By YASMINA KETITA
Sarah Nicklin, the darling of indie horror, has been working in the genre for almost two decades. Nicklin’s career in film has gained traction in recent years for her diverse participation in horror movies, music videos, shorts, and series. She also performs stunts and produces. She has worked with many horror legends, including Eileen Dietz, Lisa Wilcox, Doug Jones and Dee Wallace, just to name a few. I’ve been watching a lot of Sarah Nicklin’s work, and I love her authentic approach to her characters, and she continues to embrace the horror genre with her unique style, veracity and strength.
I was introduced to Nicklin in Los Angeles in the fall of 2023 in a crowd of horror artists in a very dark room. What I loved about that encounter was that it was cool to meet another female horror fan who was only a couple of inches taller than me. I appreciated talking with her without having to crane my neck. (For those wondering, I’m 50-foot-1 and easily missed in a dimly lit room.) I recently had the pleasure of having a more intimate chat with Nicklin, who I now consider a friend, as we found so much more in common than being female horror devotees. I’d love to share more of our conversation with you to highlight her beautiful and terrifying talents.
The Black Mass, directed by Devanny Pinn, is inspired by true events surrounding serial killer Ted Bundy. Was it different for you to portray one of his real-life victims compared to fictional characters in your other films? How was your experience working on Black Mass in regards to the dark history attached to it?
This was the first time that I’ve played a real person, so my approach was definitely different because I wanted to make sure that I was being respectful of the person my character is based on. I watched several videos of her from the trial, talking about the attack and tried to incorporate her mannerisms and essence. She was also a dancer before the attack, so I tried to be very conscious of the way I held my body – having long lines, a long neck, holding my head high.
It was more of an outside-in approach like using the Laban technique, where you start with the physicality and movement and then see how that informs your emotions. Whereas I usually use more of a method acting approach to help me connect the emotional life of the character to things from my personal life in order to make those moments in the film more real for me to authentically experience on camera.
When I first read the script, I honestly wasn’t really sure if I wanted to do it because I didn’t want to be part of something that was going to be exploiting a tragedy. But Devanny Pinn’s vision for this film made it something very empowering, putting the focus on the women and not making just another story that glorifies the killer. She was very specific in the way that this was shot and even in how the characters are credited to not focus on Ted. Even when it came to the costuming, I had multiple days of costume fittings because Devanny wanted my character to still look cute but not be overly sexy or skimpy.
Most of the time, working on horror films is really fun – all of this crazy blood and fake violence is happening on camera, but behind the scenes, people are always laughing and cracking jokes. Since we were recreating attacks that actually happened to people – people were actually brutalized in this way – those days hit everyone on set differently than they usually would have. It wasn’t fun, not that we didn’t have fun on set, of course, but there weren’t the usual jokes and light-heartedness that come with doing the SFX sequences. It was more personal, more real. I think everyone involved in his project took extra care to make sure that we were being respectful of the people this actually happened to.
You were in the opening segment of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Season 4 premiere. How did this come about? Were you a fan of the show before this?
This project came completely out of the blue, and I am so glad that it happened! I had never watched the show until I got a message from my friend Michael Varrati asking if I was available to be in the opening sequence of the new season.
I’ve known Michael for a long time. He wrote some scripts for Richard Griffin, who I used to work a lot with when I was living in New England. So, we worked on several projects together without ever meeting, and then, when I moved to Los Angeles, we became fast friends. Michael started directing and he cast me in his short film, The Office is Mine. He was a judge on Dragula, and then, the next thing I knew, he was directing an entire season of the show! (He also hosts the podcast Dead for Filth with Peaches Christ).
When Michael asked if I’d be interested in being in the opening segment for the show, I, of course, said yes because I love working with him. I started watching the show after he cast me so that I would have an idea of what I was working on and totally got hooked on the show!
That’s one of the really amazing things about the horror industry and the people that work in it; It’s the biggest small town in that everyone knows everyone and people are often really loyal and work with the same people over and over again. Michael has since directed the 2023 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and cast me again as the presenter for best short film, which was such an honor!
Besides having over 100 acting credits in features and shorts, I noticed you have stunt credits as well. Tell me about some of the stunts you’ve done. Is this something you’d like to do more of?
Working a lot in horror, a lot of the roles are usually pretty physical, and I’ve always just done whatever was needed for the role without really thinking of it in terms of “doing a stunt,” especially starting out. In a lot of low-budget films, there’s not really any other option than to just do it. I think I really learned a lot and had the opportunity to do a lot more stunts than I otherwise would have if I had started on bigger productions because of that.
I’ve always been an active physical person, and when I was at Emerson College studying acting, they offered a stage combat class, so I took it, and that was my first professional training on how to actually do this properly. Over the years, I’ve taken a variety of combat and stunt classes, sword fighting classes, weapons training – and done some wirework classes, too. I always have a ton of fun doing that stuff, and it’s definitely something I want to continue doing.
As for some of the stunt work I’ve done, one of my favorites was in Devil’s Knight, which is a medieval fantasy horror film. I play a sword-fighting princess and have three sword-fight sequences in the film. I had several rehearsals with our fight choreographer, Terence Rotolo, to get ready for the film, and after the first rehearsal he said, “Okay, I’m not worried anymore.” And that made me feel really good that he thought I had enough of a foundation that we’d be able to pull it off, even though we only had a short amount of time to prep for it. We were shooting in Texas in July, and it was in the 100s, even at night, 100% humidity, and I was wearing a full suit of armor as well as the thick wool undergarments that go under it. We ended up shooting the big duel as the last item at the end of one of the longest days of the shoot at maybe 3 or 4 in the morning. The fight takes place in a big courtyard in front of everyone – like 60 people, including Kevin Sorbo, who I grew up watching. No pressure or anything! Sword fighting in front of Hercules! I think it came together really well, and I’m pretty excited to see how that sequence turns out once the film is available on streaming in July 2024.
Another memorable stunt was in the film The Fetish Set, where I had a fight scene with MMA fighter Atilla. He was so nice but also so huge – easily 6 feet [tall] 300-plus pounds, and I was probably 5-foot-3, 100 pounds. He could have snapped me like a toothpick! We did one sequence where he grabs me by the neck, lifts me off the ground and body slams me down onto two mattresses stacked on top of each other for padding. But the first time we did it, I still hit the ground through both mattresses because he was so powerful! So then, I had to adjust the way that I was landing to protect myself a bit more. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so small in my entire life as when I was being hurled through the air like I was nothing more than a feather.
I’m a huge Anthrax fan and love that you’re in their video for “Blood Eagle Wings,” which also stars James Duvall. Are you a metal fan? Did they approach you to be in the video?
Yes, I’m totally a metal fan! I listened to a lot of metal when I was in high school. Kittie, Fear Factory or Static X were basically always on repeat. I don’t fangirl out that much anymore, but when I had the chance to be in an Anthrax music video, I definitely nerded-out and was so freakin’ excited!
This was another one that I got just from a referral. The director Jack Bennett had asked a friend if she knew anyone who might be interested in being in the video, and she basically said, “Yes, I know the perfect person who does a lot of horror and likes metal!” She put me in touch with Jack, we had a quick convo and then he cast me. That ended up just being a one-day shoot in a freezing-cold dungeon set in a warehouse in North Hollywood. I did get to meet Scott Ian, though, who’s a big horror fan and was on set. So, that was super cool!
I did another music video later for a newer metal band “Everytime You Leave” by I Prevail that basically happened in the same way – saw a post from a director I knew looking for actors. I responded, saying I was interested, and he cast me in a supporting role. Then, he called me a few days later, asking if I would play the lead. He said he wanted to put someone he could trust in the role and wanted to give it to me. That video did really well, and I ended up having a lot of people reach out to me after watching it. And I did get to meet the whole band for that one, who were all so nice since they were in several of the scenes of the video.
So, at least from my experiences with music videos, the bands will hire a director that they trust and then leave the casting to the director – pending their approval of the cast of course. Reputation and who you know or rather, who knows you, is everything in this industry.
You play a grieving mother with an unorthodox opportunity for revenge in the upcoming film Garden of Eden, directed by Marcel Walz. It’s not uncommon for you, as an actress, to be killed in a movie, but what was it like being on the other side of this darker role?
I really like playing darker roles. It’s not something that I shy away from at all, I don’t know what that says about me. [Laughs] But I really like the roles where I need to reach in and pull out my heart and guts and place them on the table for the world to see. But in this case, I also didn’t really view it as a dark role. I mean, the whole movie is very dark, but I don’t see her as a villain. It’s kind of like that saying that under the right circumstances, anyone could be a murderer.
And I really wanted to show that, with this character, she has so many layers and has been pushed to this position because of her grief. I tried to tap into all the different aspects and emotions that come with extreme grief. There’s, of course, the overwhelming sadness and loss but also moments of complete numbness and just not being able to cope anymore. And then, the intense anger and hatred and wanting revenge, and then the internal conflict. Do I go through with enacting my revenge or do I stay true to myself and to my moral compass and beliefs and choose the higher path? There was so much to work with and how beautifully Joe Knetter wrote this character. All of her actions, while you might judge them differently from the outside, I feel like were motivated by feelings and intentions that are all very human and things that every one of us has felt at some point in our lives. We just, hopefully, haven’t taken that next step to actually take action on those impulses.
This was another role where I didn’t really have much fun on set until after I had wrapped for the day because I was so invested in living in the grief. I went more method with this one. I separated myself from the rest of the cast, I listened to music that had an emotional impact for me. I wrote in a journal as if I was a character. And I was fortunate enough to have such a wonderful and lovely director in Marcel Walz that allowed me to have the time and a safe space on set in order to do those things. Garden of Eden is going to be playing the festival circuit this year, and I’m really excited to see how people are going to react to it.
You have many upcoming projects, is there one that you’re especially excited about?
I’m definitely excited about If It Bleeds, which is an anthology film directed by Matthew Hersh, starring Doug Jones and Dee Wallace. It was a very ambitious script about a plastic surgeon who botches a surgery, and I can’t give anything away, but I think that we got a lot of really cool things and really good death and gore sequences in this. I also got to play a very different type of character for me – a Jersey accent, lots of bubblegum, long obnoxious nails and just a straight snarky bitch, which is something that I very rarely get to do. It should be finished in May of this year and should be on streaming not too long after that.
The other one that I’m excited for is actually a ghost-hunting reality show that I did called Ghost Girls. I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal and had a lot of fun doing the investigations of these locations for this show. It’s also the first all-female ghost-hunting show, which I don’t understand how that has not been done yet! The pilot episode is currently available on Tubi, and based on the positive response to the pilot (I’ve actually been really surprised about how often people bring this show up to me!), we got green-lit for more episodes, and the new episodes are going to be released just in time for Halloween 2024. I’m definitely the most skeptical of the group on the show, so I’m really curious to see the results of the investigation and what proof we may or may not have found. And yes, everything on this show is completely real.
THE BLACK MASS is now on DVD and Blu-Ray and streaming on Prime. Be sure to follow Sarah on Instagram @sarahnicklin for news on upcoming projects.
