Interview with ‘Slay Belles’ Actress Kristina Klebe

The Christmas horror film Slay Belles is the newest entry to the Dread Presents library and is currently one of the most highly anticipated holiday horror films to come out this year. You can read our review of the film right here. Directed by Spooky Dan Walker, the film tells the tale of Krampus versus Santa Claus, and stars Barry Bostwick, Richard Moll, Kristina Klebe, Diane Salinger and Susan Slaughter. I had the great pleasure of speaking with the insanely talented Kristina Klebe (Halloween 2007) about her role as Alex in the film, horse therapy, and of course, horror movies.

Pophorror: I watched Slay Belles last week, and I really enjoyed it, so I’m excited to speak with you. What intrigued you to want to be a part of of this project?

Kristina: You know, it’s funny. Sometimes things happen really quickly. I was talking to my friend John, and I’ve known Spooky forever. He interviewed me on the red carpet for Halloween, and then we became friends. I was talking to John, and he said that Spooky was doing this fun movie and Darren Bousman was producing it. And I love Darren’s stuff. I love Devil’s Carnival – I think he had done the first one already – and I love Spooky, so I asked what they were doing. Sometimes I just want to work, and I want to work with my friends. So then they sent me the script, and I don’t know. I thought it was super fun and just the prospect of having three woman leads in one movie – I hadn’t done that in a long time – it just sounded like a super fun project to work on, so I was down.

Pophorror: It looked like it, with the combination of humor and horror at the same time. I can only imagine how much fun that would be, having to switch back and forth. It looked like you guys had a lot of fun with it, and that makes the film so much more enjoyable. What was your favorite part of shooting?

Kristina: I think my favorite part of shooting was getting to meet Barry Bostwick and shooting with him. We actually became really good friends on that set, and we have remained really good friends. That was one of the really big highlights. Even though going into it the idea was super fun, it ended up being a difficult shoot because we had such a short amount of time. I think it was probably the least amount days for a feature film that I’ve ever had, and it was freezing all the time, which you wouldn’t expect in LA, but it was in Lake Arrowhead up in the mountains, and we were wearing those little outfits every night, and a lot of it was at night. We were freezing all the time, and it was such a short amount of time to do anything. But the best part was Barry. And the three of us girls were living in a cabin together, which was kind of like a camping experience. We had such a great time with the three of us living together. I’m not used to doing that because I don’t have sisters and I haven’t had roommates in a long time, so it was super fun to do that.

Pophorror: You’ve become quite well known as a woman in horror with The Devil’s Carnival and Halloween. I saw you were also in Tales of Halloween and Chillerama. What drew you to the genre?

Kristina: I have to say, I think the genre drew me because I didn’t really watch horror growing up. I didn’t really watch movies. I was a total theater geek. I grew up doing theater in New York, and I went to live shows a lot. I didn’t really watch new movies or television, and so when I auditioned for Halloween, I didn’t really know what I was auditioning for. And then when I got it, I knew it was just such a fluke that I was so lucky. I think it’s so difficult being an actor at all. It’s almost impossible to get work as an actor. You only see the 1% of people who are super famous and doing all of the A-list movies, but as the next level of actor down, like those who play guest roles and stuff, I’m so lucky. Halloween allowed me to continue working as an actor.

It just happens that a lot of times I get offers for horror movies because that’s where I have a fan base, and people care about that. I actually now feel like I’m friends with everybody in this world here in LA and New York, and I love everyone in the horror genre. I love doing horror movies. There are a lot of strong female roles in horror movies. I wouldn’t even want to be in a drama, or play the girlfriend to somebody, because it’s so boring. (laughs) Why would I want to do that? I’d much rather be running around, kicking ass and killing a bad guy… or playing the bad guy.

Pophorror: Oh, playing the bad guy! That’d be fun, too.

Kristina: I think Proxy – I don’t know if you’ve seen Proxy – but you should watch it. You should watch Proxy and Dementia. Those are probably my two favorite roles that I’ve ever played, in terms of really, really like crazy characters.

Pophorror: If you weren’t acting, what do you think you’d be doing?

Kristina: Oh, that is a great question. Sometimes I still think about switching careers. (laughs) I’ve always wanted to be a vet. I love animals so much. And sometimes I still think I’d love to have a farm with some horses for therapy, for children who have like learning disabilities or don’t have homes. You know how they do horse therapy or animal therapy? Sometimes, I do still think I will do that later in my life.

Pophorror: That sounds like it would be fun and very fulfilling.

Kristina: I love animals, and I think it’s so cool to see how much children can develop and how they can learn from animals. Even adults can learn, so it would be super cool to do something like that. It would be my dream.

Pophorror: If you could work with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

Kristina: That’s a great question, too. Like, working with them in film?

Pophorror: Anything and anyone.

Kristina: Probably, in terms of learning how to be, because I also studied politics in college, but I’d like to spend the day with Nelson Mandela. Just because I feel like what he did in terms of forgiving, and in terms of being able to lead an entire country to forgive the atrocities that were done against them all. I think he would be just an incredible person to learn from. Even just being in his presence for a day would be awesome. I think a person that I would love to work with in terms of movies would be Buster Keaton. I think Buster Keaton was freaking amazing. He acted, did the stunts, directed, wrote. He did everything on all of his movies, and the things that that guy did, I think are so amazing. There are a lot of people that I would like to work with, but he would be somebody I could learn a lot from.

Pophorror: That’s a great answer. What do you have coming up next?

Kristina: I have a movie called I Am Fear coming up that I also second unit directed, played the lead in and produced. And right now, we’re sending it to festivals, and I hope that we get into some, because it’s not 100%. I mean, it is genre, but it’s also like a political thriller. It’s not exactly the perfect genre festival movie, but I think it could totally play that role. It’s produced by Shout Factory, so it will come out, no matter what, this summer or fall. And that also stars William Forsythe, Bill Moseley and Eoin Macken from Night Shift. My show, Professor T., has a second season coming this spring in Germany. I play a psychiatrist on that show. It’s kind of like Monk.

And I’m just directing. My short horror film, As Human As Animal, just got picked up to a platform. It’s a new platform where people can finally see it because I’ve been waiting for years to try to get it onto a real site. They have a sci-fi channel called Dust, and they’re doing the same for horror and it’s called ALTER. It will be available in a month or two. It’s just the beginning of it, and it’s super awesome. I’m super excited. I’m just trying to direct more and get more directing work.

Pophorror: And since we are a horror website, what is your favorite scary movie?

Kristina: Probably, and I know it’s what everybody says, but The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby are probably two of my favorite scary movies. More modern day would be probably The Descent. The Descent is amazing. What’s your favorite scary movie?

Pophorror: My favorite is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Be sure to catch Kristina in Slay Belles on DVD and streaming platforms now. Keep an eye out for the streaming platform, ALTER, and her new short As Human As Animal coming out in the next couple months. As always, stay tuned to PopHorror for all of your horror news, reviews and interviews!