Talking With the Dead: 13 Questions with Sarah Nicklin

Sarah Nicklin’s most notable works are a diverse range of indie films that have played in festivals around the world as well as being available on Netflix, and wherever movies are sold.

She has received three “best actress” nominations for her roles in Exhumed, Choices, and Zombie Allegiance.

She got her start in theater, appearing in “Bye Bye Birdie” in 6th grade. She appeared in her first indie film, “La Bolsa”, during her final year of high school. She then graduated from Emerson College with a degree in Theater (in addition to a BA in Marketing and a minor in psychology). During this time she also started extensively working the New England film and theater scene, appearing in around 70 projects in the 5 years she was there before making the move to Los Angeles.

1 . According to IMDB, your first horror credits were as Jennifer in Timothy Whitfield’s 21 minute short Lesser of Two Evils and as Lisa in the 15 minute short Sanity or Survival, both of which were part of Detour Into Madness Vol 2 (2006). What can you tell us about how you became involved in the project, what were the different dynamics you brought to your two characters and which of the two shorts did you prefer?

Those were some of my first films ever!! I got involved first in Sanity or Survival just by replying to a casting call on a local acting site. I met with Tim and was pretty much cast on the spot. Originally Sanity or Survival was going to be the opening of the feature film Forced Survival, but he ended up making it its own short instead. After working on that, Tim then wanted to do one more short before he moved to LA and since everyone had gotten along so well on Forced Survival, he cast the female lead Alexandra Cipolla and myself to be the two women in The Lesser of Two Evils. Then I met William Decoff on Lesser of Two Evils. We quickly became friends and he then recommended me to another local director who was looking for the female lead in his next feature – that turned out to be Splatter Disco by Richard Griffin. Moral of the story… work begets work!!

2. Next up for you was 2007’s horror/comedy Splatter Disco, directed by Richard Griffin. Starring alongside you were horror icons Ken Foree, Lynn Lowery, Debbie Rochon and yes, even Trent Haaga (LOVED that guy in Terror Firmer!)! Can you tell us a bit about your character Danni, how it was working with Ken, Lynn, Debbie and Trent, and how did you get involved in the film?

Well I guess I kinda already answered that last part Danni is basically a sweet girl who just so happens to be into the fetish scene (I spent a good ¼ of the movie in a panda furry outfit haha!). Most of the film takes place at a fetish club in Providence as the people who frequent it are getting killed off. The mayor of the town is also trying to get the club shut down, so Danni decides that she’s going to save the club and all of her friends.

I was SO nervous to be working with so many horror icons in this film!! I remember thinking how they were all “real actors” and yet somehow I’ve ended up being the lead in this film, so I better not fuck it up!! All of them were such awesomely nice people to work with. I unfortunately didn’t get to see Debbie or Lynn very much as we really didn’t have any scenes together, but Trent and Ken were fantastic and also hilarious. I remember in between set ups, my co-star Jason McCormick had brought his laptop to set and (this was back in the days of MySpace) he and I were showing Ken how to edit and update his MySpace page. It was so amazing!! Ken is a really funny guy!

3. In 2008, you teamed again with director Richard Griffin for the role of Nikki Hartwell in Beyond the Dunwich Horror. While watching the trailer, I could not help but feel I was watching a lost film from the 70’s, almost in the vein of Fulci, Argento and the other classics of the time. What drew you to work again with Richard, what did you think of the style that was used for the film and how much fun was it working on a film based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft?

I had so much fun working with Richard the first time that I couldn’t wait to do it again when he asked me to come back for the next one. Prior to this film I had never even heard about Lovecraft or Argento or any of those sorts of things, but Richard has such a vast knowledge of all of that film history. I read the original Dunwich Horror story in order to get an understanding of the background for the film and Richard also showed me some of the 70s Italian films that he wanted to use as the basis for the style of the film. And yes, it is very Argento! Argento and Gallo were some of his main inspirations for this piece. Since all of this was very new to me I was fascinated by all of it. I never knew you could use such fun lighting sets in film! I had never seen that done before! It was a whole new world that I had never experienced.

4. J. Poisson’s VAmL (2009) was your next step into the horror/comedy genre in the role of Robin. It is nice to see in this day and age that vampires can be funny and scary without having to sparkle and whine! What can you tell us about the film and how do you feel about how the vampires were used in the film as opposed to how mainstream cinema portrays them these days?

The vampires in this film are definitely far scarier than the sparkling vampires of today. Our vampires were vicious even if some of them were more “good” than others. To me, Ann Rice is the authority on vampires. That’s really the mythos that I like to follow. I’ll be honest that I don’t remember everything about the story line in this one. It was a really complex plot with lots of characters and many of those characters ended up getting re-cast a few times, which meant lots of re-shoots. The entire filming process ended up taking place over at least two years, so everything just got muddled in my head. I’ve also never seen a full final version of the film – I saw one cut where there were still some scenes missing, but that was the last that I saw. It was a super ambitious project for a first time director to take on.

5. “Ninety nine percent of the worlds has been destroyed by a bio-chemical war. Technology is obsolete and the soil has been polluted leaving people with barely any food. The survivors try to continue on by hunting and consuming the living dead which has dire results as the dead flesh begins to mutate with the bio-chemical still in the atmosphere. People’s digestive systems begin to evolve and force their way out of victims mouths to search for food on their own. Mutations spiral out of control into a grotesque finale” is the synopsis of Brian Paulin’s 2010 film Blood Pigs. What attracted you to the film and the role of Samantha, were you surprised when it was voted “The Goriest movie of 2010” by Rue Morgue Magazine’s reader’s poll and what do you remember about the FX in the film?

This is actually the first that I’m hearing about that award haha! That’s pretty cool! I remember the FX being amazing in this film. That was what drew me to work with Brian in the first place – everything that I had seen from his previous work had such amazing FX. And he does all of them himself! He definitely has a talent for doing that kind of work.

That synopsis is actually more than I knew about the film at the time. From what I remember, it was sort of being pieced together as we went depending on what resources would become available. I don’t remember ever getting a full script for the entire project – I would just get some scenes that we were going to be shooting that day. Most of it was focused around the amazing FX that Brian was able to do and finding ways to fit those into the story.

6. 2010 was a good year in horror for you with Richard Griffin’s Atomic Brain Invasion as Betty, Sarah in Stephan Romano Presents Shock Festival and Fishscale in Tony Nunes’ Zombie Allegiance as well! What can you tell us about how you became involved with these projects, how did it feel to be nominated for Best Actress in Zombie Allegiance and where you expecting the horror genre to become such a huge focal point in your career at this time?

2010 was right after Nun of That had come out, so that was really when people in the local film scene started to “know who I was” due to the success of that film. For Atomic, this was actually a film that Richard was talking with me about while we were shooting Splatter Disco. It was first called Space Cheerleaders and Richard had suggested it to a production company, but when they budgeted it out, they thought it would be much too expensive to make. So years later, Richard re-worked the script a bit and decided to do it on his own!

Shock Festival also happened as a result of Richard as well (have you noticed that I pretty much owe him my entire career). Steven Romano had done the original poster for Nun of That the year before, so when he decided to publish his coffee table book of fake movie posters along with videos to go with those posters, he asked Richard to be one of the few directors around the country to make one of the trailers. Given our working relationship and we had also become good friends by this time, Richard asked me to be part of his section on the DVD.

Zombie Allegiance stemmed from Richard as well. The director Tony Nunes was a writer who had worked with Richard and who I had met on Richard’s sets. So when Tony started to cast Zombie Allegiance, I told him that I was interested in the films and he offered me a role. I was SHOCKED at my best actress nomination in this film. While the role really was very different than a lot the other parts I’d played before, it’s not a very big role and I’m really only in a few scenes, so I was really surprised and honored when they came out with that nomination.

7. “Can Rex figure out a way to stop Rita’s subsequent rampage of revenge, murder, and destruction as well as reclaim the soul of his new porn starlet gal Amoreena Jones before it’s too late?” is the central plot to 2011’s The Disco Exorcist, once again teaming you with Richard Griffin. Once again, this film has the visual style of a 70’s exploitation/horror film. How much did you enjoy the role of porn starlet Amoreena Jones, what is the most challenging aspect to recreating a period piece like this and how well was the movie received by the fans?

This movie has gotten AMAZING feedback from fans. People absolutely love it! And what’s not to like? Tons of nudity, an exorcism, 70s exploitation, cocaine, blood, gore….

This film especially lends itself to that 70s style just based on the content. Richard really likes to make fun movies and I think he feels like the most fun horror movies were those from the 70s before everyone got all serious and before “torture porn” became popular. So a lot of his films have these old-school tone to them. For this one especially he even wanted to shoot it on Super 8mm to really give it that old gritty look, which really was one of the biggest challenges. But after doing some tests, he found a way to get that same look by doing post work, which made the film more cost-effective and also less difficult when it came to syncing the sound and better for us actors as we didn’t have to worry about burning money by messing up and using up film.

8. You rounded out the year of 2011 with Richard Griffin’s Exhumed as Laura, Emily Clancy in Daniel Lee White’s Cost of Living: A Zom Rom Com and as Lily Wallace in Kevin MacDonald’s Beg. Where you surprised that you were nominated yet again for Best Actress in Exhumed, how do you feel about how the zombies were portrayed in Cost of Living and what did you take away from working with the likes of Tony Moran, Tony Todd, P.J. Soles, Tiffany Shepis, Debbie Rochon and Michael Berryman on Beg?

Wow, lots of questions Ok, for Beg I really only worked with Michael Berryman and Tony Moran. I just had one scene where I’m being tortured by a killer in a flashback and that killer was Michael Berryman and the cop who found me was Tony Moran. Both are really cool people and very dedicated to their craft. I guess one of the biggest take aways from working with them was that you never know which one of your films is going to “make it”. When Tony talked about when he auditioned for Halloween, it sounded almost like a clique for a bad horror movie – an unknown young director, a relatively low budget, not a lot of pay, and he wears a mask the whole time – not exactly a “dream role”, but that’s the one that hit it big. I’m sure that there would have been lots of other people who would have turned that part down thinking that they were “too good” for it, but he didn’t and that was the one that put him on the map.

In COTL, I thought that the idea of “domesticated zombies” was pretty interesting. The only other film I had seen do that before was Fido. I also really like a lot of the parallels that are drawn between zombies and people in our society – the debate of should you kill a zombie just because they don’t contribute and can’t take care of themselves mirrors some debates about disabled people or people in comas. So I really liked that there was a stronger message than just having the typical flesh eating zombies.

I was surprised at my nomination for Exhumed. Not as surprised as Zombie Allegiance as I do feel like it’s some of my best work, but I think that Michael Thurber especially has the best performance in the film. That film is really a powerhouse for performances – everyone in it is incredible to watch. In the end since all 3 women from the film were nominated, we ended up winning best ensemble cast, which I think is really fitting for the film as it really is an ensemble of great performances.

9. In Brandon Slagle’s The Black Dahlia Haunting (2012), you got to work with two of this generations up and coming Scream Queens, Jessica Cameron and Devanny Pinn, both of which I have had the honor to interview. What did you find to be the most compelling aspect of the film, how much fun was it working with Jessica and Devanny and how proud were you when Brandon won Best Director at Shockerfest 2012?

Personally, my favorite part of the film and the part I think is the most compelling is the flashback sequence with Alexis Iacono as The Black Dahlia being tortured by Cleve Hall. Not only are the FX well done, but I loved Alexis’s performance. She wasn’t your typical damsel in distress and I thought that she was very real and very believable. And I didn’t get too much of a chance to actually work in a scene with Jessica or Devanny. Jessica and I don’t have any scenes together and the scene I had with Devanny, she was basically comatose for most of it, so we didn’t get to have too much interaction. But we’ve spent some time together afterwards promoting the film and they’re both super hard working girls and I’m really thankful to Devanny for putting me in the film. And I think it was awesome that Brandon won Best Director!

10. 2013 sees you with several films in different areas of production. What can you tell us about Michael Kenneth Fahr’s Victimized, Jesse Barack’s Polypore and Matt McWilliams’ Chupacabra Territory and Kevin MacDonald’s The Witching Hour, the roles you play in them and how you got involved with them?

Actually three of those are projects that started filming a while ago and are either in post or are have been doing some additional shooting recently– Chupacabra is the only one I actually filmed during that time. But quickly:

– Victimized: I was a last minute replacement when the original lead dropped out because she just got a film that was shooting in Germany and the director contacted me from my acting profile he had seen on a local acting site. I played a bitchy girlfriend who has some fun teasing her boyfriend’s brother to the point that he wants to take revenge on them.

– Polypore: I submitted myself for and was hired based off my previous work and reel. This was a small part playing a chiropractor when a time traveler accidentally pops into my office looking for a doctor (thinking I am) and then takes me to help his friends even though I have no idea what I’m doing.

– Chupacabra Territory: was a referral from Jessica Sonneborn as her boyfriend was the producer of it. I play a really fun character Amber, who is super into mythology and mythical creatures and is part psychic, part wiccan, part amateur crypto zoologist who goes on a camping trip with 3 friends to seek out and document the chupacabra.

– The Witching Hour: was my second film with Kevin so they asked me back again after working with them on Beg, and I got involved in Beg from a referral from Sean Doyle who was working crew on Beg and offered up my name as an option when the director was looking for a girl for Michael Berryman’s scene (Sean had seen me in Nun of That). In The Witching Hour I play a virgin who is calling into a midnight horror radio to hear a scary story. Little do I know that I later get involved in my very horror story with the host of the show (played by William Forsyth).

11. 2014 is the release date listed for Alice D., directed by Jessica Sonneborn. You have now worked with Michael Myers, The Candyman and Jason Voorhees in different films. What can you tell us about the film, how did you and Jessica meet and when you look back at your career so far, how does it feel to have worked with actors that have played three of the most iconic slashers in horror history?

It’s really amazing that I’ve had the chance to work with so many iconic actors. I really never expected or thought that that would happen. Seeing those movies growing up, they were all bigger than life and then to meet them and work with them and see them as real people was really surreal.

Alice D is supernatural thriller which takes place in a house that 100 years ago was a brothel. Two sisters were sold to the brothel, forced to work there and end up killing the owner. Now in present day the house has been inherited by the grandson of original owner who throws a house party which is crashed by some uninvited ghostly guests.

Jess and I have had lots of mutual friends and connections over the years without even really realizing it. We both worked with a lot of the same people on the east coast, but he got her start earlier than I did, so we never crossed paths. She then moved to LA and I actually sent her a VHS audition tape for her first film Lure, without realizing who she was. Years later I was worked on the webseries Longreach, which she was also a part of, however when I got to set, she had literally just left an hour earlier, so we never met. She was then cast opposite my husband Michael Reed in the webseries Love Squared that I also had a small part, and during that production we finally met and all of the pieces fell into place.

12. In all fairness, horror is not the only genre you have worked in. Comedy, drama and thrillers runs throughout your resume. What else would you like to tell your fans about your other films and what genre do you prefer to work in the most?

For a while I had actually worked in more non-horror films than horror films and even so, people were still calling me a “scream queen”. The ratio has probably caught up by now but I still don’t really consider myself a scream queen. While I do love horror films, especially watching them, my favorite films to work on are dark dramas. I’m particularly drawn to characters with dark, disturbing, fucked up pasts – and that type does show up in horror films a lot, but my preference is more towards acting in character driven films rather than gore or blood, all though I do enjoy a good SFX. I also really enjoy working on action films and period piece or westerns as well.

13. Thank you so much for the interview and your films! What advice would you give to anyone trying to break into the industry and what would you like to say to all of your fans?

Thank you so much for having me! I guess my biggest piece of advice would be to just go for and do everything. Of course everyone has preference to what they personally are willing and not willing to do when it comes to content, but other than that, do everything. You never know what’s going to make it big or who you are going to meet. So much of my work comes from referrals, so always do a good job and be easy to work. If you commit to something, don’t go back on your word, whether it’s getting an offer for another project when you’ve already committed to one or changing your mind about what you want to do in a scene – all of that should always be worked out beforehand otherwise you’re going to leave people with a bad taste in their mouth about you and in this industry, word of mouth is everything – you never know who is watching!

To my fans – you’re all awesome – thank you so much for being fans! It seriously makes such a big difference when you get a compliment from an outside source- someone you don’t actually know who will give an honest opinion. It’s a reason to keep going when being faced with so much rejection. And you all also have more power than you think! You help me get work! You have made me “somebody” – and having a fan base (regardless of the size), having people who will watch a movie just because you’re in it makes a big difference when people are deciding which actor to cast. “Give the people what they want”, so if you guys want me, it’s within your power to get people to hire me and I am ever appreciative of getting more work!