September 22, 2025 • 17 mins
Filmmaker Brooke H. Cellars sits down with Mike to discuss her audacious feature debut The Cramps: A Period Piece (2025). This blood-soaked, campy horror-comedy transforms menstruation into a monstrous force of nature, gleefully smashing taboos and splattering stigma with buckets of style. The film leans into outrageous gore, wicked humor, and a feminist bite. Mike and Brooke dig into the film’s conception, production challenges, and its place in the tradition of body horror that finds power in the grotesque.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Oh is it show die?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
People say, good money to see this movie.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
When they go out to a theater, they want cold
sodas and a hot popcorn and no monsters.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
In the Protection Booth, everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Urn it off, and we're on earth with a girl
(00:52):
like you want to work. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
How about maybe a beauty salon, a beauty salon? What
would you even possibly know about beauty? What's wrong with
working in a beauty salon? Other girls work there.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Yes, those kinds of girls. Your father, God, I bet
he's rolling over in his coffin as we speak. Why
can't you be more like your sister? You got cramps?
It's all well and normal. Well, some pretty not normal
(01:27):
stuff has been happening to me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You're a pretty particular reason, poor poor Agnes.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
What the hell is happening to me?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
You're gonna help me?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I don't know what to do. It's happening again.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
In vagina problems. They some fickle bitches.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
If folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection Booth.
I'm your host, Mike White. On this episode, I'm talking
with Brooke H. Sellers. She is the director and writer
of the new film The Cramps, a period piece, it
is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed this movie,
as you'll hear in a few seconds when I talk
with mid Sellers. Keep your eye out for this one,
(02:22):
and I hope you enjoy this interview. I loved The Cramps,
wonderful film, and I'm super excited to hear kind of
how the film came about for you.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It came from a joke saying, what if we made
a period piece about actual periods, And that sparked the
true story of my life since I was teenager until
I was forty, and it kind of was a monster
that was eating me from the inside in that nobody saw,
(02:53):
even doctors, and it kind of like just took over
my life. I wanted to put that on screen, like
how surreal it was like living with this pain and
not being able to do anything. I couldn't go to college,
I couldn't have a real job. I waited tables for
twenty years because that's what I could do with this
living with this pain. So I wanted to put how
(03:16):
surreal and crazy it was in this monster that nobody
could see but was clearly there taking over my life.
Were like Okay, well this is it kind of thing,
and this is what I have to deal with and
kind of given up, and just I wanted to show
how I also wanted to show how kind of view
cre it's, how they're gross and monstrous or whatever, and
(03:42):
just kind of how it is like having a period
and even worse endometriosis, and the shame of not being
able to talk about it and suffering in silence because
they're afraid to. It's a horror movie for every for
every woman, I think, so I wanted to like put it,
you know, out there for the world to see and
(04:04):
now hopefully nobody suffers in silence, you know, like this.
I don't want people to continue to do this. So
that's where all stem from.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
How similar are you or not to your main character
of Agnes?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Very similar? When casting her, we had a callback and
I was telling her about, you know, the inspiration for
this character and you know, my family, like from what
I went through, and then she actually connected with it
and told me about like how she is and her
families and stuff like that. So she definitely got it
(04:43):
and connected with the story. And in real life, it's funny,
like my husband always jokes how similar. We are like
so similar even like likes and everything, like we both
hate apple sauce and just little things like that. And
when I was in my twenties, I was I was.
She's more adorable than I was. I was more dark
and brooding, but like, she wears her coirkiness very well
(05:06):
and very adorable and just fun to work with and
definitely definitely a lot alike very many ways.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Had you went for the long before?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
This is her first film? Actually never, she had never
been in a short film and this is her first,
so and she was really very awesome, especially her for
her first film.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
I know you've done a lot of shorts before, and
I'm curious, was this always intended like this is going
to be a feature? Or did you start out that
game was going to be a short and then it
just grew and grew and grew.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
After I made my film Violet Butterfield Makeup Artist for
the Dead, it was in until then that I thought
and my team were ready to make a feature. And
I had been trying to develop this story for a
long time and just couldn't get it quite right in
making these short films. So I always knew that if
(06:06):
I did this story. It would have to be a
feature because it there's too much that would go into
this story, and even more could have gone. I just
wanted to keep it as a at a at a
normal feature length. So there's definitely a lot more that
could have gone into it, but definitely wasn't wasn't ever
going to be as short. It couldn't have been a short.
(06:26):
There's too much, too much to tell. So I'm glad
that this was the first feature. It was a really
important story to me, and I'm I'm glad that we
got to make it and it actually happened.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Well, how was that experience for you going from from
shorts to feature? I mean just more and more work.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
For us, being like a very very very indie film
team and working you know, small crew, making our feature
was very different experience, and we always work with what
we have, so like started off with, you know, no funds.
(07:15):
We just we just gathered what we could our own
money from our back pockets, and I you know, all
the all the like most of the costumes and props
or some that I already had around. We definitely use
what we have, but there was so much more going
into a feature film that we hadn't done yet that
(07:36):
we had to learn together how to do and like
reach out to people for help. How do we do this?
Like we just had to fucking figure it out, and
we were going to. So there was a lot of
people that told us, no, don't do this, don't do that,
especially not to shoot on film. There were so many
producers They're like, no, don't do it, don't shoot on film,
(07:57):
don't do it, don't do it. And we were like like, no,
we're gonna do Like, we're gonna do it. It's fine
if this is aren't our first time shooting on fields
because we shot Violet Butterfield on sixteen millimeters and my
DP by Porter he's so well versed in analog in
filmmaking and just like I trust him completely, So if
(08:19):
he is confident, I trust him. And so like he
was confident, I was confident. We're very nervous, very nervous
about shooting on film, but we were not because like
we just we take care and I know Levi takes
care of what he does and is very passionate about
his work and he would never let anything happen. So
(08:41):
as much as people told us no, no, no, no,
don't do it. We still did it and it worked
in our favor.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
But yeah, it looks fantastic and the colors just top
right off the screen, especially some of the makeup just
really comes through so vividly.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh yes, I wanted that bold makeup because these characters
are very bold. They're vibrant, so like their costumes and
their makeup should like reveal who they are too like
on the outside, especially like the church Lady. Satanist is
one of my favorite characters I developed Teddy t Berry.
She's just like and the church Lady outfits very pastel
(09:23):
and she has these inverted crosses, but she worships the
devil and it's okay, Like she's just a little sweet
Satanists And I always I'm so glad to finally get
to have that character out into the world out and
was fun.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Is Agnes apple White? Was she inspired by Agnes Applebee?
Maker of Men? At all?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
The way I get my names, I use them intentionally,
but it's when I'm watching films like I think I
was watching Speak No Evil the original, and I loved
how they pronounced Agnes those like audness almness. I can't
(10:12):
it's that Norwegian or something or Swedish or something like that.
I can't remember, but the way they pronounced Agnes, I
loved it, and so like that name I always stuck
in my head for a while while I was developing
the story, and so like I decided on Agnes because
of that. And Apple White is from one of my
favorite TV shows that nobody watches with me, uh, because
(10:35):
I was very adamant about not watching it because it
just sounds like a terrible show, which is Desperate Housewives,
and so like in the the second season, they have
family called the apple Whites that move next door, and
I always just love that last name. It just sounds
so quirky and colorful, just like the Desperate Housewives show,
(10:56):
which is very quirky and colorful. And that's how I
got that mate, just from other things that I've watched.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Well, speaking of interesting names, how did you find Martini? Bear?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I worked with Martini at my first I taught a
film class at a performance arts school, and that's how
I met Martini. And I met him while I was
writing Violet Butterfield. And so while I was writing it,
since I met Martini, I didn't even ask Martini if
(11:29):
you wanted to be my movie, but I started writing
a character that I thought he could play and then
asked him after I wrote the script, and so that's
when we first worked together. And after that I just
wanted to work for him with him all the time.
And I think more drag queens should be in movies
because they're already a character in itself, and there's like it.
(11:49):
They make your job more easy because they are they're
already the character and you just write what they what
they would, how they would say things, and things that
they would do, and just and they're always such huge, wonderful,
beautiful personalities that you should always put on the screen
and just it is better.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
I got a real John Waters vibe from it, especially
with the two groups, and it kind of reminded me
of Divine versus Mixed Stole. Is there any influence from
Pink Flamingos?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Actually, Female Trouble. Female Trouble was a big inspiration, especially
they have the beauty salon and everything, and I love
the part where they take the hair back because they
wouldn't pay for the warsh and set, so the team
comes and rips the hair. It's so ridiculous. I love ridiculousness,
and like the characters are just so much fun. Like
(12:42):
the I think it's minxed. The couple that comes into
the salon is like based off of Vinyl Andtani or
Vinyl and Tangerine is based off that couple that comes
into the salon. Well, they're like the wedding dress and like,
they remind me so much of them. But Female Trouble
was definitely one of the biggest inspirations as far as
(13:02):
John Water is. Also cry Baby for sure. That was
one of my favorites growing up with cry Baby.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
It's interesting, it seems to live in a space that's
kind of the fifties, but not the fifties at the
same time. I love that kind of thermal space that
it lives in.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It's more like ambiguous mid century, like kind of mostly
nineteen sixties with fifties and seventies kind of blended in,
so you don't really pinpoint the time period. So I
wanted to be like this universe all on its own,
so you pop culture or anything to date it. It's
just like this own kind of universe. And like even
(13:41):
the dialogue is a little nineteen sixties but blend with
a little modern So it's just kind of it's its
own thing kind of and like I don't I didn't
want any rules about, you know, creating this. I don't
like brule. I just I just want to make this,
y see, And I saw it as a nineties sixties
kind of mid century aesthetic. But like Wilight is on
(14:04):
the world.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
Is there a good place for people to keep up
with the movie online?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You can go to on Instagram at the Cramps film
follow me Brook H. Sellers on Instagram, and then you
can see it at Fantastic Fest on September nineteenth in Austin.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Do you have any other festival dates lined up?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're also playing in Film Quest in Provo, Utah. Dad
is not said, but it's the festivals October twenty third
through November first.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Brook, Thank you so much for your time. This is
so great talking with you.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Thanks Mike.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Oh oh oh oh, crack oh oh, freen.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Moll Frey
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Flail a correct
Oh is it show die?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
People say, good money to see this movie.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
When they go out to a theater, they want cold
sodas and a hot popcorn and no monsters.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
In the Protection Booth, everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Urn it off, and we're on earth with a girl
(00:52):
like you want to work. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
How about maybe a beauty salon, a beauty salon? What
would you even possibly know about beauty? What's wrong with
working in a beauty salon? Other girls work there.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Yes, those kinds of girls. Your father, God, I bet
he's rolling over in his coffin as we speak. Why
can't you be more like your sister? You got cramps?
It's all well and normal. Well, some pretty not normal
(01:27):
stuff has been happening to me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You're a pretty particular reason, poor poor Agnes.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
What the hell is happening to me?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
You're gonna help me?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I don't know what to do. It's happening again.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
In vagina problems. They some fickle bitches.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
If folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection Booth.
I'm your host, Mike White. On this episode, I'm talking
with Brooke H. Sellers. She is the director and writer
of the new film The Cramps, a period piece, it
is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed this movie,
as you'll hear in a few seconds when I talk
with mid Sellers. Keep your eye out for this one,
(02:22):
and I hope you enjoy this interview. I loved The Cramps,
wonderful film, and I'm super excited to hear kind of
how the film came about for you.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It came from a joke saying, what if we made
a period piece about actual periods, And that sparked the
true story of my life since I was teenager until
I was forty, and it kind of was a monster
that was eating me from the inside in that nobody saw,
(02:53):
even doctors, and it kind of like just took over
my life. I wanted to put that on screen, like
how surreal it was like living with this pain and
not being able to do anything. I couldn't go to college,
I couldn't have a real job. I waited tables for
twenty years because that's what I could do with this
living with this pain. So I wanted to put how
(03:16):
surreal and crazy it was in this monster that nobody
could see but was clearly there taking over my life.
Were like Okay, well this is it kind of thing,
and this is what I have to deal with and
kind of given up, and just I wanted to show
how I also wanted to show how kind of view
cre it's, how they're gross and monstrous or whatever, and
(03:42):
just kind of how it is like having a period
and even worse endometriosis, and the shame of not being
able to talk about it and suffering in silence because
they're afraid to. It's a horror movie for every for
every woman, I think, so I wanted to like put it,
you know, out there for the world to see and
(04:04):
now hopefully nobody suffers in silence, you know, like this.
I don't want people to continue to do this. So
that's where all stem from.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
How similar are you or not to your main character
of Agnes?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Very similar? When casting her, we had a callback and
I was telling her about, you know, the inspiration for
this character and you know, my family, like from what
I went through, and then she actually connected with it
and told me about like how she is and her
families and stuff like that. So she definitely got it
(04:43):
and connected with the story. And in real life, it's funny,
like my husband always jokes how similar. We are like
so similar even like likes and everything, like we both
hate apple sauce and just little things like that. And
when I was in my twenties, I was I was.
She's more adorable than I was. I was more dark
and brooding, but like, she wears her coirkiness very well
(05:06):
and very adorable and just fun to work with and
definitely definitely a lot alike very many ways.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Had you went for the long before?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
This is her first film? Actually never, she had never
been in a short film and this is her first,
so and she was really very awesome, especially her for
her first film.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
I know you've done a lot of shorts before, and
I'm curious, was this always intended like this is going
to be a feature? Or did you start out that
game was going to be a short and then it
just grew and grew and grew.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
After I made my film Violet Butterfield Makeup Artist for
the Dead, it was in until then that I thought
and my team were ready to make a feature. And
I had been trying to develop this story for a
long time and just couldn't get it quite right in
making these short films. So I always knew that if
(06:06):
I did this story. It would have to be a
feature because it there's too much that would go into
this story, and even more could have gone. I just
wanted to keep it as a at a at a
normal feature length. So there's definitely a lot more that
could have gone into it, but definitely wasn't wasn't ever
going to be as short. It couldn't have been a short.
(06:26):
There's too much, too much to tell. So I'm glad
that this was the first feature. It was a really
important story to me, and I'm I'm glad that we
got to make it and it actually happened.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Well, how was that experience for you going from from
shorts to feature? I mean just more and more work.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
For us, being like a very very very indie film
team and working you know, small crew, making our feature
was very different experience, and we always work with what
we have, so like started off with, you know, no funds.
(07:15):
We just we just gathered what we could our own
money from our back pockets, and I you know, all
the all the like most of the costumes and props
or some that I already had around. We definitely use
what we have, but there was so much more going
into a feature film that we hadn't done yet that
(07:36):
we had to learn together how to do and like
reach out to people for help. How do we do this?
Like we just had to fucking figure it out, and
we were going to. So there was a lot of
people that told us, no, don't do this, don't do that,
especially not to shoot on film. There were so many
producers They're like, no, don't do it, don't shoot on film,
(07:57):
don't do it, don't do it. And we were like like, no,
we're gonna do Like, we're gonna do it. It's fine
if this is aren't our first time shooting on fields
because we shot Violet Butterfield on sixteen millimeters and my
DP by Porter he's so well versed in analog in
filmmaking and just like I trust him completely, So if
(08:19):
he is confident, I trust him. And so like he
was confident, I was confident. We're very nervous, very nervous
about shooting on film, but we were not because like
we just we take care and I know Levi takes
care of what he does and is very passionate about
his work and he would never let anything happen. So
(08:41):
as much as people told us no, no, no, no,
don't do it. We still did it and it worked
in our favor.
Speaker 5 (08:52):
But yeah, it looks fantastic and the colors just top
right off the screen, especially some of the makeup just
really comes through so vividly.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Oh yes, I wanted that bold makeup because these characters
are very bold. They're vibrant, so like their costumes and
their makeup should like reveal who they are too like
on the outside, especially like the church Lady. Satanist is
one of my favorite characters I developed Teddy t Berry.
She's just like and the church Lady outfits very pastel
(09:23):
and she has these inverted crosses, but she worships the
devil and it's okay, Like she's just a little sweet
Satanists And I always I'm so glad to finally get
to have that character out into the world out and
was fun.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Is Agnes apple White? Was she inspired by Agnes Applebee?
Maker of Men? At all?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
The way I get my names, I use them intentionally,
but it's when I'm watching films like I think I
was watching Speak No Evil the original, and I loved
how they pronounced Agnes those like audness almness. I can't
(10:12):
it's that Norwegian or something or Swedish or something like that.
I can't remember, but the way they pronounced Agnes, I
loved it, and so like that name I always stuck
in my head for a while while I was developing
the story, and so like I decided on Agnes because
of that. And Apple White is from one of my
favorite TV shows that nobody watches with me, uh, because
(10:35):
I was very adamant about not watching it because it
just sounds like a terrible show, which is Desperate Housewives,
and so like in the the second season, they have
family called the apple Whites that move next door, and
I always just love that last name. It just sounds
so quirky and colorful, just like the Desperate Housewives show,
(10:56):
which is very quirky and colorful. And that's how I
got that mate, just from other things that I've watched.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Well, speaking of interesting names, how did you find Martini? Bear?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I worked with Martini at my first I taught a
film class at a performance arts school, and that's how
I met Martini. And I met him while I was
writing Violet Butterfield. And so while I was writing it,
since I met Martini, I didn't even ask Martini if
(11:29):
you wanted to be my movie, but I started writing
a character that I thought he could play and then
asked him after I wrote the script, and so that's
when we first worked together. And after that I just
wanted to work for him with him all the time.
And I think more drag queens should be in movies
because they're already a character in itself, and there's like it.
(11:49):
They make your job more easy because they are they're
already the character and you just write what they what
they would, how they would say things, and things that
they would do, and just and they're always such huge, wonderful,
beautiful personalities that you should always put on the screen
and just it is better.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
I got a real John Waters vibe from it, especially
with the two groups, and it kind of reminded me
of Divine versus Mixed Stole. Is there any influence from
Pink Flamingos?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Actually, Female Trouble. Female Trouble was a big inspiration, especially
they have the beauty salon and everything, and I love
the part where they take the hair back because they
wouldn't pay for the warsh and set, so the team
comes and rips the hair. It's so ridiculous. I love ridiculousness,
and like the characters are just so much fun. Like
(12:42):
the I think it's minxed. The couple that comes into
the salon is like based off of Vinyl Andtani or
Vinyl and Tangerine is based off that couple that comes
into the salon. Well, they're like the wedding dress and like,
they remind me so much of them. But Female Trouble
was definitely one of the biggest inspirations as far as
(13:02):
John Water is. Also cry Baby for sure. That was
one of my favorites growing up with cry Baby.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
It's interesting, it seems to live in a space that's
kind of the fifties, but not the fifties at the
same time. I love that kind of thermal space that
it lives in.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It's more like ambiguous mid century, like kind of mostly
nineteen sixties with fifties and seventies kind of blended in,
so you don't really pinpoint the time period. So I
wanted to be like this universe all on its own,
so you pop culture or anything to date it. It's
just like this own kind of universe. And like even
(13:41):
the dialogue is a little nineteen sixties but blend with
a little modern So it's just kind of it's its
own thing kind of and like I don't I didn't
want any rules about, you know, creating this. I don't
like brule. I just I just want to make this,
y see, And I saw it as a nineties sixties
kind of mid century aesthetic. But like Wilight is on
(14:04):
the world.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
Is there a good place for people to keep up
with the movie online?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You can go to on Instagram at the Cramps film
follow me Brook H. Sellers on Instagram, and then you
can see it at Fantastic Fest on September nineteenth in Austin.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Do you have any other festival dates lined up?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're also playing in Film Quest in Provo, Utah. Dad
is not said, but it's the festivals October twenty third
through November first.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Brook, Thank you so much for your time. This is
so great talking with you.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Thanks Mike.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Oh oh oh oh, crack oh oh, freen.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Moll Frey
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Flail a correct
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Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.