Meet Melissa LaMartina horror director:
To start, please introduce yourself:
My name is Melissa LaMartina, director of the new horror comedy flick For Sale By Exorcist and the narrative writer for the Amanda the Adventurer video games, for which my husband and I also co-produced and co-directed the live-action segments. I’m an actor, director, producer, and writer. I’ve been acting for a long time in both theater and film, have produced several features and shorts, and made my feature directorial debut with FSBE. I sing with the surf-rock band Beach Creeper (our songs are all about monsters and cryptids), and moonlight as Aurora Gorealis, host of Shocktail Hour.
What is horror to you, what makes a work of art one in the horror genre?
Horror is all about building and releasing tension in a way that challenges our limits and our perception of reality. Horror confronts us with our darkest feelings, with our struggles with alienation and all the other feelings and fears we’d rather sweep under the rug. Ok, that sounds really heavy coming from someone who works most frequently in horror comedy, but it’s true! And one of the best things about the genre is that all of that confrontation and exploration can be done across such a wide range from the most serious, dark stories to side-splitting horror comedies. With horror, you can really play with themes in a way that’s so different from other genres. That really appeals to me as a horror creator, that aspect of play.
What made you want to work in horror?
I love the transformative nature of horror. I’m enchanted by creature design and practical special effects, and working on projects that put those at the center has been a dream come true. One of my fondest and most vivid memories as an actor is puppeteering the monster version of my character in Call Girl of Cthulhu: sitting on a bucket, arms getting scratched up by chicken wire, more or less blind because the red contacts weren’t prescription, Alka-Seltzer “puke” running down my chin under the latex mask I was glued into, gleefully waving my tentacles around. And then you watch it on screen and it has LIFE, it’s a real monster actually there in the space with actors. Nothing can match that, the magic of practical effects. The community that builds up around horror is really special, too—people are so pumped to share their love and to celebrate horror movies and creators. And I’m also just really drawn to that dance of the build and release of tension. Comedy plays with that build and release, too, which is what makes horror comedy in particular so appealing to me as a genre. I love playing with what’s scary in somewhat unexpected sandboxes—like the “kid appropriate” world on the surface in Amanda the Adventurer.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I keep my mind open to the spark of inspiration wherever it might light. I read a lot, I travel as much as I can. My husband, who is also a filmmaker (Chris LaMartina, creator of WNUF Halloween Special), and I recently spent a few weeks in Ireland. We traipsed around the ruins of castles, reading aloud to each other the folklore and mysteries connected to them. We stood in ancient stone circles and henges and imagined the people who occupied those spaces so, so long ago. Chris and I have a lot of “what if…” conversations, many of which have borne fruit as projects, for example, the experimental “Exquisite Corpse” film project we produced after a conversation riffing on what the classic drawing game might look like as a film. In that game, you fold a piece of paper so that you’re co-creating a monster without seeing what the other illustrators are contributing. As a film, that translated to each filmmaker getting the last 30 seconds of the segment before theirs and lists and photos of locations, characters, and props. And that was all they had to go on. And it actually worked in a really strange and surreal way.
What would you like your legacy to be in the genre (or elsewhere)?
I want to be known as someone who helps lift up others, who pulls women and people from other underrepresented groups into the room whenever I have the power to do so. For example, it was important for me to have women as department heads on For Sale By Exorcist. Fostering diversity is important not only because it gives an opportunity to that individual person but also because a variety of perspectives and life experiences enriches the project itself. It’s a win for everyone.
What is Women in Horror Month to you and why is it still important this many years later?
Women in Horror Month remains critical because we’re still not fully and consistently at the table. Even at festivals where organizers are making a real effort to bring in underrepresented creators, rosters are very heavily male.
Horror is a genre that’s been ostensibly telling women’s stories since its inception—through a male lens. It’s absolutely bonkers that people have been capitalizing on centering women as final girls and as an ongoing parade of victims for slashers and monsters, yet we’re still fighting this hard to be recognized as having valuable voices.
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?
Chelsea Stardust is an incredibly talented director and producer who is also such an amazing cheerleader for other women in the field. She’s the first to share and celebrate others’ accomplishments and truly epitomizes the truth that there’s room for everyone in this field—we need to lift each other up and foster each other’s opportunities and success.
In literary horror, I’ve always marveled at Jessica McHugh, a speculative fiction author who has written some of the most delightfully disturbing scenes I have ever read. I’m particularly impressed by the way her art continues to evolve—in more recent years she’s been a real pioneer in black-out poetry.
What are you currently working on that you can tell us about?
On March 11 I’m celebrating the VOD release of my feature directorial debut, For Sale By Exorcist, for which I was honored to win Best Director at Nightmares Film Festival back in October. Beach Creeper recently put our first full-length album, which is available on streaming services and vinyl. And my husband (indie horror filmmaker Chris LaMartina) and I are in pre-production for our next feature, Spirit Tasting, which I am acting in and co-producing. We’re shooting the whole thing in 4 days, so wish us luck!
Where can readers keep up with you? (social and whatnots go here)
People can find me on Instagram at:
@melissalamartina
@aurora_gorealis
@beachcreeperband
And I’m on Bluesky at @auroragorealis.bluesky.social
PHOTO CREDITS
Melissa as Aurora Gorealis, photo by Atomic Cheesecake Studios
Photo of me on set of For Sale By Exorcist is by Leah Huete