I had the killer good fortune to attend the Real Housewives of Horror Finale Party and Screening on Wednesday at one of their very cool shooting locations, a bar which used to be hospital and has a haunted second floor. First we screened all the wickedly wonderful episodes and then I talked with the cast, producers and director about their awesome experience creating the show.
As the gut-busting brainchild of Brea Grant and Kevin Pereira, the Real Housewives of Horror serves up its comedy hot and hilarious, just like its housewives: Heather, the perfect virgin housewife hostess, Barbara Dawn, the baking racist Satanist, Roxanne, the Dexter-like-but-more-vagina-y serial-killing lush, Gabrielle, the conniving ruthless gossip goddess and Yuri, a supernaturally gifted wife of possessive spirit and vengeful foodie, Cliff.
“I actually watch a lot of Real Housewives. They’re so funny and hilarious. And I love horror movies,” Brea Grant says. “One day I was laying on my couch hungover and I thought how amazing it would be to make a Real Housewives show.” Brea plays Heather who is married to the slasher, Deathwish, played by Harley Morenstein. Brea, whose golden eyes literally sparkle in the light, already has an impressive career acting in TV (Heroes, Dexter, NCIS, The Guild, and lots more) and film (Best Friends Forever, Oliver, Stoned, Halloween II and many more), but she oozes with other talents as well. She not only co-wrote RHH, but also co-wrote and directed feature film, Best Friends Forever, about two BFFs who go on a wild road trip headed for the apocalypse.
Now she’s hopeful that The Nerdist will order another season of this hilarious show and maybe we’ll even see the housewives “raise babies.” As she explains, doing web series is, “an interesting process. You have more control. You can do whatever you want. You have less money but more flexibility. We’re so lucky that we got to have crazy ideas and somebody let us do it.”
Brooke Seguin plays widow Barbara Dawn who’s just getting over the death of her hatchet wielding husband, Cage Trollman. Brooke draws from her experience growing up in Louisiana, “I know these ladies very well,” and as a veteran improv actor to help create her devilishly funny character. But when it comes to ax kissing, “That’s all me. I kiss an ax every night.”
Addicted to musicals, she also created “30 Minute Musicals” based on movies she loved, such as “Top Gun,” “Hook,”and “Roadhouse” as well as “Home Alone” and “The Craft,” which will be opening this weekend!
Roxanne, who doesn’t need a man to kill for her, is played brilliantly by Briana Lane, who cut her acting teeth on daytime soap “Days of Our Lives” and then moved on to several other TV series (ABC’s Switched at Birth, NBC’s Austin & Ally, etc…and feature film Oliver, Stoned.)
“The first script was hilarious. From the first second I read that script (Real Housewives of Horror), I was like, I’m doing it!” Briana gives tons of credit to her director, “Sandeep is great at that (improv). He just let us really kind of explore that,” and to her co-stars, “Brooke is so hilarious, I could watch Brooke act all day long.”
Now is Briana anything like her character Roxanne? “I’m not totally like Roxanne in real life, just a little bit,” she says with a great big smile.
Jessika Van possesses the role of Yuri and Laura Ortiz plays Gabrielle whose love-life is in shambles because her killer-toy husband Tucky has suddenly picked up a hoe for Japanese gardening.
Jessika and Laura were unable to attend but their presence was definitely felt in the screening as the room packed full of fans, friends, family, cast and crew laughed hysterically throughout.
Director, Sandeep Parikh says about the idea, script and women, “This is incredible. I loved the idea of working with a bunch of funny women. To be able to get five leading women to carry the show was a fun thing to do.” And the women gush about Sandeep, too.
When Anna Akana was offered a role by Sandeep, she said she jumped on board. She said, “He was like, we’re gonna play with your corpse.”
His love of and experience in improv is really felt throughout the show. There is even a bloopers reel for each episode which keeps the fun going. “I’m really big on improv. I always support that in my actors. They’re all gifted improvisors and this gives them a chance to shine.”
Executive Producer Yaniv Fituci, and Producer Jeff Winkler were also on-hand to talk about getting this Supercreative show greenlit. They shot the pilot last year and then “We took it to Nerdist, they were stoked and greenlit five more episodes,” Yaniv says. His favorite episode is the season finale because of the irony of Kevin Pereira hosting. “It’s a nod to his hosting career.” His favorite character is Tucky in Episode 1, played by Zack Pearlman and sites irony again as Zack really is obsessed with gardening.
The shoot was “very ambitious,” Jeff Winkler says, “we shot an episode a day.” He also says “This Real Housewives show is the best of all the Real Housewives,” and, “it was one of my favorite shoots I’ve worked on in a long time. Everybody had a fun time. It was like a small family.”
It’s a mammoth merry massacre of a show packed into bite size pieces. Each episode runs around five minutes long and is just funny as hell, boasting not only the superbly talented cast and director but also great guest stars like, Chris Hardwick (the Wil Wheaton Project) and Nicholas Brendan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
The glamor and the gore grab you from the very beginning, these side-splitting episodes will have you reaching for one of Barbara Dawn’s bloody delicious cupcakes while you make your own kill-list, I mean, invitation list to your own corpse party. Who could ask for more? We do! I scream, you scream! We all scream for Season 2! So come on Nerdist, bring on the bloodshed and brownies!
— By Aleisha Gore ( yes, like Blood, Guts and…)
RHH IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3304860
RHH Episode 1 http://www.nerdist.com/vepisode/real-housewives-of-horrors-brea-grants-favorite-horror-films-you-havent-seen/
Brooke’s 30 Minute Musicals http://www.secondlineproductions.com/#!30mm/c1han
Sandeep Parikh’s “Effin Funny” Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/effinfunny
– Aleisha