Women In Horror Month - An Interview With Karen Black

February marks women in horror month so I figured I would take a look back of some of my memorable moments talking to women who have made a mark in horror cinema. Karen Black is an actress that needs no introduction -- but I am going to write one anyway. Karen has just under two hundred acting credits to her name. She has acted along side Jack Nicholson, Charlton Heston, Dennis Hopper and worked with such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman and Rob Zombie.

I first met Karen Black in June 2009 when she was in Toronto for her one woman show My Life For A Song and I was hired as her videographer. The play is Karen doing spoken word, relating amazing stories from her acting career interspersed with song. I was fortunate to be in the room with Karen during the rehearsals leading up to the show, what I saw was a dedicated, demanding -- from herself as well as others -- brave, extremely talented and an exceptional singer. On those rainy afternoons in the Gladstone hotel I learned a lot about acting and working with an actress. Even though she has acted in all sorts of genres Karen has also made a considerable mark in the horror genre in films like Trilogy of Terror and Rob Zombie's A House of a 1000 Corpses. I believe that it is while acting in horror cinema that have allowed Karen to fully showcase the wide range of her immense acting range and command of craft. The interview that follows took place at the historic Gladstone hotel and as a point of note the man singing Red River Valley with Karen at the staring of the video was the longtime elevator operator of the Gladstone Hank Young aka the Gladstone Cowboy. He passed away not long after this interview was conducted.

Robert A. Mitchell with Karen Black