PROCEED with BLOODY CAUTION: The following interview will contain excessive drug use, slasher fun, five girlfriends, and a wild night of partying that goes horribly wrong when an unwanted stranger shows up. Sounds like a typical Saturday night around my house. But it is the premise for the new independent horror film from writer/actress Jamie Bernadette (Axeman At Cutter’s Creek) entitled “The 6th Friend.
The last time I talked with Chantelle Albers she was fresh off the bloody set of the throw back thriller Axeman At Cutter’s Creek (which I’m also excited about seeing in the future), but let’s get to the subject at hand which is The 6th Friend, a film in which Chantelle is acting and for the first time Producing with her co-star Jamie Bernadette. The project is being helmed by director Letia Miller, and is slated be released in 2014. READ ON:
Horror Society: For fans that don’t know much about this film, can you tell us if anything about it?
Chantelle Albers: Six best friends engage in excessive drug use on the night of their college graduation. An uninvited guest commits a horrifying crime on one of the girls and the girls seek vicious revenge, which leads to disastrous results.
HS: What got you excited about the project?
CA: When I first read the script I loved it! There are kills in it which make it a slasher flick, but the emphasis is not on the kills necessarily- it’s about the chase, anticipation, and survival and surviving together. I love scripts with strong female characters and that is what this movie is about. I was more than eager to work with Jamie Bernadette again- which got me excited right away. We met on the set of Axeman at Cutter’s Creek and clicked, so when I got this chance to produce and act with her again I was thrilled!
HS: Not only are you acting in the film, you’re also taking on the Producer’s hat – what is that like?
CA: Honestly, it’s one of the greatest learning experiences as an actor. I am SO glad that I’m producing and creating this myself with a great team. As a producer and actor you get to choose the crew, the cast, the locations, and the script—you basically get to make the exact movie you want to make because you are calling all the shots, but with that, comes a great deal of responsibility. I could not have done this with out Jamie Bernadette, Letia Clousten. They are such a great team to work with and together we are making this happen. With all 4 of us working together it’s a dream come true!
HS: The film sounds like a wild ride of revenge and mayhem, with strong female lead characters, what can we expect for tone in The 6th Friend? Meaning, Blood, guts and a whole lot of gore, or tension and atmosphere?
CA: We kind of wanted to stay away from too much gore and have it be about the chase, the anticipation, the paranormal, and a strong sense of survival. To me it’s scarier when there is an unknown factor.
HS: You play the role of Melissa is there anything you can tell us about your character?
CA: She’s the type of person who would give you the shirt off of her back, but also has an edge to her. She’s sweet, sassy, and athletic which gives her a “go getter” character trait. This makes her likeable to the audience.
HS: I know you’re going to say that you can’t tell us, that much about this, but I’ve got to ask: How much trouble does your character get into?
CA: Well, all 6 of the girls get into trouble in the opening scene which starts off the movie. They go down they’re own individual paths but are reunited 5 years later and the events unfold after that. Melissa gets into trouble by….I can’t tell you much about that! [laughs]
HS: Now a fun question: If you could describe either the film or your character, or both, as a twitter hashtag, what would it be?
CA: Oh man that’s a good question! I haven’t really thought about that, but I would probably call it #run4yourlife.
HS: What do you think makes a great horror film?
CA: I think having a strong connection between the audience and the characters is very important because the audience has someone to root for. Having anticipation, chase, and an “unknown” factor is key in horror because that’s what creates the “horror”. To me horror is a scary genre and having those elements makes it scary. Having a close connection between the audience and characters also makes it scary because it is “horrible” to see them die.
HS: Letia Miller is helming the film, which is awesome, why do you think we don’t see more female horror directors?
CA: Letia is a great director and after seeing some of her previous work I was totally on board to shoot with her. Because this is a female heavy cast and a female director, we wanted to stay away from making this a feminist movie with a male bad guy and a bunch of girls as victims. Perhaps that is why more females don’t take on the role of director in horror because it’s usually a bad “guy” chasing after a female victim and they don’t want to play into the feminist facet.
HS: My last and final question, is there anything that I forgot to ask that you’re just dying to tell the readers?
CA: This movie is different from any other horror out there. We took elements from pop culture and classic slasher films, and added in psychedelic drug use and the paranormal to make a truly original story that no one has seen before. The most difficult thing in horror is the fact that almost everything has been done before. We wanted to do something different without going overboard on gore, but rather do something different with the story.
I want to thank Chantelle Albers for taking the time to do this interview with me. You can find out more and keep up to date with “The 6th Friend” on their Facebook Fan page.
IMDB link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2891234/
Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/The6thFriend?ref=ts&fref=ts
