“I’m feeling hopeful for the future,” saysBarbara Cramptonduring our interview. While Crampton is talking about having received her booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine and hoping that “we can get back to as much normal as we can,” it, of course, doesn’t hurt that the legendary horror actress-turned-producer—Crampton, in fact, produced last year’svampire thrillerJakob’s Wife—also has two new movies coming out this month. The first isAlone With You, co-written and -directed by Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks, which tells the story of a young woman (also Bennett) whose evening at home, alone, takes a nightmarish turn, filled with voices, shadows, and hallucinations. And the second is Richard Bates Jr.‘sKing Knight, which starsCriminal Minds’s Matthew Gray Gubler as a leader of a coven of witches who embarks on a journey of self-discovery as he confronts his past.
Interestingly, in both features, Crampton plays the mothers to Bennett and Gubler’s protagonists. Even more remarkable is the fact that her appearances in both films, for the most part, come in the form of video calls that, like many parent-child conversations, naturally result in heated and tense discussions of the adult-children’s life choices. “They would commiserate how their children are good-for-nothings and didn’t appreciate what they were given,” Crampton says of a hypothetical conversation her characters would have with each other. “And they would probably also commiserate about the fact that they don’t have close relationships with their children, and how sad that is.”
Crampton made her film debut in 1984 inthe great Brian De Palma’s neo-noir thrillerBody Double. Her consequent performances in thezombie movie hitRe-Animator(1985)and science fiction filmFrom Beyond(1986), however, earned her critical acclaim. From there, Crampton forged a successful career in both film and television, specifically carving out icon status in the world of horror, fromChopping Mall(1986) andCastle Freak(1995) toYou’re Next(2011) and the aforementionedJakob’s Wife, whichdelighted audiences at last year’s SXSW Film Festival. While the instinct would be to label Crampton a “Scream Queen,“it’s a title that the actress would sooner ditch. In our interview, in fact, Crampton talks about how, though she loves working in the genre, she never intended to become a horror legend.
Related:Top 10 Horror Movies of 2021
On Working With New Filmmakers on Alone With You
Alone With Youcame to Crampton’s attention through a casting director that she knew and trusted. “[Emily and Justin] hadn’t really done anything before, but they sent me the script. I read it, and I thought it was really well written,” she says. “Usually, I can read a script and kind of know where it’s going, and I didn’t feel that way with this [movie]. And I thought, hmm, here’s some new writers and new filmmakers—and they wrote a story that surprised me.”
Indeed,Alone With Memarked Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks’ feature-length debut, a debut that significantly coincided with 2020’s first global pandemic-related lockdown.Speaking to Horror Obsessive, Bennett and Brooks, who are partners both in life and in their creative work, said: “Quarantine started, we shot two short films, and that gave us the confidence to say, ‘Hey, let’s do a feature.'” The result is a movie that explores the experience of dark thoughts, fears, and anxieties that come to us when we are alone—a patchwork, essentially, of feelings born in quarantine and shown through the lens of horror.
“I have a small supporting role in the film, but it was a very important role. [Emily] was also doing something that I had done recently withJakob’s Wife: I found a project that put me at the forefront, and I produced it and also acted. And I saw that she was doing the same,” says Crampton. “Part of what I like to do, and what I’ve been doing for forty years in this business, is helping young filmmakers find their voice and make the kinds of movies that they want to make.”
Related:Exclusive: Horror Filmmakers Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks on ‘Alone With You’
On Saying Yes to King Knight Before Reading the Script
“He just said: ‘I want you to be in my next movie. It’s a supporting player, but it’s really important to the film. I’m going to send [the script] to you.’ And I said: ‘I’ll do it, Ricky, whatever it is,'” says Crampton of her initial conversation withKing Knightdirector Richard Bates Jr., of whom she had been a long-time fan. “I’ve always wanted to work with Ricky.Excision, of course, was a masterpiece. And I thought he was the coolest filmmaker when I first started seeing him show up.”
InKing Knight, Crampton plays Ruth, estranged mother to Matthew Gray Gubler’s Thorn Adams. Thorn is the high priest of a coven of witches, whileWestworld’s Angela Sarafyan plays the high priestess Willow. When Thorn’s secret past as a popular high school jock threatens the balance of their coven—and ultimately his and Willow’s relationship—Thorn embarks on a journey of reconciliation, growth, and self-discovery. Part of his journey involves reaching out to his mother, Ruth, via video call. “In both [Alone With YouandKing Knight], I play complicated mothers who are very strict and fixed in their views and unforgiving. But inKing Knight, just as you come to understand Thorn, and why he can’t accept himself and who he is as a person, you kind of see [how Ruth contributed to that]. She has these fixed views, and that made him feel awkward about who he was.”
“And then: who is this mother behind all that? And why is she the way she is, and where does that come from? In the space of a few scenes, Ricky was able to illuminate that for a viewer. There’s a real arc to [Ruth],” Crampton says, tracing a moment in the film that peels back the curtain on her character’s seemingly hardened exterior and unwavering beliefs. “There was a moment at the end, where I wipe away a tear from my eye—that wasn’t in the script. And Ricky said: ‘That’s the whole scene. You just wiped a tear away, and I get it now. I get where she’s coming from.’ It’s about empathy, you know? You understanding why people are doing what they’re doing.”
On Accidentally Becoming a Horror Legend
Empathy, in fact, would be the fundamental appeal of acting for Crampton, particularly in horror. “What I’ve come to realize in working in the horror genre, and the benefit of it is that we deal with the most primal emotion of all: fear. How do you overcome that, and how do you deal with that? One of the things I think you learn as a storyteller is that the greatest asset you have in storytelling is empathy. So, I’m working in a genre that deals with the most difficult of all emotions, while also giving voice to understanding the reasoning behind it as much as possible.”
What’s especially interesting is that Crampton didn’t intentionally set out to work in horror. “It sort of just happened to me. I see other people that say, ‘I just want to work on horror. This is what I want to do.’ And I meet a lot of people like that. It wasn’t really the case for me,” she says, reflecting on the earlier horror works in her career that ultimately paved this way. “I just wanted to be an actor and wanted to tell stories.”
This, of course, doesn’t mean that Crampton doesn’t enjoy the genre or see its inherent value. Quite the opposite, in fact: “There’s something to be said for a fun slasher movie that’s very exciting. I really enjoyed watchingFreakya couple of years ago. That had a message about accepting yourself and who you are as a person. AndHalloween—the originalHalloween—was another slasher film that was fun.”
“I think the movies that really excite me are the ones that deal with the human condition, and facing the hardest things that we could possibly face in our life, and coming out victorious—and illuminating for an audience member that you can do that, too,” Crampton says, and, admittedly, what comes to mind aren’t the horrors of a murderer running loose, but the real-life ones our world currently faces each day, from the climate crisis to the global pandemic. “You can be as brave as these characters onscreen, and you can overcome your own fears. I think that provides a service for people.”
