited about called 15
Till
Midnight, which is being called 'The Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless
Mind of the horror genre'.
The guys doing Scream Queen Campfire just annouced a new series around
me this week called Devanny Pinn's Trial By Terror. More on that later.
Also currently working on a couple films with Death Factory Inc -
Bad
Girls Burn in Hell and Diary of Death.
Most of the
films you are in are horror movies. Is horror a genre dear to you? Yup,
I am a horror girl. I only do horror because its the most fun. I will do
films with other elements in them, but horror has to be one of the
main components.
You sometimes also go by the name Horror Barbie. How did that
name come into being?
It was on set of one of my films last year. A lot of the other girls
came on set and were brutal looking, and being a scream queen
I think they expected me to look the same. I showed up skipping to
the film in a pink pleted skirt, with curls in my hair and cotton
candy flavored lip gloss. After looks of shock, terror and then laughter,
the crew decided I was hilarious and refered to me as the horror genres Barbie doll. The name kind of stuck and then when I decided it was not an
insult I even started marketing myself that way. Women in horror are almost
automatically labelled scream queens. Is that a label you are happy with? Oh
I have a HUGE problem with this. My nomination as a scream queen was one
of the proudest moments of my life, and anyone who knows me knows
that I hate that the term is thrown around to anyone now. Scream
queens are women who act in horror films and do a damn good job at
it. If you are a horror cyber girl, have a blog, or even are a big horror
fan... you are NOT a scream queen. Just like I could be an award winner
but there is a huge difference in the Cob award and the Oscars. There are
a few of us who are trying to make acting in horror a more serious trade,
and show people how much more work it takes than any other
genre, so awarding a title should be difficult to earn to
everyone is not helping. In short, I am honored that critics who have seen
my work have dubbed me a scream queen, and women in horror are amazing
people - but they are Women in Horror. Your
website, MySpace, Facebook, whatever else?
www.devannypinn.net
www.myspace.com/devannypinn
www.womeninhorrorawards.com
www.womeninhorrormonth.com
www.searchmytrashisfreakinawesome.com (just
kidding)
Actresses (or
indeed actors) who have inspired you?
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I love Jamie Lee Curtis and Sarah Michelle Gellar. They are strong
women with a wide range of acting ability and have made major
contributions to horror. Have to throw down to Angelina too, she
inspired some of the good little bad girl you love to hate that I've got
going on. Your favourite
movies? Cruel Intentions, My Suicide, Sleepaway
Camp,
Scream 1-2, The Mighty Ducks, Mrs. Doubtfire, Anything Disney,
The Shining, Urban Legend, Silence of the Lambs, Hook,
Legally Blonde, Gone
With the Wind, Zoolander, Star Wars. And of course, films you have really deplored? I
Know What You Did Last Summer 3, Don't Mess with the Zohan, Leprechan 7: In
the Hood... or something like that Anything
else you are dying to mention I have merely forgotten to ask?
Ummm I am involved in a documentary and book called The First Ladies of
Horror that should be out later this year.
I am also being drawn into a comic book called Fangs by Comic Book
Divas as the lead vampire Lilly Le Sang.
I also am currently making my screenwriting debut in Socia about a
female serial killer.
Thanks
for the interview!
Thank you! And big thanks to your readers.
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