Danielle Harris is one of the most iconic names in the horror genre. While many fans immediately recognize her from the Halloween franchise, she has many notable genre credits, including the Hatchet series, Urban Legend, Stake Land, Fear Clinic, Shudder’s Creepshow, and many others. We talked with Harris about one of her newest thrillers, Roadkill, written and directed by Warren Fast.
The film follows a young woman who “crosses paths with a hitchhiker headed to the same destination and offers a ride in exchange for directions. Their journey takes a violent turn when the two are caught up in a police manhunt for a fugitive killer. As victims begin to amass and authorities close in, it becomes a fight for survival on the open road.”
Roadkill hits theaters and Digital on January 5, 2024, via Uncork’d Entertainment.
In addition to a prolific film career, Harris co-hosts the podcast Talk Scary to Me with Scout Taylor-Compton (Rob Zombie’s Halloween). The show joined Bloody Disgusting’s Bloody FM network and has some big plans for 2024. Here’s what to look forward to!
Horror Geek Life: I wanted to start by asking about your podcast, Talk Scary to Me, now in the Bloody FM network. It’s a blast to listen to; I would love to know what’s in store for the show in 2024.
Danielle Harris: Sure! Bloody Disgusting is the perfect home for us. We’ve been independently doing our show for two years now. Scout and I just shooting the shit, essentially, getting together and having real conversations in real-time and letting it roll. So this year, we’re excited to take the show on the road.
The focus of last year was less appearances, less conventions, less doing the same thing, and figuring out how we can do what we love to do and bring that to the convention world. Like, Pod Meets World are friends of mine; I’ve been on that show. They started doing a traveling live show, and they’re just so fun.
We felt like there was a lack of content realistically between horror fans and horror celebrities or icons if you will, and getting to know the real side of who we really are instead of the same questions we’ve been getting asked a hundred times over and over and over again, which I still don’t mind answering. We’ve always been involved heavily in the community anyway. This is just another way for us to bond with people.
Scout and I grew up listening to Loveline. We realized there’s a lack of some education in the dating world, with love and sex lives and things in our little community that could use a little sprucing up.
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It’s been fun to have women come up and be like, “You saved my marriage” or guys be like, “You saved me from being in that marriage.” That’s been super rewarding for us and in very different ways. This year is really about expanding that brand and touching more people’s lives, taking our show on the road, creating more visual content and on-camera stuff. We’ve got a ton of ideas, and Bloody Disgusting was super excited to have us partner up and figure out other ways that we could work with them on Screambox and other platforms they have as well.
Horror Geek Life: You are such a presence at horror cons; you draw out the fans. I did notice that 2023 was lighter for you. Will you continue to be at fewer cons in 2024 while focusing on the podcast and being more behind the camera?
Danielle Harris: Yeah. In 2024, I’m just doing, I think, five shows when normally I do five shows in the month of October. My kids are getting over it now, asking, “When are you going to be home?” I’m missing important things. And I just feel like I can be more creative if I have more time to be creative. I’m starting the year off by writing a book, actually. Come January, I’m working with a writer on a memoir because I’ve got a crazier life in real life than anybody knows about. It’d be nice to talk about some of that stuff and possibly do a documentary.
Scout and I are working on three films. We’ve got the first film already written, so we’re about to go out and find financing for that. I want to do that with her. Between that and our podcast, one of the deals is yes, I’d love to come do the convention, but could we also do a live show? So that’ll be incorporated into some of the shows this year, but pretty much the bigger shows. I know for sure I’m doing two Monster Manias this year. I also just announced I’m doing Texas Frightmare.
Now, I can hit the bigger shows and not run myself into the ground so much. And hopefully, work on some movies. I have a bunch of movies coming out this year because of COVID and because of the way the world’s been the last year. Most of the movies I did over the last three years haven’t come out yet. They’re just starting to surface. I wanted to take a step back and let them happen and then go back next year, in 2025, and talk about them after they have all been released.
Horror Geek Life: Speaking of your movies coming out, Roadkill is one of the newest releases. How did you get involved with it? I know this is the director’s first horror feature. I’m sure it was a treat for him to work with such a seasoned genre actor.
Danielle Harris: I love supporting new filmmakers, especially when I feel like the script is relevant and it’s something that I haven’t done. When I got the script, I originally wanted to be The Driver because I loved that character. Then I was like, oh wait, she’s supposed to be 19. I don’t see myself as 46, you know?
But I thought, two people in a car talking — dialogue, dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. That doesn’t really happen very often. So, not having to run around, stuck somewhere in the winter and freezing cold, half-dressed, covered in blood… I was like, sign me up. That sounds good.
But it’s funny cause they’ll think that I require movie star stuff. They’ll have a big trailer for me and baskets full of food. I’m just cool with a chair in the garage. As long as I’ve got a bottle of water and access to a bathroom, I’m all good. They definitely go all out to make sure that I’m taken care of.
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It is also pretty cool watching people learning. Sometimes it’s not so cool. Other times, I appreciate it.
Horror Geek Life: I can only imagine some of the behind-the-scenes stories you have. Maybe we can read about it in your memoir.
Danielle Harris: Oh yeah. I’ll have plenty of that in the book. That’s for sure.
Horror Geek Life: I know you’re branching out in film as a producer, writer, and director. Will going behind the camera be a major focus for you?
Danielle Harris: It’s more creatively challenging for me because I don’t know everything about it. Sometimes, showing up on a set for a day or a week or a month or whatever, it’s like, I could do it with my eyes closed. It’s not always as challenging, depending on the role. That’s why I try to take movies that are different from one another.
Anyone in the creative world is always thinking of ideas. If you could see my text chains with Scout and the shit that we come up with. I have another chain with Tiffany Shepis, Cerina Vincent, Scout, Dee Wallace, and Felissa Rose, and the stuff we talk about together as a group is also pretty insane. A bunch of crazy women in the horror world, we are always thinking of fun things to do. But we haven’t done anything together. So, it’s time for us to start working together, creating our own stuff, and not waiting for stuff to be brought to us.
I think that’s what this year is gonna focus on for sure.
