“When I watch a horror movie in the cinema, I like to watch the audience’s reaction to the screen,” confesses director and scriptwriter Helena Karadimos. Attracted to what some people may consider a dark genre, Helena revels in the reactive genre.
“I like to see how the movie, the story, the visual effects get to the audience; the feedback afterwards from people, hearing them say ‘I couldn’t sleep for six months’ or ‘I had to sleep with a light on’, shows you got to them through your movie,” she tells Neos Kosmos.
“And if you see someone jump [when they are watching the movie], then you know you’ve captured them through your film,” she explains.
Helena was drawn to horror movies as a child and has been fascinated by the genre ever since. As a scriptwriter, she relies on her ‘bad dreams’ for movie ideas.
“A lot of my film ideas come from nightmares,” she starts, “so a lot of my scripts are built on them or something I have visualised in my dreams that I put on paper.” She says when writing horror, you do need to turn to the ‘dark side’ “but [she] knows where the light is too so [she doesn’t] get stuck there”.
It was primary school that revealed Helena’s craft of story telling. She’d write short pieces, imaginative stories, that saw her pursue a media heavy high school education. After school, she went on to a film and television course, and has been pursuing independent movie and television work for the past six years. As an independent film maker, Helena wears many hats, and as a director, her job is to ensure that all the cast and crew understand and carry out her vision.
“A lot of it is about mediating and managing your cast and crew, and relating to your actors to get them to deliver your vision,” she explains. “You have to make sure that everyone is happy and content and you are getting what you want; there’s a lot that happens for directors on set.”
She says it’s a challenge being a female in the film industry, but she’s ready to push through and pave the way for the future of young females who want to become independent film makers. And in doing so, is not limiting herself to one genre or one role in the whole process of making a film. This is one woman who is always up for a challenge.
As it stands, she’s just co-written her first feature film The Soul in the Box; has started on her first animation; completed a silent art house film Broken Angels (that she’s taking to festivals world wide); worked on music videos, commercials… and if that’s not enough, has even dabbled in clothing design. And now she’s working on her second horror film called Don’t Go To Sleep – based on a character with a sleeping disorder.
When asked out of all the genres and everything that she does, what’s her favourite?
“Writing horror,” she says simply, “because I know that I am going to get the reaction that I am after.
“It gives you freedom to write however you wish to write and connect with your audience.”