{"id":42916,"date":"2024-03-16T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T04:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=42916"},"modified":"2024-03-16T02:38:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T06:38:37","slug":"alichappell-wihm2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/16\/alichappell-wihm2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor, Director, Writer Ali Chappell Interview [Women in Horror Month 2024]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Award-winning director, writer, and actor Ali Chappell:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To start, please introduce yourself:<\/span><\/b>
\nHello, people of earth, I am Ali Chappell. An actor, award winning director (shameless brag!) and a writer. I love horror films and making\/staring in movies but also romantic comedies and reality shows. I recently got into crocheting and it\u2019s my new hyper fixation project.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is horror to you, what makes a work of art one in the horror genre?<\/span><\/b>
\nHorror has always been a thing in my life. I was the weird kid growing up who showed her friends horror films at sleep overs. I wrote creepy stories; I loved renting scary movies from the video store. Now, I\u2019m an adult who collects horror vhs tapes and makes her own films. It\u2019s been this safe space for me over the years and it\u2019s now I\u2019ve been starting to create movies and shorts that bring what I want to see in horror forward. Plus, when it comes to acting, it\u2019s always so much more fun to act in horror movies; get covered in blood, scream at the top of your lungs, freak people out.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What made you want to work in horror?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>It wasn\u2019t so much that I wanted to work in horror. It\u2019s that I wanted to work in the film industry. I was always a little actor\/performer as a small child. I took years of dance classes, acting classes, vocal training, learned instruments, stage combat, singing, literally everything. I was a triple threat major in college and have my\\ degree in that. I have literally never stopped working on being a performer. During the pandemic, I decided to try my hand at script writing and directing and had crazy amounts of success with my debut short film Verified. A social media-based horror. Now I have written and directed a few more shorts. As well, I got to write, direct and star in a segment of an upcoming horror anthology called God of Frogs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The horror genre was never what I set out to do, it\u2019s what I really loved, and it became this niche that I worked my way into. I know that if going forward, I only make McDonalds commercials and star in daytime soap operas, I will have a spooky horror movie filled life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where do you get your inspiration?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>Life. I love a good social media-based horror, it\u2019s why I made Verified cause I have a weird obsession with influencers (and also reality show stars). Coming from a religious family, I always get inspired for religious based horror. I\u2019m a witch, always a fun convo with my family, so I\u2019m always trying to make a witch film that is as good as Practical Magic, The Love Witch or the Craft and one day I will or so help me god, I will die trying\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been reading a lot more and that has been helping to open up my hand. I used to read a ton and then streaming and podcasts and social media and too much content took over. So last year I was like \u201cbitch, you need to read at least one book a month for the next year\u201d and by December I had read 26. This year I\u2019m already on book 6. I know it\u2019s not a lot but for me who has crazy ADHD, it\u2019s a big accomplishment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mostly, I just think about what kind of stuff I really want to see and might not be seeing and then try to make it. Especially working with a micro budget and calling in favours from friends, my biggest inspiration is \u201cwhat can I make that is one location, very very very few actors and doesn\u2019t need a lot of special effects.\u201d And then work in that realm. I am one adorably broke ass bitch who knows I can create with nothing (but would like money to create something more) and until I get that big break, I work within my limits and try to make it as best they can and learn as I go.<\/span><\/p>\n

What would you like your legacy to be in the genre (or elsewhere)?<\/span><\/b>
\nI want to be like the Sofia Coppola\/Nancy Meyers of horror movies, the John Carpenter of Rom Com\u2019s and the Nicolas Cage of acting. I want to make weird awesome movies (and get paid for it).<\/span><\/p>\n

But in my general career, I want to be someone who helps others achieve their goals in this industry to the best of my ability. I always make sure that I can hire people on sets in any way I can. I know how hard it is starting out and finding work and getting anyone to give you a chance. So, if I am able to do that for someone else, I want to do that. Especially with acting, it\u2019s a harsh business some days but if there\u2019s acting gigs or auditions that I think people would be great for I\u2019m always pushing people for them. We are not competition. We succeed better when we work together to lift each other up.<\/span>
\nAnd soon, when I\u2019m making the big projects, I really start to pull people up with me. That\u2019s always the goal.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What is Women in Horror Month to you and why is it still important this many years later?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>Firstly, I think it should be a women in horror YEAR because we deserve to the celebrated every fucking day! It\u2019s always important because women are still overlooked as performers, directors, writers, producers, gamers, podcasters, etc. The playing field still isn\u2019t level. While it is getting better, women are still the underdogs of this male dominant genre. I also say this exact same thing every year\u2026 but I want women to be able to make terrible movies and get to keep making movies the way that men get to. It often feels as though when a woman makes a bad movie, they\u2019re given up on immediately meanwhile, the same isn\u2019t said about men. They can make all the trash they want and just keep making more. Let women make hot garbage and let them redeem themselves with more movies! It\u2019s only fair!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>I literally want to praise every one of them. Every single one. I love them all and they are all magical. But I want to pull some personal names of people who are close to me to praise those who I know don\u2019t get the publicity they deserve. Suri Parmar, a writer\/director\/producer who makes horror and experimental films and deserves the world. Valeska Griffiths, who is the EIC of Grim magazine and the Anatomy of a Scream website, who literally works herself to the bone creating a safe space for women and LGBTQ2S+ to talk about horror. Lisa Gallagher (my BFF) who busts her ass to make the Toronto True Crime Film Festival to the best fest in TO. And yes, true crime belongs in the horror category. Serena Whitney who is the programming manager at the Revue Cinema who deals with way too much BS on the reg and still manages to program the best horror movie screenings so frequently and helps to get new eyes on older movies to help keep the genre alive. The Ladies (Kelly and Jess) from the I Spit on Your Grave podcast aka The Spinsters of Horror bringing us the horror talk every month. August Kyss, an aspiring Scream Queen who is making seriously killer waves right now. Jessica Rose, an alternative model, MUA\/FX artist and huge horror collecting nerd who is bringing sexy spooky back. Ashleigh Doucette is another special makeup artist who makes horror films even scarier with her magical FX. Sarah Musnicky who is a writer for so many horror websites and shares her words with so many people. These women (and so many more that I didn\u2019t mention\u2026 eek sorry! Know that I love you) all have beautiful souls and deserve so much praise. Cause horror isn\u2019t JUST about making movies. It\u2019s a whole world of different people who have different relationships to the genre be it reviewing, podcasting, fx, whatever. Women are everywhere in horror and every horror loving lady deserves praise. Every lady deserves praise for just being a lady and crushing it every fucking day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, shout out to my mom, Diana Chappell, who puts up with my horror bullshit all the time. I love you so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

Y\u2019all need to check these ladies out and support them!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you currently working on that you can tell us about?
\n<\/span><\/b>OHHH, so I got a short film, Malediction, heading to film festivals now so keep an eye out for that and the horror anthology I mentioned earlier will be coming out this summer I believe, so also look out for that. Follow me on all the socials @TheAliChappell to get updates and maybe we can work together because I think that would be fun as hell. Seriously, if you live in and around Toronto ON, hit me up. Or let\u2019s plan to do some stuff in the USA or whatever. Let\u2019s just fucking do ittttttttt!!!!!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for taking the time to do this, we greatly appreciate it.<\/span><\/b>
\nThank you! I appreciate it xoxox\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lead photo by Nocola Yardy
\nSecond photo by Biren Bhalla<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Award-winning director, writer, and actor Ali Chappell:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284,8,2673],"tags":[477,1550],"class_list":["post-42916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","category-interviews","category-wihm","tag-horror","tag-women-in-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42916"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43216,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42916\/revisions\/43216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}