A multi-talented actress, writer, producer and director, Swedish starlet Sarah Giercksky is one of the most passionate supporters of the genre in addition to her work behind and in front of the camera. Now, in honor of Women in Horror Month, I talk with her about her work in Sweden, her latest short film Create Your Killer and several other upcoming projects.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, where did you get the urge to get into acting?
Sarah Giercksky: I have been writing screenplays for short and feature films since I was 12 and never even thought about acting. I just wanted to write horror scripts, but I was supposed to do some SFX work on a short film called The Participants and I get a call from the director telling me one of the actors had to pull out and if I could act instead. I said yes and tried to prepare as best as I could for the part and ended up realizing acting was fun, but my mind was still on writing. A week after that we shot the teaser trailer for my feature film Sargad and I decided to play the main character which involved a lot of emotional scenes and while doing those I felt a huge relief because I had been carrying so much sadness and hurt after my dad died when I was ten and actually getting to cry for the first time in years during those scenes was like therapy to me, so that is why I fell in love with acting.
Me: Were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
SG: I saw Halloween at the age of six and fell in love with horror movies after watching it and always watched horror movies as I grew up, but I always loved darker stories and cartoons. One of my favorite cartoons too watch when I was a kid was about a grim reaper showing up at dying people’s beds.
Me: Is there any specific type of character you prefer playing?
SG: I love playing characters that go through a lot of emotions like my character in Sargad, but lately I have found that I love to play characters in comedy, like Dee in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Me: Coming from Sweden, what was the local scene like when you first started compared to the current state of the scene?
SG: When I first started writing horror scripts I had very few options of getting them made since the horror scene here in Sweden was very small, but thanks to passionated people and the growth of genre film festivals such as Monsters of Film, the horror genre is getting quite popular here and it is much easier now to make the movies I want to make.
Me: Having worked on various aspects of film production, do you have any particular preference for working on any?
SG: I have tried my hand at almost every aspect in the filmmaking business, but writing and acting are the ones that I love the most.
Me: Having worked on plenty of short films early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transferred to feature-film projects?
SG: I learned what to do and how to improve with every project. I had just made a few amateur short films before making Sargad, so my experience was very limited and working almost without any budget on a feature film was very hard, but I am proud of the work that I put in and I learned so much from the experience and I feel more ready to take on another feature film in the future.
Me: In addition, you and your friend Jasmine Martinez also host a review show, Bitches of Horror, on Youtube. Does that connection to the industry make you more or less critical of looking at the films you review on the show?
SG: I think it makes me less critical just because I know how much hard work that goes into making movies, so I can let a lot of things slide and be forgiving a lot more, just as long as I see and feel the passion.
Me: That brings us to your latest project, the short "Create Your Killer." What can you tell us about the project?
SG: I have always made horror movies and I thought to myself well it is time to venture into the world of horror-comedy, but what kind of horror-comedy? So I came up with a crazy idea and I wasn’t even sure if it was going to work, but I worked a lot on the script, found the perfect actors and crew and we worked our asses off and the film turned out exactly as I had imagined it. The film is about three friends, Amanda, Isabella and Adam who are staying home on a Saturday evening, playing videogames. Suddenly they find a VHS-tape with the game Create Your Killer and everything changes.
Me: Where did the inspiration for the film come from?
SG: I was at work (I work as a personal assistant for people with disabilities) and this image of a video-game popped into my head and I began creating a story around it. I also wanted to put some of the 80’s feel into it as some sort of homage to my love for 80’s slasher films that I grew up watching.
Me: Being the writer, director and star of the short, does it still challenge you to be involved in various capacities at once on a project like this? How do you balance those priorities during a shoot?
SG: Yes it is a bit challenging and that is why I put so much trust in my crew because they know exactly why I need to focus and stay calm while doing so many things at once.
Me: There's a huge 80s influence on the look of feel of the short, was that intentional from the very beginning?
SG: Yes it was, I used to grow up watching a lot of 80’s slasher films and I wanted to show my love for them.
Me: With all the comedic overtones in the short, was that an inspiration to start your upcoming comedy series "Attack of B-Film?" What updates can you provide on that?
SG: When I was studying Acting for Film at Prague Film School two years ago, I performed a lot of comedy scenes and I fell in love with portraying a character in a comedy film/series, so I knew that I wanted to do much more of. After we filmed Create Your Killer I felt a strong urge to write my own comedy series, because I had just seen It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and I loved it, so I wanted to create a series of my own with that kind of humor.
I got together with one of my best friends Andres R Ramos (who directed Sargad) and whom I have known and worked with for 10 years. I told him about the plot for the show which is about four struggling filmmakers who are creating b-films in the horror genre, but everything goes wrong all the time and he got the concept and even added some ideas, so I asked him if he wanted to write and direct the series with me and he said yes. After that, we worked on the scripts for each episode, held casting, found our cast and crew and we have filmed three episodes and have five more. Each shoot has been fun and I love creating this series, I can’t wait for everyone to watch it.
Me: You also have a part in the upcoming "Death Care" playing Nurse Angelika among a slew of indie scream queens. What can you tell us about that project?
SG: I have always wanted to work with Daniel Murphy and Cameron Scott, so I am very happy to be involved and the cast consists of a lot of very talented women. They have released some small snippets of the training videos and I can’t wait to shoot my scenes.
Me: What do you hope to achieve in the future for your work?
SG: I hope to be able to continue filming a lot of seasons of Attack of the B-Film and also to make at least two more feature films. I also have a few ideas for short films and I hope to be able to film at least one of them at the end of this year. Right now I am focusing on sending Create Your Killer to a lot of festivals (it has been screened at a few already) and I am also hoping to act in horror/film projects outside of Sweden.
Me: Lastly, being that this is Women in Horror Month, what special message do you have for any women out there looking to join in the industry in any capacity as you are one yourself? Thank you again for your time!
SG: I would encourage any female to start writing and to simply film something, even if you don’t have the budget you would want to have. Just start somewhere, connect with people who are just as passionate about making movies as you are.
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This interview ran as part of our Women in Horror Month celebration. Click the banner below to see all the interviews and reviews we've conducted for the event:
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