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Deadly Beauty: Horror’s Scream Queens and Rising Talent: Susan Adriensen

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Deadly Beauty: Horror’s Scream Queens and Rising Talent: Susan Adriensen

SusanAdriansen2a(1)“Susan completed her first feature movie, Under The Raven’s Wing, which was released on Halloween 2007 at the Full Moon Film Festival. It was also accepted at the Queens Film Festival, Fright Night Film Festival and the Dark Carnival Film Festival, where she was also on a discussion panel for Women In Horror. In both Under The Raven’s Wing and her featurette, Mavi Goz, her roles inuded director, writer, producer and editor. In Mavi Goz, she also played the lead character. In college, Susan created an avent-garde short on 8mm film titled Illusion of Reality. In 2004, she founded a horror film industry networking group, Mingle Mangle: Horror Filmmakers and Fans.

Her television freelance jobs include, but are not limited to the Grammy Awards, Arista’s 15th Anniversary, Irving Berlin’s 100th Birthday, WWOR-TV’s Steampipe Alley and The Howard Stern Show. She received a BA degree in Broadcasting at Monclair State University where she held the title of Chapter President of Alpha Epsilon Rho, the Broadcasting Honor Society, Susan’s television performances include various comedic sketches on the television show Steampipe Alley with comedian Mario Cantone. Other on-screen experiences include The Blood Shed, Sculpture, Hypochondriac and Prison of the Psychotic Damned. She has also studied performance art at HB (with the late hard-driving teacher, Katherine Sergava), Weist-Baron, and the Upright Citizens Brigade for comic improvisation, all located in New York City.

She has also studied Egyptian and Gothique Belly Dance.”*

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Location: New York City is my front yard, where I romp and play.

1. How did you get into the industry?

Well, it wasn’t overnight, that’s for sure. Ha! Ha! Hmmm. Where did I start? Well, as a kid, I always wanted to be an actress, but always thought I’d have stage fright. It wasn’t until Senior year of High School that I signed up for a theatre class and auditioned for plays. My first on-stage role was as Jenny in Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The second role, in my last semester of High School, was where the insanity of crazy roles began. I played a sneezing psycho in Macbeth Did It.

After High School, I went to Montclair State College (then pending University) for Broadcasting. I had a behind-the-scene internship on a children’s show, Steampipe Alley, starring Mario Cantone. This quickly led to on-camera roles such as Tinker Bell in the Save the Earth “Toxic Pixie Dust” episode.

But my life in the industry, especially horror, didn’t really start picking up until many years later when a friend and I formed a New York City networking group, Mingle Mangle: Horror Filmmakers and Fans. I met some really great people at the mixers, online, and at horror conventions. I also met Alan Rowe Kelly who casted me as Sno Cakes in his crazy ass film, The Blood Shed. Shortly after, I made my own film, Under the Raven’s Wing, which was appreciated by the horror community even though it’s not horror, but a psychological thriller. I think Sno Cakes had a little bit to do with that….

2. What Scream Queen inspired you most?

I used to always say my favorite Scream Queen is “this one or that one,” … always picking the strong actresses and female characters. But who INSPIRED me? That’s a tough one because I just suddenly found myself in front of the camera of horror films one day. As an actress, I always loved comedy. I was definitely influenced by Carol Burnett. Can you see her a little bit in my character as Sno Cakes? But with regard to horror, as a little kid in elementary school, the other children used to get all excited and yell to me, “Do Carrie! Do Carrie!” So there I was, on the cafeteria lunch line or on the playground, standing very very still … and I would make my eyes real real BIG … and the kids would all start screaming. They thought I looked like Carrie. I’d have to agree with them. So, I’d say Sissy Spacek’s character as Carrie inspired me in some way too. (I’d love to combine the two into a character: Carol Burnett meets Carrie. If anyone has any ideas, I’m game!)

3. What are the next couple projects you are working on?

At the moment, I only have two projects coming up, The Darling Clementines and Tales of Poe.

The Darling Clementines will be shot in November in Mississippi… and it’s a biggie. JimmyO Burril wrote the script and will also produce and direct it. This film will be brutal. I couldn’t believe what I was reading when I saw the script. I can thank my friends, Marv Blauvelt and David Marancik, for recommending me to JimmyO as a “fearless actress.” But really! I THANK them because this is a great opportunity! Yes, it’s a brutal script, but the cast (including David, April Burril, and Debbie Rochon) are the nicest and finest.

Tales of Poe is one of the most beautiful and disturbing works of art by Bart Mastronardi and Alan Rowe Kelly. It is an anthology of stories by Edgar Allan Poe with different twists. I have already had a small role in “The Cask” segment. The one to be shot soon is “Dreams.” I’m very excited about it! Stay tuned and check out the movie on IMDB!

As for recent projects that have already been shot, please be on the lookout for Blaze of Gory. This film is a collaboration of different films by different filmmakers. All the films’ stories were written by the same … twelve year old girl! That’s right! I believe she’s 16 now, but she was twelve when she wrote them. Her name is Blaize-Alix Szanto. The Executive Producer is David V G Davies. Both are in the U.K. and have been featured on the BBC for this project. I was in “Snow,” Davies segment of the movie which was shot in Norway in January. It was a blast (of fun and cold) shooting with the talented Davies and the British gang.

Also be on the lookout for “In Fear Of: Scotomaphobia.” (Scotomaphobia = fear of blindness.) This is part of the In Fear Of Series by Scott Perry. Jeremiah Kipp directed this episode and he was really able to pull some scary stuff out of me and made me very proud of my performance. Steve-Mark Glassner was the brilliant cinematographer of this episode. It was such an honor to be a part of this project.

SusanAdriensen1 copy(1)Blue Eyed Productions
IMDB Page
Official Facebook Page
Twitter Page

*Bio courtesy of Susan Adriensen’s Blue Eyed Production Page

Dedman13

Owner of Slit of the Wrist FX and producer, actor, FX artist and writer.

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