For this interview, I'm delighted to speak with screenwriter and producer Mo Moshaty.  Her knowledge expands from the depths of her imagination when creating worlds to write, to producing films.  She speaks some on her thoughts on current events and asks, "Why now?"

What was your first introduction to horror?

My first introduction to horror was probably The Exorcist, it was an odd mix of horrified and incredibly interested. 

The Exorcist is a great first introduction. It was my favorite non-slasher horror when I was young. The scene where her head does a 360 degree rotation or the spider crawl down the stairs. Great film. How did you get started in the industry?

My first screenplay was sent to a connection I made in London, it's a sci-fi series with a woman of color as the main protagonist. The producer really loved it and it really lit a fire under me to release a lot of my other material which really involved more psychological horror. 

That is great! What keeps you interested in the genre?

I absolutely love how many avenues horror can go down because everyone has a different "why" as to how they view terror. Even if this one thing that scares millions, everyone has a very personal and core-instinct reason why it scares them. So horror can really catch on with anyone. 

What is it about screenwriting that you enjoy?

I really love building worlds. I have such fucked up dreams and ideas, I need that outlet to get it down and purge it out of my system and honestly it feels so good.

When world building in a screenplay, what are some rules you live by?     

I'm kind of odd in sketching that out and as usual go overboard.  I have a whole chart I use, like color scheme, what's their political system like, their style of dress, landscape, laws, science, what history am I touching on or harkening back to within it. You have to consider how any world/land gets constructed and how long it takes to develop. It's going to behoove of you to be overly precise because if you're pitching a grand horror or sci-fi idea and someone finds a hole in the world you can't explain, that's a make or break. Might as well get down to as minute of the idea as possible.

Stephen King has said that he wrote The Shining after having a dream at the Stanley Hotel of his son being chased throughout the hotel. Have you written any stories that were based off of your dreams?  If so, which ones?

Oh gosh, a ton, most of them are being cathartic with The Chasm and the Caveat, my anthology series.  One nightmare I've had ever since I was small, is of a treehouse where inside lived this little boy that no one could see. No one would ever believe me in the dream and then one dream he wouldn't let me leave. When I moved out of state for college I truly, no bullshit, saw that boy in a grocery store. I just left my entire cart. I still have that dream every now and again. 

Wow. That is crazy. What does your writing process look like?

It all really starts out with about a few paragraphs to flesh out the full idea and then I build my logline from that. Next it's character bios which I'm sure the audience will never see. Then I finally tackle the first draft.

For the younger screenwriters, can you explain why you feel character bios are important even if the audience won't see it? Do you feel like it helps with the organization of the story therefore making it easier to write?   

I think I come at it from always keeping my characters motivations and idiosyncrasies close to my heart. To really look at how they'd react to a situation based on their likes and dislikes, moral compass and deepest fears. You get attached to them. As a viewer it takes you a season or two to figure that out. That's how you know you've become intertwined with a character there, because if they do something "out of character" or someone has written them to quite frankly work against themselves you say, "Hey, this XYZ character wouldn't do that? What are they doing?!" Doing character bios keeps me true to my characters.

Do you have any advice for up and coming or hopeful screenwriters?

Find a community, connect with people you trust, with honest feedback and not admonishment about how little or green you are. They are out there. I would say not to fall into the trap of paying hundreds of dollars for contests or feedback when the right writers in the online community, 9 times out of 10, will read it for free and be a hell of a lot more constructive and thorough. 

Do you feel that after reaching out to these free communities for feedback, screenwriters should re- approach festivals and contests? 

Absolutely. Give them the best product possible which may not be until you've bounced it to a few people you trust. Some writers don't have supportive friends or family that will be willing to hear or read about their idea even for the first time. As for contests, I think you need a good mix, but also don't strain your wallet if you don't need to. Contest entry is super expensive, I don't think I need to tell that to a writer at any stage. But like all good things, spend your time and attention on the ones that have the most payoff emotionally and professionally. Also find writing friends who will be honest, sometimes brutally, about your script. They're not all winners and we have to be willing to hear that.

That is great advice. Ensure you are sending in the best product possible because odds are, the other people you're competing against, have polished their product. We see that you also have experience as a producer as well, can you tell us about that?

I am the associate producer on an episode of Cops and Monsters, an indie Scottish sci-fi/horror web-series in a financial capacity. It really was one of the coolest experiences seeing what goes into financing these grandiose worlds that come out of all of our heads and the guts it takes to try to bring stuff to fruition 'cause at the end of the day we all just want our shit made. I highly recommend that if you can, help to finance your friends work, every little bit helps. I know it sounds cliche but it really does. We all can help each other, from reading and giving notes to helping Kickstarters.

Finding ways to help each other is great and the horror community can be very supportive of each other. What is some advice you may have for producers just starting out?

Outside of what I've done, I really am the wrong person for that, I'm really green in that arena but what I will say is ask your friends that do it, Google producers you love and find what articles they've written. Never stop learning because it can only add to your knowledge arsenal when you can finally step into that role.

Another great piece of advice. Being willing to learn brings value to you and could lead to more opportunities. You have experience writing pilots, shorts and features. Can you tell us more about your pilots Free Weight and The Chasm and Caveat?

Free Weight is my pilot for The Chasm and the Caveat, my Night Gallery-esque anthology series. It's really my favorite horror episode I've done.  It's such a slow burn with a terrifying payoff. A real false sense of security. 

That sounds really good. I’d love to hear more about it.  What made you want to make it into an episode instead of a narrative feature? 

In behavior alone, I'm pretty erratic and frenetic, not necessarily impulsive or impetuous but really getting in there and solving a problem as best I can. I approach my work that way. Sharp, concise and small. Features are difficult for me because it's such an investment until payoff, but I'm learning that sometimes long games are good.

How about your shorts Hum, Scroll and Time? 

​Hum especially was very difficult. It's about a young widow who thinks she hears the voice of her late husband through the central air system. I wrote it at a time where I was experiencing a lot of personal grief and really dissecting the stages and denial was by far the stage people stayed in the longest. And the real tragedy of it is that you want to believe in ghosts, you want to believe in disembodied voices or that some semblance of that person is still somewhere. It was a very angry process. 

Scroll really speaks to how we don't really raise our heads anymore, we're so enthralled with social media that it not only blurs our perception lines but it's such a big and sometimes habitual distraction that we fail to recognize the horror that's been living under our bed the whole time.

Time was a very fast jot down of any idea, the sadistic game hunting of prisoners to the highest bidder. A really grotesque look at what human experiments the government will spend its money on but not have it for what really needs to be done. 

These are all great concepts. I’m sorry to hear Hum was during a difficult time in your life.  The idea behind it is interesting and something that I think we all can relate too after losing a loved one. We want to know that the person is still with us, one way or another as reassurance towards the afterlife. Scroll definitely can relate to the majority of us with technology as we all can become enthralled with the device at our fingertips scrolling the social media pages. The metaphors that can be realized from it are fascinating to think about. What other projects are you working on?

​Currently I'm working on the 16th episode for The Chasm and the Caveat. It's a very twisted take on the age of puerperal fever in Austria. And I'm working on a sci-fi/horror podcast with a diverse, all-female writing group as well as expanding my short horror story collection. 

What has been your favorite project to work on and why?

Honestly The Chasm and the Caveat has been my favorite. It's really let me pay homage, via structure, to T​he Twilight Zone, Creepshow and Night Gallery episodes that really scared the shit out of me. Both George A. Romero and Rod Serling are huge heroes of mine. I really feel like it's the best way I can say thank you.

Paying homage is the ultimate honor to someone that you look up to. What are some resources you feel are important for newer screenwriters to utilize?

​I'm not a huge screenwriter how-to book fan. A lot is trial and error. "Go Into the Story" is a great website, The WRAC Group, which is an incredibly supportive writer's accountability group. Invest in good software, research them, write down what you like about which each one offers. The one with the most likes wins. Formatting correctly is going to be so important if you're in it for the long haul. 

All great resources for sure. The WRAC Group gets a lot of love in the interviews we do. What is your favorite classic horror movie?

Nosferatu, hands down. It's so disturbing and so tragic that it really sticks with you. Some of the best and most often duplicated shots come from that movie.

Nosferatu is an awesome classic. What types of movies give you the most inspiration?

I really love a good psychological horror film. There's these odd pockets of hope in them that are really induce anxiety and that juxtaposed with the incredibly deep valleys of despair they take you to, it's just a remarkable ride. 

Can you tell us a few of your favorite psychological horrors? 

One of my favorites has to be The Vault of Horror starring Tom Baker, who went on  the role of Doctor Who a year after it was released. Such a twisted series of tales, nothing too gory but such tragic and interesting ways these men are tortured, super pivotal for its time, transposed to screen under the umbrella of The Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt comics. Another is the pilot for Night Gallery, The Cemetery, death, greed and haunting. A total package and the last ten minutes scarred me for life. I couldn't look at landscape paintings for months.

What screenwriters and filmmakers give you the most inspiration?

Oh gosh, Issa Lopez, Mary Harron, Mary Lambert, I really, really love Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury.

 

Everyone you mentioned is iconic in their own right and even made some films that I really love. So my next question is a difficult question. This would be a difficult question for me to answer myself. If you had the opportunity to meet only one of them in a room for one hour to pick their brains as writers and filmmakers, who would you pick and why?   

I guess I'm going posthumously here, Oh God, you know I love Serling but I'd probably have to say Ray Bradbury. His story characters are all so fully formed and his imagination is so expansive. Also he'd written a short story a week most of his life so you can imagine the richness of catalog there. 

What is something in everyday life that scares you?

Having the curtains or shades open after dark. I always feel eyes on me, I really hate coming out of a room and facing a dark window. Gets me every time. 

Oh yeah, that is creepy and I can relate. As a kid, I always used to think someone was trying to look into my windows. I’d fix the curtains so there was no way to look in or out.  Imaginations run wild at that age. Have you written any stories relating to those same fears? 

Oh yes, I think I want to make people scared of mundane things, like that tear in the screen you haven't gotten to fix, what's able to get in from that? What's going on in the shower with you when you close your eyes, I mean don't we all feel that? It's about drawing fear from things that shouldn't be sinister. 

I love that. It is the things that can happen in real life in my opinion that are really scary. What is your dream project?

My dream project would be to reboot Tales from the Darkside. That would be the most bitchin' thing I could ever do. 

That would be really cool to see you do. Let's touch on some important issues with the current situation in the United States. 

Do you feel since the Me Too Movement resurfaced with Harvey Weinstein's sexual assaults, that there has been progress for women in the industry? 

No, I don't. Yes, attention to what's happening sure, but there is still no safety for those that do speak against their abusers, there's this industry muzzle still in a stronghold. We're still struggling to make equal pay, sometimes even a living wage in this industry. We're still wasting away assisting before even being given the chance on a big budget film while 20 something year old male "prodigies," and I use the term loosely, are handed millions of dollars on potential. We're still hidden. It's sick really so I suppose my answer is a flat out no. 

That is very true. There are still many barriers for women in the industry which need to be addressed. The Black Lives Matters movement has grown and is making progress with its message as more and more people join the movement across the world. Why is this an important time for black screenwriters to tell their stories? 

I'm going to counter that question with another question: was there ever a time our stories weren't important? It's really not at all a question of "why now?" as opposed to "why not any other time?" There are so many outlets, insiders and companies reaching out to Black writers now for their stories.

Is it because they finally want to read them or because they don't wanna be left holding the "I didn't support when the hashtag was hot" bag. I'm in hopes that these people continue to reach out and see our work for what it always has been, poignant, timely and enriching. Our stories are individual and need to be told every day, every time and every chance. We've been screaming into the wind for you to see us, you're just noticing now.

Now, more opportunities are finally opening up for diverse groups of screenwriters and filmmakers. There is still a long way to go but films like Parasite by South Korean director Bong Joon Ho are getting the attention they deserve. Being a black screenwriter, that is a voice for other creative people of all races, what is it within the black voice that you feel needs to be heard? 

First off, I don't speak for anyone else but myself. That's what happens to a lot of Black creators, we're expected to be the voice of the people, a movement. We're asked to speak for the entirety of us. We are not a monolith. That has to absolutely be understood if we are ever going to get moving forward in giving people of color a seat at the industry table for good. We all have our own stories, our own individual voice. Also, we need to get rid of the term "Black Stories." Call them what they are, terrific stories, oh yeah they just happen to be written by people who are Black.

There's so many amazing sci-fi, horror, drama and comedy scripts that go unnoticed because gate-keepers feel "we" are out of our depth. They are shocked that we can write something that isn't centered around Black trauma or pain. Not all of our work is Fences or The Color Purple. We're writing multi-genre scripts that are brushed aside for a White writer with a script about Black pain. It happens so often. For me personally, my voice needs to be heard because the worlds inside my heart are too fantastic to have you not witness them.

If you could do a biopic on anyone who would it be and why? 

Stephanie St. Clair, hands down. I believe there may already be one in development. She was a Black gambler in criminal enterprise in the 1920's. She went up against the mob several times. She called out lack of Black voting rights and police brutality in the newspapers. Just a bad-ass and ahead of her time kinda lady. 

You write other genres which include comedy. Some great screenwriters/filmmakers like Jordan Peele have done comedy/horror and have explained the correlation between the two genres. How do you feel about writing comedy/horror and is it difficult to jump from one to another?

What I love about both is that whatever your plot is, every beat has to land. With my comedy, it's very much a "this begets this begets this" kind of thing. What makes comedy funny is quotable of course but, recalling old jokes, and Easter eggs. Same with a cold open on a horror movie. Eventually you'll get back to it and the audience is waiting for that, waiting for the gag. 

This is all great information that all of our audience will love.  We appreciate you taking the time to speak with us.  Do you have any social media pages or websites you'd like to share?

​Sure.  You can can follow me on Twitter at @MoMoshaty.  Also you can check out my personal website www.MoMoShaty.com.