by MATTHEW HAYS

It’s a bit unnerving to hear Montreal actress Isabelle Stephen enthusiastically describe the signature scene from her latest movie. “In Tales From the Crapper, I get raped from behind, sodomized by a transsexual penis monster. As he’s sodomizing me, his penis comes up through me and out my mouth. When we were shooting it, I got to spit blood! It was great!”

This scene is unfolding before me as I talk to Stephen, who seems a nice, sweet, innocent Québécois girl of 26. Of course, she is that sweet, and that’s one of the things horror movie directors - generally of the rock-bottom variety - are beginning to work wonders with. Stephen’s endearing nature works perfectly in films where she plays the innocent gal victim. In films like Tales From the Crapper, for example - a Troma Film, of course - and Sins of the Father, also set for release later this year, where she gets bludgeoned to death with a camera tripod (evoking memories of the murder of Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane).

Death wish

“I get killed in all my movies,” Stephen says, full of gee-whiz energy. An animation studio office manager by day, Stephen says she’s always loved movies, especially horror movies. “And tough women in them,” she says. “I loved I Spit on Your Grave [the ’77 cult rape-revenge classic that’s a staple of the late-night rep circuit], that’s a particular favourite.” Born in Montreal, Stephen reports that at 18 she began to do a bit of acting in short films and voicing for cartoons, but “didn’t think I had what it takes.”

She began to experiment, making her own short films, something she continues to do. This past year and a half, though, she caught the acting bug something fierce. The gigs have included four features, and a brush with legendary greatness, Troma cofounder and resident king Lloyd Kaufman, who honoured Stephen with a nickname: “Necrophilia.”

Certainly, Stephen has been willing to suffer for art, putting in long hours on film shoots. And these aren’t films with John Travolta-proportion budgets, either; when Stephen acted in Tales From the Crapper, she lived in Troma’s Manhattan offices, on the floor with some bubble plastic wrap beneath her for comfort. “Unfortunately, I ended up with a urinary tract infection during that shoot,” she recalls. “I was in a lot of pain.”

Stephen says, despite all the gory glory of being Montreal’s most rapidly rising scream queen, the gig has had its share of drawbacks. She says she does get a lot of requests to do porn, but she’s “definitely not interested.” As well, because the minds of horror filmmakers often cross over into the arena of twisted sex, she says she’s often asked to do some rather raunchy stuff before the cameras.

Knives rather than penises

“I have no problems with violence, so long as I’m not going to get hurt. And I’ve no real problem with getting naked, though I’d rather not do any legs-open-wide shots. That’s where I draw the line. Sexual stuff with women is easier, I prefer it over the scenes with men.”

Stephen shot what she calls her most sexual scene recently in Baltimore, playing victim once more in Vampire Sisters. “At one point this vampire has to make love to me, and she has to do cunnilingus. Her tongue becomes a big snake. I have to lie on the bed and moan like I’m really into it. Then I open my eyes and realize it’s no longer just a tongue!”

Stephen is planning for a very busy year ahead. There will be at least two premieres, plus shooting schedules for her new projects, including another from her old fave Troma. She’s starring in a still-unnamed zombie project, a Frankensteinesque movie and a feature where a man roams the earth claiming to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. “A lot of people turned this one down because they thought it too blasphemous,” she says. “But I’m so into it!” :

Tales From the Crapper, Sins of the Father and
Vampire Sisters are all slated for release
sometime this year. More info on Stephen can be found
at www.isabellestephen.com

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