PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Recently news dropped that Hannah Fierman, star of V/H/S, Siren, and The Unwanted, will be directing a feature called Events Surrounding A Peeping Tom. We sat down recently for an interview and discussed the film, her fondness for horror, and Legend of Zelda fan films, among other things!
PopHorror: Like a lot of other horror fans, I was introduced to you as Lily in V/H/S, and that was terrifying. Would you say horror is an important genre to you?
Hannah Fierman: Yeah, definitely! I think a lot of groundbreaking artistic phenomena occur within the genre!
PopHorror: What about the genre speaks to you?
Hannah Fierman: I feel like fans of horror are more flexible. They’re willing to give experimentation more of a shot with horror than with other genres. They’re just more open minded, so it gives the filmmakers a lot more creative license.
PopHorror: So, you’ve done a lot a lot of work acting. What made you decide to pivot into directing for Events Surrounding A Peeping Tom?
Hannah Fierman: Well, actually, before that even, I directed a segment for Dead by Midnight 2. Dead by Midnight isn’t out yet, but this one will be called Dead by Midnight Y2Kill. They went ahead and did the second anthology, and they asked me to write and direct a segment. I always thought it would be fun to direct, but it was not something I thought about pursuing until people started asking me to do it. Then I just enjoyed doing that segment so much and discovered my own unusual voice. I showed it to Damien [Maffei] and Felissa [Rose] and Ryan [James], and they asked me to direct a feature.
PopHorror: Speaking of voice, were there any creative inspirations for Events Surrounding A Peeping Tom? Any specific films or filmmakers?
Hannah Fierman: Yeah, I’m hoping for a blend between a mix between Lars and the Real Girl and a sort of Lynchian feel. I’m hoping to bring the uncomfortableness of a Lynch film, that Lynch brings, and the innocence and dark comedy of Lars.
PopHorror: Speaking of the film, I see Felissa Rose is onboard. Are there any other film icons you’d like to work with?
Hannah Fierman: I mean, I want to work with all of them. All the ones that are cool!
PopHorror: Has COVID thrown any curveballs at production or preproduction for you?
Hannah Fierman: Oh, yeah. Not so much for Peeping Tom, but the past 4 or 5 movies and 2 television shows, it slowed everything down. It’s just one more thing that you have to worry about, you know? And that one thing slows everything down. You have to get tested every 3 days. That’s difficult when you’re filming every day. You have to go do it on your own time and really schedule yourself and be really diligent about it, because not all productions have it on site. Creepshow did, but the smaller indies… sometimes that’s a struggle. One person tests positive for Covid, and you have to shut down production for 2 weeks. Indies can’t survive that.
PopHorror: On a somewhat lighter note, I don’t know if you know this, but when you Google your name, one of your old fan films for Legend of Zelda is still one of the top results.
Hannah Fierman: (laughs) Oh my gosh! It was so much fun making that movie.
PopHorror: Yeah? Can you tell us much about that?
Hannah Fierman: Yeah. I was just a kid when we made that movie. It was just 4 or 5 of us. And Joel Musch, who’s the director, writer, producer, FX guy, editor, he did pretty much everything! Correction, her. Her name is Harley now. Harley worked on it for 4 years. Her outtakes on it were absolutely hilarious, just like 10 minutes of all of us just laughing our asses off. It was so funny.
PopHorror: Are there any other projects or topics you’d like to discuss?
Hannah Fierman: Yeah, we’ve got a movie called Time’s Up that’s being edited right now. That’s got Damian and Felissa as well as LC Holt. And that was produced by Ryan James as well. I’m really looking forward to that. It was a really fun script to read and act out. I also have another movie called On Location that should be coming out soon. We shot that back in September in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. I’ve been working the last few weeks on a feature film called Dementophobia. It’s a psychological horror thriller, and that’s been really, really hard.
PopHorror: Like, in an emotional sense?
Hannah Fierman: Yeah, definitely in an emotional way. I play a psychiatrist who is losing her mind (laughs). It’s really hard to leave it on set since I can relate to the character and see a little of my personality… and you feel a little AAGH, a little nuts after a few days.
PopHorror: Plus, it must be hard to play that type of character who has knowledge in that area, to know you’re losing your mind and see it coming? Must be spooky.
Hannah Fierman: It is, and I’ve seen some of the footage, and it looks beautiful. That one is being produced by Grand Line Creations, and those are a group of my friends I like to work with frequently. Robert Vardaros is directing it, and he’s the DP and he was my DP on my segment on Dead by Midnight 2. So basically, I’m just working with a bunch of my best friends (laughs)! Doing that helps me lighten up after such heavy material.
Thank you so much for speaking with us, Hannah! If you’d like to learn more about Hannah Fierman, you can visit her website here!
