Horror Favourites – Ayvianna Snow

Ayvianna Snow is a multi-talented actress who is taking the UK by storm and will be starring in numerous films this year and in 2022, including new horror film Barun Rai And The House on The Cliff, out now in cinemas.

Filmed in Essex, Barun Rai And The House on The Cliff follows newly-weds who have just moved into their dream home, where they face an unexpected and terrifying turn. Their love is tested by unexplained chilling incidents, with Barun Rai, a detective who solves paranormal activities uncovering hidden, chilling, and supernatural truths about the house. In the film, Snow plays Polly; a newly-wed bride in the 1920s who meets a tragic end…!

Snow also landed a leading role in recent 2021 feature film ‘Black Lake’, which was selected to be screened at the Women in Horror Film Festival in Atlanta in February 2020 and also winning the Best Cinematography award. It was also selected for ShockFest, Salem Horror Fest 2020, Montreal Requiem FearFest, and Cine-Excess where it was a Semi-Finalist.

Ayvianna also starred in ‘White Colour Black’, which screened at the BFI London Film Festival, and was nominated for a BIFA (British Independent Film Award), in 2016 and was released in cinemas in 2020.

Snow will also be appearing in hotly anticipated releases in 2022 including; ‘L.O.L.A.’, a sci-fi film about the relationship between two sisters, staring alongside Emma Appleton. ‘Hollow’, an indie horror feature shot in Hereford, written by ‘Dr Who’ TV writer Keith Temple, and ‘The Lockdown Hauntings’, which was shot during the first lockdown, directed by Howard Ford. Snow has also filmed both lead roles in ‘The Good Wife’, directed by Dean M. Drinkel, a psychological horror about two women; a modern woman, Fiona, and her evil doppelganger ghost, Elizabeth, both played by Snow.

Ayvianna began her career by training at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s Youth Theatre course. Following this, she gained a B.A. (Hons.) in Acting from The Arden School of Theatre in Manchester. Ayvianna is also currently filming ‘The Final 45’; where she plays a French Resistance leader during the Second World War, directed by Ian Manson.

Below the actress talks about her favourite horror film:

“My favourite horror film is ‘Little Joe’, directed by Jessica Hausner and starring Emily Beecham and Ben Whishaw.

The cinematography has a Kubrickian quality; lots of very long, slow pans which zoom into two characters talking and then creepily continue past the actors, focussing on the background, as if the actors are only incidental to the scene. The camera is forever peering round corners, giving us the impression of eavesdropping on conversations we weren’t meant to hear.

What I love about this film is that it’s a slow burner; it’s not all jump cuts and gory, bloody deaths; instead, Hausner manages to build a growing sense of unease. The film is disturbing and unsettling rather than flashy. There is a question over whether the lead character, Alice, can truly trust her own perceptions. We never really get a resolution; at the denouement, everything seems fine on the surface level, back to normal. Alice begins a promising new relationship with Chris, her son Joe moves in with his dad; all is rosy. But we can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. Has Alice imagined things? Or was she correct all along?

I appear in a film called ‘Hollow’ which has just won Best Feature at Dead Northern. In ‘Hollow’, director Jonathan Zaurin plays with perception in the same way. The lead character, Beth, may or may not be developing Alzheimer’s, and there are questions about whether she can trust her own memories or not. To me, that is the truly terrifying thing; to not feel safe in one’s own mind.

I also adore a British film called ‘Blank’ directed by Natalie Kennedy, about a struggling writer who tries to cure her writer’s block at a futuristic retreat, only to become trapped there. It is a two-hander about two people trapped together in an impossible situation from which there seems to be no escape. It is a great example of the genre; tight writing, two characters, one location. Nowhere to hide. A truly psychological horror. ‘Blank’ is currently enjoying a successful festival run.”

AYVIANNA SNOW IS NOW STARRING IN NEW HORROR FILM ‘BARUN RAI AND THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF’ IN CINEMAS ACROSS THE UK.