No Fear: Nicklin ’08 Embraces Thrills and Chills of Horror Acting
While attending Emerson College, acting major Sarah Nicklin ’08 got her big break when she was cast in the horror film Splatter Disco. The rest, you might say, is bloody history.
Since then, Nicklin has been in dozens of horror movies; this year alone, she has been in at least 10 productions including V/H/S Halloween, If It Bleeds, and Popeye the Slayer Man.
And every day, she uses what she learned at Emerson. Whether she’s getting possessed, being chased, or defending herself, she recalls learning from Performing Arts Senior Artist-in-Residence Ted Hewlett.
“We did a lot of stage combat, which, especially working in horror, is very, very useful, because you get thrown around, and at [the very] least, [you] do minimal stunts,” said Nicklin. “I’m not throwing myself down stairs, but I’m able to sell a punch and do physical stuff.”
Making It in Horror
Splatter Disco gave Nicklin notoriety, in particular because it was directed by Richard Griffin, well known in the horror world and whose credits include Atomic Brain Invasion, Seven Dorms of Death, and Long Night in a Dead City.
“Horror fans are so loyal and consume so much horror content. People in LA started knowing who I was, [so] when I moved out to LA, I [already] had a network of people in horror,” she said.
Nicklin said she likes playing strong female roles where the character gets to fight back against monsters, and when there are different layers of internal conflict. She said those kinds of roles allow her to use her acting training.
She really loved playing Patricia in the Garden of Eden, which was also released this year. “That was a very emotional role. I’m grieving, and want to get revenge on the drunk driver who killed my child,” said Nicklin. “There’s a lot of meat on the bone to work on that one.”
A horror movie fan herself, Nicklin said she enjoys acting in the macabre, eerie, frightening, blood-curdling genre because “you get to use a little of everything and you get to be a little bigger with your emotions because the stakes are literally life and death,” she said. “In horror you get to cry, be physical, have fights, and have a lot more emotional stuff than what you get with dramas or comedies.”
Her role comes with perks, too: she presented an award for Best Nonfiction Series at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards on October 19 and previously presented an award at Fangoria in 2021. Nicklin said she loves Fangoria because the horror community is like a family (who sometimes try to kill you, but only in movies).
The Secret to Screaming
Today, Nicklin is a lady of scream. (Though, she doesn’t consider herself a “scream queen.”)
“I think that ‘scream queen’ is used too much for people who do horror films. It should be reserved for people like Jamie Lee Curtis or Barbara Crampton,” said Nicklin. “They are queens of the industry. Not everyone who works in horror deserves that moniker.”
When it comes to screaming in a scene, Nicklin said she doesn’t practice ahead of time.
“You can’t go 100 percent for every take, or you’ll lose your voice, and you need to be able to speak in the next part of the movie being filmed,” said Nicklin. “I’ll tell the sound director, ‘I’m going to give you two or three really good ones,’ and then I turn it down to 70 percent.”
The Horror Community
Just as she found a community within the horror movie industry, Nicklin advises people wanting to break into movies to find their own community.
“Find a group of collaborators you like working with and can continue to develop ideas and do things with them,” she said. “You never know where something you create is going to go. Get out there and do it – don’t wait for permission.”
Social media is also a great tool, said Nicklin, who said her Instagram is like her own personal website.
“It is a way to connect with other filmmakers. If you are a professional and see someone is doing a movie you like, send them a message about it or comment,” said Nicklin. “You’re establishing interaction. Someone is more likely to cast a friend or hire someone they’re familiar with versus someone they don’t.”
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