by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport and Editor in Chief

Ready to surrender to the shadows and indulge in your darkest desires?

This Sunday, in celebration of the release of Nosferatu, MovieJawn will be co-hosting an epic event with our movie pals, Girls Like Horror. For those in and around the Philadelphia area, we welcome you to join us and witness the return of the iconic Nosferatu on the silver screen through the chilling vision of Robert Eggers, the mastermind behind The VVitch and The Lighthouse. Find my review of Nosferatu here.

Before the film, join Girls Like Horror founder, Christina Acevedo, and members of MovieJawn at 5pm to mix and mingle with fellow horror fanatics at Shane’s Confectionery. Afterwards, saunter over to Philly Film Society Bourse for a screening of Nosferatu at 6pm where you will find the MovieJawn collective slinging our latest print issue and other cinematic goodies.

Still craving more? After the film, join Girls Like Horror and MovieJawn for an after party and horror trivia at Glory Beer Kitchen. Meet the founders, writers, and enthusiasts who make the magic happen and let the night continue in twisted delight. We’ll see you there… if you dare. RSVP here.

All are welcome and all you need to do is show up, purchase your ticket for Nosferatu at 6 PM here (it is highly recommended securing a ticket in advance), and prepare for an unforgettable night of chills, thrills, and dark delights.

Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Christina to find out what sparked her to start Girls Like Horror, what got her into the genre, and to learn about her creative endeavors. It has been so wonderful getting to know Christina and learning more about her club. Here’s hoping the partnership with MovieJawn to co-host the Nosferatu event is the first of many.

Rosalie Kicks (RK): Why a horror club?

Christina Acevedo (CA): I love horror and friends! But in all seriousness, one of my great joys in life is watching horror films and talking about them with people. I am always on the quest to find the next best hidden gem, or to find out how this film was made and all the challenges that came with it. So I thought, what better way to incorporate all the things I love than with a film club.

I was super nostalgic for the high school club model, where you just start a club or join a club based on what interests you, or what you want to learn more about. I often go to see horror films alone, which I don’t mind, but I wanted to up the level of fun a notch and build community through a shared passion. And most importantly, I wanted to call the club Girls Like Horror because I relate so much to the female characters in horror because this genre in particular explores the anxieties, struggles, and desires of women in depth. Horror movies often feature central female roles that are complicated and multifaceted. I wanted to create a space where we could celebrate and shine a light on these powerful portrayals of strong, nuanced, complicated female characters dealing with themes I can relate to.

RK: When did your love of the horror genre begin?

CA: My love of the horror genre began when I was really young, and I didn’t even clock that it was horror. For me it just felt forbidden and freaky, and I enjoyed access to something I probably should not have had access to. When I was five or six I started going to Universal Studios Florida twice a year for the next six years and I became obsessed with this Alfred Hitchcock experience they had in one of the studios there, where they showed the making of the shower scene in Psycho and a 3D clip from The Birds. The Birds is still one of my favorite films to this day. I would also go to the Universal Studios Horror Makeup Show where they talked about creature creators and taught us how to build a squib and showed how it was used in the scene in Scarface when Al Pacino shoots the sniper in the car. They also gave a talk on the werewolf transformation in An American Werewolf in London and had the actual head of the werewolf and showed us the “revolutionary” technology (at the time) which was a latex face over the hydraulic machine Rick Baker created.

In my mind, I was quite curious and disturbed by all of this, especially the monsters, and I loved that feeling. I was always seeking horror films I had never seen and got exposed to JAWS, The Shining, Nightmare on Elm Street quite young because the guys at TLA in Bryn Mawr let me rent whatever I wanted, and in fact suggested those films to me. They even suggested I watch the making of the Thriller music video, which was also Rick Baker and John Landis, circling back to An American Werewolf. I was blessed because this stuff was so accessible to me and presented to me in a way in which I found fascinating! And it still comes. I am also lucky I still get hit with horror film references and knowledge that I do not know about and it is wonderful.

RK: What do you hope the members get out of joining Girls Like Horror?

CA: Community, belonging, and fun! I have found it so rewarding to build connections with people by sharing our love of horror films, images, experiences and I wanted to share that with others locally in Philadelphia. Going to the movies can feel quite isolating at times - believe me when I say this - I LOVE going to the movies alone, it is like a meditation for me, or a date I take myself on. BUT what really lights me up is talking about films with people who love film, and that is where I learn the most and grow. And as I mentioned above, some of the most compelling and relatable female characters are portrayed in horror films and a club a goal of mine is for us to celebrate those roles and films.

RK: How often does Girls Like Horror meet up?

CA: We meet at least once a month, however in October we met 4 times! The club has around 40 members and is growing with each event. Our first meetup was at the end of September of 2024. We are quite new, and also have a chapter in Lisbon that a friend/ filmmaker spearheads. Every screening varies with the amount of club members who attend based on everyone’s schedules and interests. That is why it is so fun to have so many different screenings, because it is a different group each time!

RK: Do you have a favorite slasher?

CA: It’s a tie between Sleepaway Camp and Peeping Tom for different reasons. Sleepaway Camp is just the perfect cult horror mess. I feel like it is one of my favorite slashers because I really enjoyed all the various podcasts that cover this film and listening to the director’s and actors’ commentary. Mind blown. And then Peeping Tom is just gorgeous. Michael Powell is one of my favorite filmmakers and the killer in this film is so disturbed AND we get to find out why. Great backstory to his past, and such a striking and unique weapon. I love a movie that takes place on a film set and incorporates all the elements and intricacies of filmmaking into the plot. We become the voyeur with the camera. We are all victims to the gaze, the content, the manipulation, the desire to be watched and seen, and the repulsion of seeing too much. We are one with the victims of this film, the killer included.

RK: Who is your favorite final girl?

CA: Kirsty!! Kirsty Cotton of the beloved Hellraiser. Hellraiser is hands down one of my favorite films. When I saw it for the first time I thought, wow, oh alright, it is OK to go there as an artist and who is this Clive Barker guy? That opened my very own puzzle box into body horror and Clive Barker’s amazing books! But Kirsty is marvelous. She is able to not only survive the Cenobites, but her EVIL stepmother Julia too. She is fierce and also has a storybook quality to her energy. She is a badass princess in a very scary fairytale. Maybe I just like her because she knows Pinhead?

RK: Is there a Horror Director that you would love to have coffee with?

CA: Cronenberg!!!! David Cronenberg is the body horror king, and his films dive so deep into the themes I love. They are also fun to watch. I would love to pick his brain on working with prosthetics and his process of writing and directing. I have heard him speak in person at the Egyptian theater at a screening of Dead Ringers and he seems super cool, a true lover of cinema and filmmaking. He also has a grounded vibe which I appreciated, even though he is a Pisces (water sign). His films are so well crafted, in my opinion, so it would be a total honor to sit with him and ask his advice or what is his mindset while he is on set. How does he prepare for a shoot? I would also just be curious what he would order at the cafe and I bet he would choose a really good cafe for us to meet at with killer coffee. My answer reminds me that I should read the book Cronenberg on Cronenberg. Lynch on Lynch is amazing and I have been reading that one over and over for years. Both edited by Chris Rodley.

*Production still from The Pointy Slippers taken by Logan Miller, find more about the film* *here*

RK: I read that you make films… tell us about them.

CA: Yes, I have been making films since 2010. I have made 3 short films, 12 music videos, and a handful of video art. Mostly the films and video art exists in a horror/ thriller genre. My first two short films Wild Idle (Vimeo) and Agatha Gone (watch via YouTube here) were disturbing family dramas with a touch of magical realism and central female characters. People often relate them to fairy tales, but Grimm’s Fairy Tales. During the pandemic I started watching a ton of body horror and became very interested in prosthetic design and started working with them on photoshoots, which was so fun to design them and learn about the application process. I had some personal experiences and also heard a story about a woman whose feet got cut up from her shoes after I complimented her on the amazing shoes she was wearing, and that gave birth to the idea for my latest short film The Pointy Slippers. It is still making its festival rounds - 15 total so far! This film is about what happens when you hold in pain, and the horrors that unravel the more you suppress your truth, and how that can manifest mentally and physically. There are some magnificent prosthetics used in The Pointy Slippers that were specifically created for this film. It was a blast working with the makeup artist on the growing blister phases!! You can watch the The Pointy Slippers trailer here.

Overall, a main theme in my work is how holding in desires, pain, secrets etc can turn explosive, and not in a good way, but sometimes that is the only way to let it out, and move through the pain and discomfort. It is better than abandoning ourselves or not acknowledging our truth. One character did that in one of my films and she disappeared.

RK: Any future dreams/goals for the group?

CA: I will totally leave it up to the movie gods to take the group where it should go! But my hopes are for the group to grow and for the fellowship to become stronger by finding platforms, signups, and other ways to stay connected as a group for networking/sharing our love for film, even when we are not meeting in real life. I have a couple events in the pipeline that do not involve sitting in a movie theater, that are spooky and horror movie/story related, so I am excited to announce those when they get sorted.

Make sure to follow Girls Like Horror on Instagram here and visit their website to stay in the know on their next events.