From Law to Horror: Karen Lam's Creative Evolution

Host Tanya LaBuick reconnects with her high school friend Karen Lam, an accomplished filmmaker known for her work in the horror genre. They discuss Karen's journey from a small town in Manitoba to becoming a celebrated director, exploring themes of cultural identity, representation, the feminine edge, and the impact of grief on storytelling. Karen shares her insights on the role of empathy in horror, the importance of authentic storytelling, and her current projects that address socio-political issues.  More About Karen Lam: Karen has worked full-time in the film and television industry since 2000. Starting her career as a producer and entertainment lawyer, Karen was one of the architects of the British Columbia tax credit program before being recruited by PwC accounting firm to assist with creating tax shelters for the US studio clients.  Since leaving the world of film finance, Karen has written and directed ten short horror films, three music videos, series directed two seasons of the true crime series Very Bad Men for Discovery+, a web series Mythos (2015) for TELUS, and five feature-length films, including Stained (2010), Evangeline (2013) and The Curse of Willow Song (2020), which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in September 2020.  The film won the award for Best British Columbia Feature Film, and Karen received a Best Director award at the British Columbia Leo Awards (2021).  Karen has also written television scripts for SYFY and Netflix on the premiere seasons of Van Helsing and Ghost Wars, where she was able to help create and create the characters for each series.  In 2021, Karen directed the seventh instalment in the Bring It On cheerleading franchise, a Halloween horror special titled Bring It On:  Cheer Or Die (2022) that premiered on SYFY in October, and is available for viewing on Crave in Canada (Amazon and Hulu in the rest of the world.).  The Curse of Willow Song is available for viewing worldwide, released jointly by Red Water Entertainment (Canada) and Uncork’d Entertainment (world). Karen just directed two projects in 2024 based on her original scripts:  Armageddon Road is a darkly comedic supernatural road trip, set in 1970s Las Vegas, with a sly riff on the Biblical Book of Revelation.  The feature film was shot almost entirely in the volume wall and with miniatures, using a unique combination of retro and cutting edge technology.  The second project is Karen’s tenth short horror film, Mrs. Chang’s Perfect Teeth, which won the Director’s Guild of Canada BC “Established Director Greenlight Award” in late 2023.   Both films are premiering in film festival screenings in the fall of 2025 and will be distributed internationally in the spring of 2026. www.karenlamfilms.com  https://youtu.be/IdEOC0oUilg?si=yfe9wUWnui3uEC1I  Connect with Tanya LaBuick: https://www.stronglikeagirlpodcast.ca/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://stronglikeagirl.ca/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://labuick.co/⁠ Chapters (00:00) Reconnecting Through Memories (02:16) Karen Lam: A Multifaceted Career (11:21) Cultural Identity and Growing Up in Brandon (22:11) Navigating Grief and Storytelling (23:05) The Unique Perspective of Women in Horror Films (25:39) The Final Girl and Feminism in Horror (27:48) Desexualizing Rape Revenge Tropes (30:32) Exploring Socio-Political Themes in Horror (31:56) Microaggressions and Cultural Representation (36:33) Empathy in Horror Filmmaking (38:35) Writing Process and Creative Flow (42:53) Advice for Aspiring Women Filmmakers