Sung Kang Gives Us Campy Horror in “Shaky Shivers”
In his directorial debut, the Korean American actor used the resources at his disposal to create a fun and nostalgic dark comedy.
Moving beyond his iconic role as Han in the Fast and Furious franchise, Sung Kang surprises audiences by choosing a dark comedy as the chosen vehicle for his directorial debut, “Shaky Shivers.” The film follows two young women who, fearing a witch’s curse, find themselves at an abandoned summer camp, trying to figure out if one of them is about to turn into a werewolf, while encountering ’80s-era horror creatures and relying on a spell book to save the day.
Written by Andrew McAllister and Aaron Strongoni, the movie clearly intends not to scare but to entertain. It generates laughs with very mild character development, punctuated with a slew of silly running jokes and a chaotic display of dark comedy. After writing several scripts and reading hundreds more, Kang finally decided to take on this hybrid genre written by friends because “it had a great balance of horror and comedy, and it brought me right back to my VHS-renting childhood.”
With Kang at its helm behind the camera, the movie manages a few frights with some dim-witted antics, merging wacky dialogue with weird, wildly fun scenes for smooth storytelling about an unbreakable friendship between two women.
With Bigfoot, a werewolf, zombies, a swarm of masked cultists, and a mysterious witch doling out unintelligible curses, “Shaky Shivers” brings to life classic horror flick creatures from the ’80s in this lo-fi, campy 78-minute reunion of sorts. Initially billed as a lycanthropic movie, the film isn’t the kind of horror comedy I initially expected. With monstrous action sporadic and spread out, and much screen time occupied by the unusual friendship of two women caught in a bizarre dilemma, it is nostalgic and deliciously old school in style and pace, with minimal to no special effects. The film offers a largely refreshing and intentional approach in terms of simpler filmmaking techniques, pacing (think “Twin Peaks”), and dry humor, and take on an otherwise predictable storyline.
After deciding to embark on the project, Kang wanted to make sure there was diversity in casting the main characters. “I’m Asian, and I gotta put Asian people in it,” he says. But because of the movie’s slim production budget, casting was a tedious task as he searched for the right Asian American actor to fill one of two main roles for little to no pay.
“One of the things that I was insistent on and we fought for is a wide net that we put out to find an Asian American actress to play one of the leads,” Kang details. Balancing the difficulty in finding a suitable Asian lead and understanding that the success of the movie is very dependent on casting, the director made a last-minute decision to cast Vyvy Nguyen as Karen, one of the female leads opposite Brooke Markham’s Luci.
Fortunately, the pair’s natural onscreen chemistry and impeccable comedic timing floats the storyline as they’re figuring out whether Luci will transform into a werewolf by the full moon. Convinced that this is Luci’s fate, the two find themselves in a chain reaction of unintended consequences as they attempt to resolve Luci’s dilemma while confronting monsters or unintentionally bringing creatures to life via incantations from a spell book. With the accidental death of a friend who is zombified, a botched DIY blood transfusion, and a wild adventure of misread spells and much mayhem, the cast’s dedication to their roles make for an enjoyable watch. Touching scenes about friendship are punched with energetic nonsensical banter, providing just enough silliness to keep the audience entertained.
When asked why Kang chose to portray a dynamic cross-racial female friendship, given that his acting experience mostly deals with testosterone-driven male camaraderie, the director reminisces on “being an outsider from a small town, without many friends, not being popular” himself. To him, friendship means “appreciating that one friend, that one partner in crime is all you need.”
With the movie’s success largely dependent on Luci and Karen’s friendship being put to the test as the characters strive to be more than the losers they’re made out to be, Kang says that “thematically, what I loved about their friendship is that, you know, at the end of the movie, aside from all the monster stuff, it is this journey about two friends being comfortable in their skin and appreciating that they have each other. And that’s all that matters.”
Yet, as much as Kang believes in the message of his movie, he recognizes that the audience may need to lower their expectations and be sympathetic to the difficulties of producing a budget-challenged movie.
“It comes down to money — a film like ‘Shaky Shivers’ had no money to pay people. So it’s basically asking somebody to come and do a favor,” Kang admits. “What a blessing and a fortune, what a great opportunity that I got to actually direct the film. And I had these people — a lot of them were strangers — actually believing in this crazy vision.”
With a small crew filming during the pandemic, three main locations, and a handful of characters (including an odd, lispy Michael Jackson wanna-be personal cameo in the last minutes of the movie), Kang successfully transforms this low-budget girl pal thriller comedy into a sweet tale about enduring friendship, overcoming challenges, and choosing personal destiny over fate. As an easy, lightweight watch, the film leaves the audience rooting for the women’s cause and chuckling at those nostalgic creatures of the night.
Check out the trailer for “Shaky Shivers,” out in theaters now or follow them on Instagram at @shakyshiversofficial.
