Vancouver-based director Karen Lam
To start, please introduce yourself:
I’m Karen Lam, a Vancouver-based horror filmmaker. I started off in this industry as a lawyer and then as a producer, but I’ve been writing and directing exclusively since 2008.
What is horror to you, what makes a work of art one in the horror genre?
I think my definition of horror is a lot broader than what it currently is in our film and television industry, but what I take from horror literature. One of my favourite genre literary editors Ellen Datlow defined horror as an overall atmosphere of the dread of death. I love psychology horror and what usually affects me the most is paranormal. Simple human cruelty never appeals all that much, although I do love true crime.
To me, a work of art in our genre transcends its parameters: if it’s a slasher, it’s the penultimate slasher that gets under my skin but also makes me look at the world through a different lens. I hate the term “elevated horror” because it’s usually an excuse for people who hate our genre to dip their toe into it while still plugging their noses. But I do love when the horror film does something more. The new Godzilla Minus One was just brilliant: a perfect monster movie while bringing forward some of the critiques of the WW2 for Japan and weaving in a perfect human story — while never shortcutting or forgetting that it’s Godzilla.
What made you want to work in horror?
My parents were huge horror and macabre fans — although they wouldn’t have described themselves that way: my dad loved horror and action films and my mom loved horror and gothic literature. I grew up loving horror films, horror books and the paranormal has always been a big part of my real world. I can’t imagine another genre that I have anything to contribute to.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I get my inspiration from the world around me. I don’t write for the sake of writing. But I take daily walks and I have a very full artistic life: I work with textiles, I make clothes and leather bags and pottery, and I recently went back into my music (I had been classically trained since age 3 but I’m starting vocals, god help us all). I love having lots of community and friends from different arts which is where I draw a lot of my inspiration. I read a lot, I live in the world, and I am incessantly nosy about peoples’ lives.
What would you like your legacy to be in the genre (or elsewhere)?
I don’t think my work is for everyone, but I would love to know that the films I make, the stories I tell, really affect and influence the people that need to see them. I love pushing the boundaries of our craft: every project makes me uncomfortable because it’s always a new technique or a new way of making films. If it’s just doing the same thing because I’m comfortable with it, or I expect a certain response, then I’m not doing it right.
What is Women in Horror Month to you and why is it still important this many years later?
I think our industry and our genre still has a reputation of being so male-centric when the opposite is true. It’s that, or I’ve been so much a part of this community that I don’t even notice that the rest of the industry is not as female-focused as we are! I love celebrating this month with all my fellow female filmmakers who work so hard in this genre, and I love discovering new films and new talent.
Who are some of the Women in Horror who you look up to and who do you want to bring attention to in your field or others?
My directing mentor has always been Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl) and it’s her direct influence and friendship that has always made me want to push our medium: she’s fearless and a pioneer herself and to get a “wow” from her is probably my inner benchmark. I love the work of Floria Sigismondi — she’s such an artist and I still think about her first feature about the Runaways that I think was grossly underlooked.
There’s always new talent and I’m fortunate to be working in a city that also includes Gigi Saul Guerrero and the Soska Sisters. There must be something in the water…
What are you currently working on that you can tell us about?
I’m just in prep on a new feature that is a dark comedy about Armageddon set in the 1970s, more Biblical horror but with a Coens vibe called “Armageddon Road,” which is being produced by Kate Kroll. And I have a short film that won the Directors Guild of Canada Greenlight Award last fall that is my version of a dental horror (if Wong Kar Wai were to make a dental horror), called “Mrs Chang’s Perfect Teeth” and produced by Kristyn Stilling. It’s a busy year ahead!