Five FrightFest Facts From Staten Cousins Roe director of A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE
The Twentieth FrightFest is here so obviously our exclusive interview feature Five FrightFest Facts From… is back with a vengeance. Below we hear from Staten Cousins Roe director of A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE and you can read more FrightFest Facts from 2019 and beyond by clicking HERE.
1. Tell us about your film?
A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE is a jet-black comedy horror, kind of THELMA & LOUISE meets SIGHTSEERS, a quintessentially British serial killer movie about hopeless, self-help addict, Lou Farnt who flees her oddly controlling mother and goes on a road-trip of alternative therapies designed to unleash the inner her, but finds herself on a killing spree with her unhinged new life coach Val – it’s a deliciously dark, violent & funny satire of the self-help world.
2. How did you get into making horror movies?
I started by picking up my Dad’s old camcorder as a ten year old and using dried up ketchup for blood clots.. I consumed so many movies from an early age as a fan and wrote things on the side, then I trained and worked as an actor – which was a great background for me as a director in learning how to help actors give good performances. I wrote & directed a short jet-black comedy about a struggling euthanasia centre called THIS WAY OUT, which won a bunch of awards, and then wrote and made A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE. The horror genre is the best for extremes of story & emotion, you get to mine the depths of what we are inside, for both laughs and screams – and as an audience member you come out knowing something a little more about who and what you are.
3. What film would you love to see screened at FrightFest and why?
THE SHINING – I‘m a huge Kubrick fan and to watch that on the big screen and with the FrightFest crowd, now that would be a treat.
4. If you could create your own award to give at the FrightFest, what would it be and why?
I’m thinking, maybe best audience member – because FrightFest is such a special festival and family. They’re so dedicated to the event, and without the audience there’s no film, just a bunch of sound and image playing in an empty room. I’ve no idea how you’d judge it though – most films seen that festival? Most passionate FF fan? No idea, it’s probably a recipe for a disaster of attempted bribes.
5. If your life was made into a horror film, what would it be called and who would play the starring role?
Wow, that’s tough – I have a great life now – but I guess, as our baby (with Poppy Roe) is due on Saturday 24th August, the very same day as the A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life world premiere at FrightFest, and Poppy Roe – who produced and edited the film with me, and plays the co-lead of Val, is really hoping (along with me) that we make it through the screening & Q+A without giving birth! So I reckon ATTACK OF THE KILLER BABIES – with Vincent Price playing me, with the kind of performance he gave in WITCHFINDER GENERAL – just because, well, he’s Vincent Price. Or Oliver Reed. Either of those fighting killer babies born at the FrightFest world premiere of A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE would do it for me. Unless that’s a movie already. It sounds like it really should be…
A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE NEW BLOOD – WORLD PREMIERE PRINCE CHARLES DISCOVERY 1 – SATURDAY 24 AUGUST Find out more HERE.
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