Danbury-born independent film star Sarah Nicklin is one of the best-known scream queens in the indie horror scene. She has dozens of credits in films that have massacred hundreds of people, from 2007’s “Splatter Disco” to 2024’s “Pillow Fright Halloween Special.”
Magazine profiles often shorthand her as “the darling of indie horror” and praise the bright-eyed, smooth-skinned effervescent “girl-next-door qualities” that make her such an appealing victim of marauding ghouls, poltergeists and other blood-spattering and goo-oozing creatures.
As you might imagine, this is Nicklin’s busy season. This week, she’s presenting an award at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards ceremony, where one of her recent films, “Popeye the Slayer Man,” is nominated in the Best Public Domain Resurrection category.
“Fangoria is an institution,” the actor said. “It’s the Oscars for horror. September and October is just the busiest time. There are so many horror festivals. So many movies want to come out then.”
Nicklin has a recent release of her own to promote. She plays a sensitive mom in “Home Haunt,” the concluding segment of the horror anthology film “V/H/S/Halloween,” which was released on Sept. 20.
“V/H/S/Halloween” is part of the “V/H/S” anthology series, which not only evokes the style, look and technological deficiencies of the direct-to-video films in the 1980s but uses the popular “found footage” technique which makes it seem like the story is being filmed on the fly by the participants, unfolding in real time without obvious editing. The anthology used a new director and cast for each segment. One installment has two characters who say they are dressed up as “camera operators in a found footage horror movie” for Halloween.
Being too old for trick-or-treating is a recurring theme of “V/H/S/Halloween.” So is the idea of people being led to their doom by the allure of Halloween candy.
In real life, Nicklin did her own trick or treating in Fairfield County, where she graduated from Ridgefield High School before moving to Boston to attend Emerson College, where she began her film career. “All of my trick-or-treating experiences were really wonderful. We lived in a cul-de-sac, so it was this safe contained neighborhood where you knew everybody.
“There’s not necessarily anything spooky about Danbury,” Nicklin said. She certainly grew up hearing about Connecticut legends like the hauntings in Dudleytown and the eerie noises in Moodus. “There are also all the stories about New England Puritans and settlers,” she said, with witch tales to rival those of Salem, Massachusetts.
Danbury-born horror star Sarah Nicklin as she looks when she’s not covered in blood. (Stephanie Girard)
She does have one specific horror story from her childhood to relate, however. “In high school, my friends and I discovered this crazy movie ‘Terror Firmer’ that was done by Troma’’ — the famously bizarre low-budget horror movie production company that produced cult classics such as “The Toxic Avenger,” “Class of Nuke ‘Em High” and “Poultrygeist.”
“We were obsessed with it,” Nicklin said. “It was so gross and weird. Then the first film I ever acted had two actors from that film. I had to call all my friends.”
Now in her late 30s, Nicklin has gone from playing slaughtered ingenues, or sometimes even survivors, to playing mothers and other horror-stricken adult roles. Other adults in the “Home Haunt” cast include the actor/musician Jeff Harms and legendary horror make-up artist-turned-actor Rick Baker.
“When I started, I was playing characters in their teens and early 20s, because that’s how old I was, so I fell into all those old horror tropes,” Nicklin said. “Now, with mom roles, there’s more meat and depth, something I can sink my teeth into.”
As moms, “I’m trying to protect my family. Motherly instinct is what I’m going for,” Nicklin said.
“Home Haunt” ends in utter chaos as legions of the damned are unleashed after a record with a laughably understated warning label is played during a neighborhood Halloween event. Though it purports to come from an ‘80s era when it was commonplace for horror stories to have at least one survivor and a marginally happy evil-is-vanquished ending, “V/H/S/Halloween” subscribes to modern horror practice where anything can happen, no one is safe and many tales end just as the worst horrors are beginning.
“The appetite of audiences for blood has grown exponentially,” Nicklin said. “We don’t need to have happy endings in the movies anymore. People really enjoy just seeing the gore and the mayhem. Horror also has this longstanding history of pushing boundaries, and that’s what is happening now.”
Nicklin said she has done a little found footage-style work before. “It doesn’t have traditional set-ups, so there’s no chance to take a moment and prepare for a reaction. It’s a lot about how the characters relate to each other in the moment since there aren’t supposed to be any cuts.”
Nicklin is known for bringing a certain naturalism to her acting that is well suited to the life-like found footage-style. Take her screaming, for example. Nicklin is not generally prone to the sudden shriek. Her screams tend to be more gradual and fluid, emerging from something she’s seen and experienced and is processing.
Nicklin has done just about every kind of horror movie style there is: Hauntings, possessions, serial killings, sorority murders, holiday-themed devastation and pop culture tie-ins. She’s been in films inspired by real-life events like the Black Dahlia murder and Ted Bundy’s murder spree. Some of the more intriguing titles in her resume include “Happy Horror Day,” “Slashercise,” “Chupacabra Territory,” “Blood Pi” and “Ash vs. Evil Dead: Aunt Linda’s Bake Off.”
The Fangoria Chainsaw-nominated “Popeye the Slayer Man” is part of a fast-growing genre where world-famous characters from cartoons, literature and early 20th century pop culture become the subject of grotesque indie horror films immediately after their copyright protection wears off and they enter the public domain. Besides the original comic strip version of Popeye, which entered the public domain this year, the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse and the book version of Winnie-the-Pooh have gotten the horror treatment.
Nicklin said she first fell into the world of indie horror films right out of college when she worked with producers in New England who had national distribution deal for their films. That work quickly established her in the genre.
She’s still happy working in this prolific, ensemble-friendly, blood-spattered segment of the film industry. “I like the camaraderie of indie films. That’s something we really felt on ‘V/H/S/Halloween,’ that all these people enjoy working together.”
She no longer has family in Connecticut and has lived in Los Angeles for years, but Nicklin still has reasons to come home. The first horror convention she was ever invited to was the Connecticut HorrorFest, typically held in Stamford every August.
So, amid the movie promotions and the awards ceremonies and preparing for projects that range from romcoms to dramatic shorts to, naturally, more horror movies, what is Nicklin doing for Halloween?
“My husband and I do a lot of decorating,” she said. “We have over 170 foam pumpkins that we carved ourselves which we take out and place around the house.”
She saves the exploding heads for work.
