FANTASTIC FEST ’25 INTERVIEW: FILMMAKER BROOKE H. CELLARS

Writer/Director Brooke H. Cellars’ feature debut THE CRAMPS: A Period Piece is screening at Fantastic Fest this year! This unique campy comedy-horror features Agnes Applewhite, a blossoming young woman caught between her sanctimonious mother and tightly wound sister, who defies her family’s expectations by taking a job as a shampoo girl at a lively beauty salon. As she thrives in this new colorful world, she is suddenly confronted by debilitating menstrual cramps that become real-life monsters, blurring the line between reality and nightmare.

After watching the film, I got to chat with Brooke about the inspirations and influences for THE CRAMPS! Read on for some great insights. 

AMIE:
So obviously I do see a John Waters influence, sort of a Campy influence. Can you tell me about other influences, filmmakers that influenced you or other work that sort of made this come together in your mind as something that you wanted to put on screen?

BROOKE 
Along with John Waters influences, a big one was Fellini – mostly his films AMARCORD and JULIET OF THE SPIRITS were a big inspiration. I love those movies because they’re so dreamlike and colorful and everything was so intentional with the costumes and the characters and the set design – and just like the way the characters were blocked and choreographed. It always feels like its own world, which is what I really wanted to create: my own kind of world, but inspired by those mid-century films for sure. And also for the horror perspective, THE BLOB, of course! The 1950’s BLOB, and also Mario Bava’s films. I love the macabre and the uneasiness of his films – but also the beauty. Especially with BLOOD AND BLACK LACE: the fashion show and the mannequins; that came into play in THE CRAMPS. Definitely. I wanted to blend those loves all together and make the world of THE CRAMPS.

AMIE
I love it! I also love the character of Teddy, so I was curious where the idea came from to have Teddy be a pastel pink Satanist who’s just very cheerful. You usually see the Gothy, wearing all black Satanist. So please tell me a little bit more about Teddy and she came about.

BROOKE 
That’s one of my favorite characters or my dream characters. I always wanted to create the character and the costumes and everything. That’s something I have just been wanting to make forever and, because like that’s kind of how I see an extension of myself. These characters are all kinds of extensions of me, or who I want to be. I’ve always been seen as, “The Goth,” or the the one who likes dark stuff and fucked up movies – but I’m, I’m a very, very nice person. Like I’m a very empathetic, kind person. You can be dark and Goth and stuff, but I mean my favorite color is mauve. Like, I love pink! And I also love blood. So that’s kind of where her character came from. Like the little church lady Satanist.

AMIE 
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that, so that just really stuck out to me as this great unique thing. Just everything that she says. 

Kind of tied into that — I don’t think I’ve ever seen like a glittery, pulsing period monster before. I mean, I loved it! I was just curious about, did you do that yourself? Did you have a special effects artist? How did that piece come together? 

BROOKE 
Before I even started making movies, I tried to do special effects. That was the closest thing I thought I would get to making movies. I love everything about that. Halloween has always been my favorite time of year. So I did almost all the special effects on all my shorts but for this one, we got a special effects team: Hannah and her team, and made the creature and everything. But I wanted to bring in the stuff that I used to do – THE LOST BOYS is one of my favorite films of all time. And the blood in that just gets me, and I always wondered why the blood looked like it. When I researched, it was like, oh! They put glitter in the blood. I love that! And so I’ve always put glitter in my blood in every movie because I just like how it catches the light. And also it makes the little creature look fabulous. Like, she’s glittery. We named her “Susie.” Susie’s fabulous, but she’s angry. She’s very upset. Still looking glittery. 

AMIE
Amazing! And YES to THE LOST BOYS – YES to the glittery vampires.

I’m also just really in love with your cast. There’s just so many great performers and personalities in your film, and I’m just wondering, how did you pick that cast and particularly, where did you find Lauren? Because she is perfect in this role, and this might be her first role? She’s so good and I was really rooting for her and wanted her to break out of her terrible home life and find her real family, and she did. Talk to me a little bit about putting that cast together.

BROOKE
So Laverne, Holiday and Teddy – we’ve all worked together before. Those are my friends in the filmmaking community down here, so I wrote parts for them. I worked with them before; I knew the characters I wanted to create that they would thrive in. But Agnes is … I mean, this story is about me, my family life, and my endometriosis journey. So I wanted somebody that would kind of emulate that. And when I met, like, Lauren came to our in-person auditions, and she stuck out to me when we were doing callbacks. I was like, oh, my God, it’s me! Like, in my twenties. I wanted to let her know why I wrote this and, like, the message behind it and a little bit about myself because we. We didn’t know each other. And she was connecting with the story, especially with the mother – so she had a similar family life, so understood the story completely. In real life, she’s kind of like a “little” me. Everybody always said, “God, Lauren is so much like you.” We’re so much alike, we’re friends now, even though we’re 20 years apart. She’s definitely mini, Mini Brooke. So she was perfect for the part.

AMIE 
That’s so cool! My final question would be, are you working on another feature right now? And if so, can you tell me anything about it or is it very hush-hush?

BROOKE
I usually like to keep things hush hush, but at this point I’m really excited about projects that I’m working on. I’m writing the script for another feature called “Blood, Guts and the Sluts.” And it’s gonna be an ambiguous 1980s aesthetic – it’s kind of like if social media existed in the 80s, there’s a lot to go – like the message that I want to say with this, but it’s gonna be like a really good time. I’m developing the world right now, so it’s really fun to do that! 

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