The Monstrous Femme Mash
Hannah May Cumming and Monstrous Femme Films are leading the charge for women and queer folks in horror
It’s been a hell of a last two years for Portland filmmaker Hannah May Cumming, having inaugurated her film collective Monstrous Femme Films with her directorial debut Fanatico — a “sex-positive neo-giallo” that won the Portland Horror Film Festival’s Abby Normal Award in 2018 — and followed it up with 2020's Camp Calypso, on which she shares directorial duties with MFF member Karlee Boon. Having absolutely loved Fanatico after its September 2020 premiere on YouTube horror channel ALTER, I caught up with Hannah to get the dirt on her inspirations, her future plans, and the weirdest things to happen on her sets.
What was the moment you knew you wanted to pick up a camera and be a horror filmmaker?
I started making YouTube videos in the early years of the platform — when I was around 9 or 10 — and I just immediately made scary/horror content, like I didn’t even really consider making anything else. I was obsessed with Goosebumps, Tim Burton, and the Scream franchise at a really early age, and it’s always been a huge part of my personality. I made a few horror shorts when I was in high school too, and that’s when I started to develop a style. When I got to college and it came time to make something ambitious to showcase my “skills”…horror was my immediate go-to.
How did Monstrous Femme Films as a collective come together?
The Goosebumps series from the ’90s was a huge inspiration for Fanatico’s plot structure and length. My co-writer Sam Schrader and I tried to keep the story pretty contained, like an episode of a half hour anthology. I’ve always been interested in telling lots of different stories that coexist in a way. I thought it would be interesting to continue playing with this format…and create an anthology ourselves! Each retro short is meant to function as an “episode,” with different creatives taking the lead on different films, all with a similar structure and style to Fanatico. I teamed up with my Fanatico co-producer Karlee Boon and my Fanatico costume designer Emma Cogan again on Camp Calypso, and together we founded Monstrous Femme Films — a horror collective and anthology focused on uplifting women and queer folk in front of and behind the camera. Karlee and Emma are my best friends, and it’s truly been a blast to bring this vision to life alongside them!
You’ve mentioned growing up on the horror genre and becoming inspired to start MFF as a grown-up, inclusive feminist spin on anthologies like Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, etc. What other works do you feel have informed your style of writing and directing?
When you look at my work with MFF, it’s clear that I wear my inspirations on my sleeve. I’m very inspired by genre and horror films of the 1970s, and retro design and fashion. I also really love Anna Biller’s work, her attention to detail is seriously admirable and I love her devotion to aesthetics. My obsession with the 1970s is clear in that all three of my films take place during that decade. My dad is a big midcentury design fanatic, and my mum is a vintage collector, so it was no surprise that my films would reflect that somehow (we actually used a lot of her clothes in Fanatico, so thanks mum!) I’ve also been obsessed with Tim Burton for forever, he might be my favorite creative of all time. I grew up on Scooby-Doo, which has heavily influenced my style and love for horror. I’m a big John Waters fan, too.
Fanatico is a giallo film through and through, from the bright red blood sprays to the soundtrack to the acting to the black-gloved killer. How did you settle on making a giallo as MFF’s debut production?
I was in my second year of film school and felt like I really hadn’t been creating as much as I had hoped. I was taking general education courses and didn’t have much time for production classes, so me and a few friends decided to try to make something outside of school. I was really into Giallo at the time, and thought it would be an interesting subgenre to resurrect!
The Giallo genre has also been historically misogynistic — with the exception of some incredible female protagonists. I felt that in a way, Giallo belonged to the women who gave it life on screen, and I wanted to make a Giallo that was for women above anyone else.
In a similar vein, what made you want to tackle toxic masculinity and misogyny through the “camp horror” lens in Camp Calypso?
A lot of our favorite summer camp flicks are riddled with toxic masculinity and it’s always treated as a joke or punchline. Like yeah we know these guys are jerks — but it’s funny! I wanted to re-envision that dynamic, punishing even the slightest shred of misogynistic behavior. I love those cheesy films, but they are certainly not without their faults.
Your “pro-choice pregnancy body horror” project Baby Fever is slated for 2021; what other projects do you have coming up, and what other genres do you want to work with/what other stories do you want to tell in the future?
Right now I’ve got my hands full with Baby Fever — it’s gonna be our most ambitious project yet! I’ve teamed up with my good friend Alex Hartwig to pen this one together, and we’re in the middle of the dreaded revisions stage. The script follows shoe-in for prom queen, Donna Hartman, as she discovers that she is pregnant with an inhuman creature, threatening her chances at the crown. It’s very Rosemary’s Baby meets Prom Night 2. I have a feature idea
too, and it’s actually not horror, but more dark comedy/satire. Hopefully I can develop it into a script in the near future!
MFF has some projects by other directors on our schedule — a trans allegory sci-fi body-snatchers film called The Endling by Joanna Pozarycki, a surrealist psychological horror called Penny and the Poppies by Emma Cogan, and a psychedelic desert eco-horror called Red Rock by Karlee Boon and Shade Standard! We’ve got lots of good stuff in the works right now and I can’t wait to help bring them all to life.
How has the current everything — sociopolitical climate, the Internet, the pandemic — affected your approach to making film?
The pandemic has really changed our entire plan when it came to Camp Calypso’s festival run. Our theatrical screening in Portland was cancelled, and the film had its premiere at the Portland Horror Film Festival in June. I was really hesitant to premiere the film online, because we had the most incredible premiere with Fanatico last year. I value film exhibition, and it was pretty devastating to lose that opportunity this year. However, I am so happy that we were still able to have a special first screening with a festival we love so much. PHFF was one of the first festivals to accept Fanatico last year — and we even won one of their highly coveted awards. I knew that Bryan and Gwen Callahan of PHFF were the right folks to help us share our film.
Right now, we’ve just been focused on writing and developing our brand. Karlee, Emma, and I do a horror film recommendation series every Friday called Friday Night Frights. It’s been a fun way to keep our love for horror alive while we’re unable to create safely.
What advice would you give a young person interested in becoming a filmmaker?
“Fake it til you make it” has been my motto for the past two years on this journey. I said that I could do this so many times that I started to believe it and suddenly so did everyone else. I would also suggest going out and finding your people. Filmmaking is a collaborative process, You. Cannot. Do. It. Alone. I was so lucky to find hardworking and talented people who
share my passion and love for the genre, who also happen to be my best friends!
Finally — what’s the funniest thing that’s happened on the set of any of your productions?
Oh god, we’ve had a lot of crazy stuff happen on both film sets. I would say most were more cursed than funny. But on Camp Calypso, after shooting *SPOILER* Pete’s big death scene, our actor Derek Sweet was covered head to toe in fake blood. Him and our associate producers thought it would be hilarious to walk through a hardware store and see if anybody said anything. Obviously they documented the entire event, and it was honestly better than the movie itself. Bloody Derek pretending to buy a shovel and other suspicious items…Derek Sweet, everyone. He’s method. Hire him!
Hannah May Cumming is a British-South African filmmaker currently residing in Portland, OR. She is the founder of Monstrous Femme Films, and is the director, producer, and co-writer of Fanatico, Camp Calypso, and the upcoming project Baby Fever. Hannah has also worked as a production assistant on Netflix’s American Vandal and Hulu’s Shrill.
Watch Monstrous Femme Films’s debut, Fanatico, on ALTER right here:
