Queer Women Are at the Forefront of Christin Baker’s ‘Scare BNB’

Us, Cabin in the Woods, and Old are all about friends or family taking time to get away from the mundanities of life. Yet, if you’re familiar with any of these films, then you also know that the cast within them fight for their lives while on vacation. The five-episode, limited series Scare BNB joins this frightful crew of films with this version of horror storytelling, but makes it perfectly queer. 

Scare BNB follows a group of long-time friends (Mandahla Rose, Sterling Victoria, Abisha Uhl, and Lily Richards), consisting of two couples, who head to a remote cabin in the Tennessee woods for a well-deserved respite. But that quickly turns into a vacay from hell when their overly attentive cabin owners (Marvin E. West and Deborah Seidel) want to host them to death. 

Terrifying vacations have long filled the horror genre, as has queerness, but queer representation continues to fall to the wayside within this genre. Thankfully, the newly launched, LGBTQ+ women-focused streaming network DIVABoxOffice.TV is looking to change that. 

Led by CEO Christin Baker (creator of queer women-focused Tello Films and A Baker Production, as well as the director of Scare BNB), DIVABoxOffice.TV is ensuring that LGBTQ+ representation is front center in all genres. With Baker at the helm, DIVABoxOffice.TV is pushing more queer artistry into the global market. 

INTO spoke with Baker about the inspiration behind Scare BNB (produced by A Baker Production), how horror is inherently queer, and what she hopes viewers take away from watching the show. 

What was the inspiration behind Scare BNB? 

I was chatting with a friend about this really weird experience she had renting a house with these weird hosts who kept coming over and saying “Hi” when she was staying at the house. It made me start thinking of all of the crazy stories that are out there with people who have rented a home. I thought, “there is a great story around this theme ‘The Hosts’ and many other crazy stories.” 

I contacted one of my favorite writers, Kat Trammell, and pitched the idea and she ran with it. Now, I have others writing other Scare BNB stories.

Many elements of horror feel inherently queer. How do you think Scare BNB adds on to that queer legacy in horror? 

I totally agree and wanted to take on this genre. I think it adds to the genre because normally in movies and TV shows that aren’t canceled, they have killed off the lesbian characters. 2016 #representationmatters highlighted the death of lesbian characters on TV. This past year, many series that have lesbian leads have been canceled. 

In this series, the lesbians don’t die in the end, so that’s one great thing to add to the genre. I also wanted to have fun jump scares in there for people who love suspense, but keep the gore to a minimum. We also added in an element of real nightmares in the form of sleep paralysis demons. 

People really suffer from sleep paralysis and have these crazy nightmares that visit them and it’s not really been talked about much in the media. So Kat, our writer, wanted to highlight that. We have this mix of thriller/horror demons and real demons that haunt people’s nights.

What was your favorite part of filming Scare BNB? 

Oh gosh, I had a lot of fun working with my amazing director of photography David Chung on this movie and finding all the moments of scare and tension. I loved filming on the roof and looking at how movie magic can really work in enhancing a scene, all while keeping the cast safe.

What do you hope viewers get out of watching Scare BNB? 

First, I hope they enjoy the “what is going on” mystery and see if they can guess what’s happening. Second, I hope people see our characters as strong women who don’t take sh*t from anyone. Third, I hope they laugh at the humor. Fourth, I hope they jump a little at the different parts of the scares we have in there. Fifth, I hope they enjoy the friendship/romance storyline we weaved into the story.

Episodes one and two, “The Hosts,” of the five-episode, limited series are available on DivaBoxOffice.TV now. An additional three episodes, “The Double Booking,” will begin streaming later this year.