Directing has long been Sung Kang’s goal, and after many false starts, it has finally happened with Shaky Shivers. The film is billed as a horror-comedy — though, in our interview, Kang said he saw it more as “a comedy in the world of creatures and horror” — and follows two young women, best friends Lucy and Karen (Brooke Markham and Vyvy Nguyen, respectively), who shelter in an abandoned camp after one of them is bitten by a mysterious animal and is convinced she is now a werewolf. It’s one mishap after another as they fight magic and curses in this tale of self-discovery.

“I’m from the 80s video store era,” said Kang on our Zoom call, painting a memory that very well could have been a scene out of Stranger Things, of friends riding bikes, charming video store clerks, and watching horror movies like Faces of Death and A Nightmare on Elm Street (which they would have been too young for). Other horror-adjacent movies that helped shape his pop culture consciousness were Gremlins, The Goonies, and An American Werewolf in London. To him, it was the practical effects of that era of filmmaking that particularly stood out.

If you ask him about horror movies today, he’d say he isn’t the biggest fan: “I can’t watch The Conjuring today, man. My heart can’t handle those [movies].” He also added,

“Horror has evolved into a way where I can’t really consume it as a viewer. It’s a language that I feel like I don’t understand and a genre that is so unfamiliar to me [now]. But when I read Shaky Shivers, the spirit and ethos of the film were something I could connect to that were in honor of Gabe Bartalos and Rick Baker, the practical make-up artists from my childhood.”

Shaky Shivers Brings Back Practical 80s Horror Effects

Bartalos was actually involved with the make-up and creature designs of the monsters in Shaky Shivers. Evidently a childhood hero for Kang, the director sang Bartalos’ praises, calling him, among many things, “a master of his craft,” “a mentor,” and “a shepherd on this journey of me going into this world of creature-building.” Indeed, when it came to designing the creatures in Shaky Shivers — classic ones we’ve seen throughout horror, like werewolves, zombies, and Big Foot — Kang was intentional about two things: not repeating what’s been done before, and achieving it through practical effects.

“Gabe and I would use the shooting location as inspiration. If you look at the zombie in our film, it’s a product of the environment; you have the moss and twigs from the camp we’re in. Gabe would sculpt it, and then a few days later, I would go into his shop, and we would discuss it — there was always a why behind it.”

Of course, with Shaky Shivers being an indie film shot on a tiny budget, the practicality of the practical effects themselves had to be taken into consideration. Kang said, “Even with the werewolf transformation, a big part of the ‘why’ was like, ‘We have very limited time to do this, so how can we shoot the sequence in three, four hours?’ [considering] all the makeup that it takes to put the prosthetics on.”

Related: Exclusive Shaky Shivers Clip Teases Wild Werewolf Horror Comedy from Sung Kang

An Actor’s Director
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Whenever an actor becomes a director, their experience in front of the camera often informs how they approach their work behind it, and Kang is no different. “I always appreciated when a director trusted me instead of treating the actors as a piece of furniture or a prop to move around, and when a director respected what I could contribute,” he said, recalling how he often felt liked a “hired gun” on many projects. “That gave me freedom to be able to have a range in the story and not just be a one-dimensional character. These are things that I appreciate and look for and strive for as an actor.”

Related: Best Horror-Comedy Movies You Can Watch on Netflix, Ranked

Of course, being an Asian-American actor, Kang lamented how it’s still a struggle to be seen as, let alone given a role of, a full-fledged, multidimensional person: “Yes, I’m part of a big franchise and everything [Fast & Furious], but I’m just one of the characters in the bigger story.” This was why, while directing Shaky Shivers, he put utmost trust in Markham and Nguyen, adding, “I think they’ve struggled in their careers to find directors that give them that liberty and trust. I felt like I could always watch out for them because I know what I want when I’m looking for a director-actor relationship. It really helps.”

Shaky Shivers is just the beginning for Kang, who plans on directing more and possibly acting less.

I feel like this is the space I need to be in. This is my calling. This is how I forge ahead and take destiny in my own hands.

“Instead of becoming jaded and complaining about the [lack of] opportunities in Hollywood, I feel like, as a director, I can create those opportunities,” continued Kang. “It took a lot of time and took age to come in for me to be okay with that because I started as an actor. I had, and I have, all these aspirations of the types of roles I would love to play, but instead of waiting around for a phone call that maybe will never happen, I can create these opportunities for others. And I’m okay with that.”

Shaky Shivers releases in theaters for one night only on September 21. You can purchase tickets on Fathom Events.