For our final digital cover of October, we spoke with rising scream queens Samantha Cochran and Natalia Montgomery Fernandez who star in the segment, “Coochie Coochie Coo,” in the new found footage anthology horror, V/H/S/Halloween, streaming on Shudder.
The latest in the V/H/S franchise, V/H/S/Halloween offers viewers a collection of terrifying Halloween-themed videotapes filled with twisted scenarios. “Coochie Coochie Coo,” written and directed by Anna Zlokovic (Appendage), follows two high school students, Lacie (Cochran) and Kaleigh (Montgomery Fernandez), in the early 2000s who come upon a haunted looking house while out trick-or-treating. What follows is a visceral nightmare as they get trapped inside and are being chased by a monstrous figure known as “The Mommy.”
Check out our conversation below as Samantha and Natalia go into detail about capturing their natural screams and reactions on-camera and that horrifying giant baby.
Exclusive photos for Popternative Magazine by Kathlyn Almeida
Makeup: Rachel Andersen
Hair: Samm Castro
Styling: Adam Bucci
Clothing provided by Small Town Weirdo
Studio: CinePacks Studio
Photography and BTS Assistant: Gretchen Albers
What is it like for you to be part of the V/H/S universe during at a time where the horror genre has grown in popularity?
Natalia: It’s an honor. This is a dream come true. I’m bummed that I probably won’t exist in the V/H/S universe again because it wouldn’t make sense, but I was so excited when I saw the audition. I think found footage is a very interesting genre for horror movies to be explored through. I think it’s a really cool way to change the perspective of the traditional movie. We’ve thankfully been getting so many great reviews. Everyone is saying it’s really scary and that they are really enjoying it and it’s really grossing them out. And that’s exactly what we were going for; just this horrifying exploration of forced motherhood.
Samantha: I am so grateful that I got to be part of something so big. It’s such a niche genre of films. It is so different and creative. I didn’t know much about thee V/H/S franchise before, but after watching them, it’s just unlike anything I’ve ever seen. What I like about the V/H/S franchise is seeing these filmmakers getting highlighted and seeing their creative take on the themes. It’s a genius idea and the found footage aspect of it is so cool and scary. It was one of the scariest things I have ever seen.
Natalia: With the heightened interest, I feel like there’s been this boom in creativity in the different ways we can approach horror. It’s been very cool to see the kinds of projects that have cropped up. I never expected to be in a horror movie about giant babies; you wouldn’t think that is something anyone would think of. You tend to think of murderer, slasher, but there’s just so much more to be explored in the genre, and I feel like we’re just in this renaissance of that.
Samantha: Auditioning for it was really fun because I didn’t know it was going to be for a V/H/S film, but the title alone, Coochie Coochie Coo, I was sold. I remember having so much fun with this audition because when I read the scenes I was like, “how on earth are they going to shoot this?” It blew my mind. After reading it I went, “this is so weird and messed up, I want to be a part of it.”
Talk to us about the scenes with the giant baby and the mommy character – what was it like to film those?
Natalia: I was so scared, the giant baby was so scary! You don’t expect a baby to be something that is so horrifying, but it’s this weird clash between a full grown person and a baby and he would come around corners and we wouldn’t be ready for it, I’d just be like, ‘Oh, God!” After the third or fourth take, you kind of get used to it, but the great thing is that the actors who played the babies were so into it and so committed to being creepy that it was not hard to work off of. It was genuinely very scary. There’s a moment where we’re running through the house and we go down the stairs and then there’s a giant baby at the bottom of the stairs, I actually screamed because I was truly terrified that that baby was right there.
Samantha: The giant baby – he’s the star of the show! They were trying to not show us the babies and mommy character before so they could get our actual reactions which is brilliant. The giant baby was, to me, the scariest part of the whole segment. He did such a good job, just the gnawing on the wall! And when we were filming it, it was really dark in the house, it is actually dark, there were no lights, it was just the camera and the one camera light shining. I just remember seeing him for the first time walk across the hallway, I was so so scared. Those screams are real. I was horrified. What’s nice about the Coochie Coochie Coo segment is, in my eyes, the mommy is not the villain. You kind of feel for her and I like that there are so many layers to her. At the end of the day, she just wants to nurse Lacie and Kaleigh. Her singing that song with all the babies, when we were filming that scene, I was tearing up because you do feel for her.
Was it challenging to have to be in constant fear throughout filming?
Samantha: For me as an actor it was really challenging – I had never done pure horror before. The challenge for me was having to go from zero to one hundred and having to constantly find ways to channel that fear. Nothing could have prepared me for that. But being able to be present in the moment with the incredible set designs helped because everything was so real. The cast, crew, and Anna made it so much easier and that was a huge part of it. Just playing off of Natalia’s fear too, and even off the mommy and baby. It was really fun to experiment with that and getting to be that scared and just scream.
Natalia: Being trapped in a haunted house is honestly my nightmare – I am not good at haunted houses. But we were having so much fun with it. Everyone was so supportive; we had to keep our energy up with this crying running energy, and sometimes we needed breaks because I was overheating in the onesie. We thankfully got to hang out with Elena [Musser, who plays the mommy character] a lot off set and she’s so sweet, you wouldn’t expect to see her as this creepy monster. Seeing her out of her full costume helped to ameliorate that a little bit. Anna wanted us to see her for the first time fully decked out on camera, so, it was really scary the first time and I was not expecting it to be as slimy as it was.
Samantha: Anna gave us so much freedom when it came to finding our characters and experimenting with improv. That’s what I think helped me find my character in the moment. It was so much fun to just try different lines. We were just in this super creepy old house that they had decked the heck out of, and there were some rooms I didn’t even want to be in because it was so scary. It looks so creepy and terrifying because of the wonderful work the special effects team and crew did.
Natalia: [The crew] set up the whole house before we even went in there, so, the first moment we enter, it was just pitch black, you had to have a flashlight to move from room to room. The rooms were never lit from the ceiling the way a normal room is. It really was just a creepy [atmosphere] all the time.
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V/H/S/Halloween is streaming on Shudder.
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