Interview With Directors Kailey And Sam Spear for ‘Creepshow’ TV Series

Horror fans can rejoice as the fourth season of the fan favorite Shudder series, Creepshow, just dropped on the streaming service. Taking its cue from the beloved George A. Romero 1982 movie of the same name, the Creepshow series spins haunting tales and drops gallons of blood while hosting a bevy of different directors to scare and delight viewers.

To celebrate the new season, I chatted with twin sister directors Kailey and Sam Spear about their two segments, The Hat, and Grieving Process, what it’s like working together, why they love horror, and more.

PopHorror: I watched your episodes of Creepshow and they were a ton of fun, so I’m super excited to speak with you.

Kailey Spear: Thank you so much for watching!

Sam Spear: They were a lot of fun to make!

PopHorror: I don’t really know how an anthology like this works. Do you bring your own scripts that you’ve found? Are they assigned to you? Or do they give you a choice to pick from? How do you settle on the ones that you’re going to work on?

Kailey Spear: We had scripts given to us, so they had us on board, and then gave us The Hat and Grieving Process, and then we took it from there.

PopHorror: What was your initial reaction to the scripts that you were given?

Sam Spear: We loved reading both of them, but we also loved that they had such different tones. So that immediately was so exciting to us, to be able to jump in and do something that we could really bring something different to each story.

Kailey Spear: Yeah, when we were reading The Hat, it immediately felt poppy and fun and had this quirky comedic edge to it that we really wanted to draw out, and we felt more color in that one. Grieving Process definitely felt more noir and dark and serious, so leaning into that noir and taking out the color in that one. It was something that we had fun with.

PopHorror: They were definitely both very different. You mentioned the comedic part of The Hat… I don’t want to give too much away, but the name of the author that he idolizes… I see what was done there.

Kailey Spear: The brilliant writers throwing that one in!

Sam Spear: We see what’s happening there!

PopHorror: That was a lot of fun. Was there anything in the script for either of them, that you were adamant about keeping in there, no matter what?

Sam Spear: Good question. I think most of it stayed. I guess there were some bits that were early on, kind of for time, that were cut in the script. The heart was there.

Kailey Spear: I think what’s on screen is the stuff that we kept.

PopHorror: I really don’t know, with something this structured, if they’re already so thought out and planned that there really is no room for movement because it’s already the time allotted. I wasn’t sure if there was anything that you were like, “No, this has to stay in.” Taking anything out would have taken away from the story.

Kailey Spear: Most of the cuts were conversations that we had with Greg [Nicotero] before we shot so there’s always time constraints. So, looking at the script then and trying to make the cuts before we shoot.

Sam Spear: Because once we got to filming, we were under time restriction so making sure that everything that we’re filming, we wanted to make sure that it was going to be a part of the thing.

Kailey Spear: The screenwriters did such a good job with it, so we were very happy when we read it.

Sam Spear: Yeah!

PopHorror: You both not only direct, but you also act as well, which most would see as opposite ends of the spectrum. Do you feel like acting has given you a different sensibility or awareness as a director?

Kailey Spear: Oh, totally. Yeah, we’ve learned so much being on the other side of the camera. The process is just completely different. When you’re directing, you’re thinking of everything. It’s almost like playing all of the roles and seeing the big picture, whereas as an actor, you’re taking care of your own thing, and it can be very isolating as an actor, so knowing as a director to really check in with the actors through each scene.

Sam Spear: Letting them know what’s going on. Sometimes as an actor, it’s nice to have that nod or something to say, “Okay, your part’s working. It’s going fine.” Or if you’re going for another take. As an actor, not knowing what’s necessarily happening behind the monitors, it’s kind of nice to know, “Okay, we’re going again for the camera,” or “We’re going again for your performance.” Being able to fill the actors in with those pieces of information is nice to know.

PopHorror: Being twin sisters, what is it like working with someone who knows you so well?

Kailey Spear: It’s useful.

Sam Spear: It’s very useful. 

Kaily Spear: It’s something that we’ve found to be very helpful co-directing, because even when we read those two scripts, The Hat and Grieving Process, we immediately knew that The Hat was going to be more comedic, and we knew that Grieving Process was going to be darker and noir inspired. That was our instinct. It was later that we found out that other people had different instincts like, “Oh, you saw that in The Hat?”

Sam Spear: So yeah, it’s useful.

Kailey Spear: We thought that was just flat out the way it was.

Sam Spear: We’re realizing more and more working together, how fortunate we are that we do land on the same vision so that when we’re jumping into a project, we’ve got two people on one vision, which is nice.

PopHorror: That’s so awesome. What is it that draws you to horror?

Kailey Spear: We love the craft of horror. All of our projects, we really love cracking into the character. Character is really important to us. Horror has this way to really show the character’s journey in a much different way.

Sam Spear: Like really feel what’s going on with the character in a very visceral way. It suits some of those heightened feelings, which is really fun to play with.

PopHorror: I really love that. I have just one last question for you. What’s your favorite scary movie?

Kailey Spear: We love Alien.

Sam Spear: Yup.

PopHorror: You both have the same answer?

Sam Spear: We love Alien!

Kailey Spear: We do have the same.

Sam Spear: We have the same.

Thank you so much to Kailey and Sam for taking time to speak with us. Season four of Creepshow is currently on Shudder and AMC+.