Rebecca Matthews [Interview]

Hello Folks! We have another wonderful interview to share with you all today. We have an absolute genius from the world of horror, fantasy, and beyond, it’s the incredible Rebecca Matthews! To begin with, Rebecca wore multiple hats (from producer, director, casting director, & more) on two of my favorite horror films from the last Halloween season, Cupid and The Candy Witch. Both of which are amazing and you should definitely check out ASAP. Don’t wait for October for a good scare, as the world is scary year round. You might as well have some fun with it. We talk about these films in the amazing answers that Rebecca passed along to us.

I did commit one act of damn tom foolery though, I must admit. At the time I was making up the questions for Matthews, I somehow failed to realize that she is also the mastermind beyond the absolutely incredible film, Pet Graveyard. Before I get too into the details of what I loved about this film, be sure to check out our review from 2019. But it is suffice to say that I absolutely LOVED this film, and while it may have been titled with a circumstance of requirements for sales, I will forever attest that it is a brilliant stand alone film despite any sort of supposed likeliness to any other film that could have possibly been remade and released in the same year. In fact, I would highly recommend it over any other hypothetical project that might have been around in that same year.

So here we are, with an extremely talented producer, director, editor, and so much more. Beyond the couple of films we talk about in the interview below, as well as the beloved Pet Graveyard, Rebecca has worked on several incredible projects. Some I have watched in the past, but sadly didn’t get a chance to cover here, as well as a some (at least one) film that is forthcoming, and is absolutely wonderful! So Folks, please enjoy some incredible words from the amazing Rebecca Matthews!

******

What inspired you to get into the world of entertainment? Was it an early aspiration you can always remember having since your youth, or did you just find yourself in this world one day?

I’ve always had aspirations to be involved in the world of showbiz ever since I was a youngster, so it’s something I’ve always strived to be involved with in some way. I had originally done my training in theatre before exploring other roles and avenues in the world of film, so this was something that I ended up gravitating towards in the end.

What was your first paid gig in the world of entertainment? And were there any kind of lessons learned from this project that still affect your work today?

I did A LOT of unpaid work before I ended up getting a paid gig. I had to build up my experience, knowledge and professionalism so these unpaid jobs actually ended up being some of the most valuable experiences I’ve ever had in a roundabout way. I feel like there were many hard lessons learnt on my first fully paid feature film as a producer — the results actually weren’t that great as an outcome so a lot of lessons were learnt. I find that with each new project I’m learning something new – it never stops – but that keeps me on my toes and makes the jobs even more rewarding to know that you are learning and growing after each project.

I recently really enjoyed one of your most recent films, Cupid, which features our friend and past guest Sarah T. Cohen. I am curious to know what drew to Scott Jeffrey’s insane story?

Scott had the idea of doing a Cupid horror movie a while back so it was great to be involved in the development and production of this. I was excited by the premise and concept as it’s something that hasn’t really been seen from any movies I have knowledge of – where Cupid is being depicted as a monster over valentines day. It was fun to take the myth of this figure and put our own little spin on it.

And another recent project you also worked as a director as well as a producer is the film The Candy Witch, which is also phenomenal! So what was it about this project that made you want to bring it to the world?

Ah thank you for the kind words! I am a fan of supernatural ghost horrors so I was really excited to be able to direct this kind of movie as it’s something I hadn’t done myself before. It was a huge challenge as we only had 6 days to shoot the entire thing! But the team were amazing and I’m pretty proud of the outcome given the restrictions we had to work with.

In your own personal opinion, what do you believe it is that makes the horror genre special? What sets it apart from other genres you have worked in?

I love working with horror because there is so much to be played with – the emotional stakes for the characters are always high, there’s drama, action, thrill, supsense, gore. It’s like a filmmaker’s dream to dabble with all of that in one movie and that’s why I love it as an audience member too. Horror has so many sub genres too – be it supernatural, slasher, psychological etc – it’s so varied and interesting from project to project. I love delivering content to horror audiences as well – it’s a great audience to be working with.

What does the future hold for you? Anything you would like to plug to our readers?

I’ve been delving into the action genre recently with some upcoming releases in 2021 – including HellKat and The Gardener which I’m pretty excited about. I’ve also worked on a heavy CGI monster movie which is hopefully getting a release in 2021 too, that was definitely a new challenge for me. Upcoming projects, I am co-directing another supernatural ghost horror early this year which I hope can be turned around in time for a late 2021 release – plus a couple of Shark movies – it’s going to be a crazy year!

What was the last thing that made you smile?

Doing this interview – of course 😀