From Monster Kid To 2022 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards Director: Meet Ama Lea

FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards week is upon us, and we can hardly believe it’s finally here! (Do you have your Chainsaw shirt ready to go?) Lots of behind-the-scenes goings-on over here as your creepy little FANGORIA elves work to cobble up a creeptastic presentation for you, worthy of the best of the genre. I sat down with our fearless director, Ama Lea to chat all things Chainsaw and get the details on the path that led to directing and producing the 2022 Awards show. You can say this was a decade in the making, but it’s likely more accurate to say it’s been a lifelong journey, as it has been for so many of us.

You are not new to the Fango fam, can you tell us a bit about your journey with FANGORIA and how you first got involved with the magazine?

I think my first year with FANGORIA was 2012. Oh my gosh, that makes me feel so old! I was fresh out of grad school and had just done a photoshoot with Barbara Crampton, and when she got asked to be on the cover, she recommended me! After that, I was pretty much a steady contributor. I photographed Roger Corman and the late great Wes Craven for covers as well as tons of editorials for GoreZone.

I’ve been obsessed with the magazine since I saw it in Friday the 13th, Pt III as a kid! It was my dream job. I can honestly say the work that I’ve done with FANGORIA is what I’m most proud of throughout my entire career and body of work. When I found out it was coming back with Phil Nobile Jr. at the helm, I literally harassed him and had anyone I knew that was friends with him harass him to bring me back as a photographer!

I basically forced him to be friends with me, and the first time we met, I think I didn’t shut up the entire time, and he was probably totally weirded out by me. Since then, he’s brought me in to shoot a few articles, and I was honored to photograph the cover with the lovely Sam Richardson on it for Josh Ruben’s epic Werewolves Within.

And how did you make the jump from photographer to producing and directing the 2022 Chainsaw Awards?

I got involved with the show, I think, because of you! We had just wrapped a live Christmas Horror Variety Show at Midsummer Scream, which you co-hosted with Barbara Crampton! I swear it’s all full circle, right? My career at Fango always comes back to Barbara. When Phil called me and asked if I’d be interested in directing the Chainsaw Awards this year, I was SO excited! My career has moved much more in the direction of film rather than photography for years now, and I can’t tell you how thrilled I have been for this opportunity and for Tara, Abhi, Phil, and the team to take a chance on me.

What has been the most fun part about all of this for you?

The most fun part of the show has definitely been working with such great people. From the producers and staff at FANGORIA to working with such a brilliant writer as Michael Varrati, to our talented cinematographer, Matt Stuertz, and Rob Lucas at Wolfpack Studios, it’s been a delight! I don’t think I’ve ever worked with such a positive, creative, and just overall group of fun-loving horror hounds as I have on this project. Not to mention how AWESOME all of our presenters are!!! Seriously such a great vibe!

You’re a multi-talented, multi-hyphenate artist across mediums. Aside from producing and directing our favorite awards show, what else are you getting into these days?

Girl, I stay BUSY, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I own a clothing company called Poltergeists and Paramours which takes up a good chunk of my time, Vanessa Decker (aka Horror Vixen) and I are working on creating a Horror Workout video, and I’ve got a couple of feature films in the works!

Do you have a favorite FANGORIA issue you’ve worked on?

I think my favorite is probably working with Mr. Wes Craven. He was my absolute HERO growing up, and I rarely get star-struck, but I was SO nervous about meeting him and working with him. But he was absolutely lovely, and it was such an amazing, life-changing experience for me. He was so sweet and kind. He hinted to the wardrobe stylist about how much he loved his suit until she was like, “You can keep it” and he was like, “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly!” But he left the studio that day looking like a million bucks in that suit, you better believe it!

Do you have a favorite FANGORIA issue you didn’t work on and just love as a fan?

I couldn’t tell you what number it was, but growing up I had this copy that had Nightbreed [Volume 1 Issue #90] on the cover! I must have read that thing a million times because I was obsessed with Clive Barker, which in turn, because of Fango and, of course, Nightbreed, I became obsessed with Cronenberg! I stole that issue from one of my friend’s older brothers, and I held on to it for years… eventually cutting it up for collages in my bedroom.

I was a HUGE horror nerd growing up, and I don’t think it was until the summer going into my sophomore year when I watched The Slumber Party Massacre for the first time and saw “Directed by Amy Holden Jones” flash up on the screen that I realized oh shit… girls can be directors too! And from that moment, I had a camera of some sort in my hands. I’d film stuff in the backyard and then edit it between two VCR’s. Anyway, I told my mom I needed a subscription to FANGORIA because it was a magazine about filmmaking, and that’s what I wanted to do when I grew up. So, of course, she got me my very own subscription, and I felt like the luckiest kid on the block!