Today actress Kristina Klebe and I continue exploring the acting opportunities and challenges in horror with our interview of director Katt Shea. Katt has has been writing, directing and acting for nearly three decades and is one of relatively few women to have made her mark in the horror (The Rage: Carrie 2) and thriller (Poison Ivy, Stripped to Kill) genres.

She began her career acting and then writing and directing for genre impresario Roger Corman. Katt is known for her gritty and sensual visual style and her facility with actors, which has enabled her to elicit great performances from the likes of Drew Barrymore, Sara Gilbert, Alison Lohman and Tom Skerritt, to name a few (she also teaches in LA). Watch below for insight into the fans of horror, why horror is the young actor’s friend, and a great story on how she got the ‘go’ on her first script.

For more in this series on Acting in Horror, watch our interviews with Paul Solet, director of Sundance’s Grace, here and here, and our talk with actor Dileep Rao, star of Avatar, Drag Me to Hell, and Inception.

Video introduction by Ryan Kravetz