Fiendish Friday Interview :: The Chainsaw Mafia

:: Editors Note: This is part of an ongoing series of Interview we do every Friday with someone changing the face of the Horror/Halloween Industry. This week we interview Shannon Lark of the Chainsaw Mafia. Talk about your horror performance art ::

What is the Chainsaw Mafia?
The Chainsaw Mafia is my horror production company which specializes in horror film and splatter theater. TCM is also a networking board online designed to help independent horror filmmakers get support for their productions. It’s kind of like a craigslist for the low budget filmmaker.

TCM’s motto is “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter,” which indicates the need and request for more women in the horror genre.

Who are the Living Dead Girlz?
The Living Dead Girlz is a zombie dance troupe based in San Francisco. The Director, Amber Steele, is the choreographing genius behind all of our moves. We always tell a new story with our shows, and specialize in non commercial jazz, sock hop, cha cha, chair dancing, tango/waltz, and a little bit of burlesque (although we are not a burlesque dance troupe).
We also eat brains, disembowel, and rip hearts out of people. We spray about 5 gallons of blood at our “wet” shows but can adapt out shows to venues that need to stay dryer.

There are seven of us total, although 4-5 of us travel to perform for away shows.

What is the show about?
The storylines always change with every new show we do. We just performed a new show where we attack a threesome of pretentious Goths at a party. We chair danced to Nelly Furtado. The very first show we did, called “Meet the Living Dead Girlz,” takes place in a morgue. The Doctor injects herself and is reanimated. She injects all of us and we come back to dance to the Pussycat Dolls and NIN. In this show we have our individual personas. Ghetto-Fab Zombie, Swat Team Zombie, Voodoo Zombie, etc. etc.

We try to mix it up and not have shows that have similar choreography, costumes, or storylines. It takes about 2 months to create 1 show, and the piece is about 10 minutes long.

Who usually hires you to perform?
Oh boy! Clubs, wrestling events, b-day parties, Film Festivals, and other horror-esque events. We just signed up with the Bay Area Derby Girls and have even gotten requests to perform at weddings!

Fangoria has hired us for a slew of their conventions as well.

What's the worst show you ever performed?
For me personally, it had to of been Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors in San Jose. I was coming down with something and felt like I couldn’t keep up with the moves or was about to fall over. It was pretty awesome!

What's the best?
A show we did recently at the DNA Lounge in SF. That’s really our home venue, and we had so many supporters. Even though I did hurt my back from playing too rough in the blood, it was so so so much fun!!!