From modeling to acting to writing comics, Hannah Rose May has proven time and time again that her creative expression knows no bounds. Getting her start with Rogues’ Gallery, illustrated by Justin Mason and colored by Tríona Farrell, May has since become one of IDW Dark’s leading horror voices whose style blends sharp political and social satire with deep, character-driven narratives. cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});After Rogues’ Gallery, May found her stride writing The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, a White House-set supernatural thriller illustrated by Vanesa Del Rey and colored by Jordie Bellaire, and Smile: For the Camera, illustrated by Miriana Puglia and colored by Dearbhla Kelly that channeled May’s own years in the modeling world. May’s newest project, Fatal Fest (illustrated by Andrea Scalmazzi), is a meta take on the horror industry itself, following contestants pushed to their limits by a producer who believes experiencing real trauma is the only way to make real horror. While the early 2027 release for Fatal Fest issue #1 creeps nearer, May sat down with Den of Geek to discuss that project, her dive into the Smile film universe and the upcoming Blumhouse film adaptation of 1600 Penn. The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Den of Geek: Writing a prequel to an established film franchise means working with someone else’s mythology. How did you balance staying faithful to the Smile rules while still making this story feel like it’s yours? Hannah Rose May: I’m very fortunate that Parker, with Smile, has made it so that we’re aware that it’s a debt chainmail, essentially. I remember those emails that everyone’s parents would get back in the day where it’s like, ‘Send this or you will die.’ That’s how I see Parker’s world in the sense of, you see it, you pass it on. Other than that, he’s danced around the mythology but hasn’t gone in too deep, so it made it kind of an open playground for the likes of me, which was very nice. I didn’t want to add to his mythology, more so play within the confines in which he’s already settled.Which character challenged you the most as a writer and why for this series? I think all of the characters are actually little facets of something that I have experienced from my time in the modeling industry. Unfortunately, a lot of the male characters are loosely based off of real men in the industry. Right before social media took off, I feel like I was kind of one of the last generations where we were attending 12 to 15 castings a day, and because of that, there were a couple of models who I’d lived with at the time, who knew who those characters were.And then the girls were based on girls I had lived with and roomed with. I lived in New York City in a two-bedroom model apartment with 10 girls, and we all lived in bunk beds. I was very fortunate to experience a lot of different women of different ages, of different cultures and hear all about their experiences and I was in a way mentored by the women before me who had done it and yeah, so the story was for them. When did you know exactly how the story was going to end, and did that ending ever change? I knew going into this what I wanted. For me, it was just a matter of if Paramount and Parker were going to give me permission to do it. My thought process around it was, when you’re reading [Smile: For the Camera], I wanted to make sure that we were delivering a death every issue because in Smile, the deaths are what make those movies. And with this, obviously if you’re following a group of girls, you ultimately know what the end result is going to be; they’re not going to survive. Because of that, I didn’t want to make it so predictable. I knew that I wanted to flip the script at the end and have a little twist on it and hopefully have readers walk away feeling satisfied. I’m very fortunate that people have messaged me over it saying that [Smile: For the Camera] was one of the most satisfying endings. You told Hollywood Reporter that you didn’t set out to be a horror writer but that horror themes find you naturally. What is it about this genre that keeps pulling you back? When I said that, I meant in the sense that I think if anyone had asked me 10 years ago while I was full on modeling, would I see myself being at Comic-Con 10 years from now, talking about multiple properties? I could have never envisioned sitting here now talking about not one property, but multiple properties, so for that I’m very grateful. But horror shaped me. That was the God’s honest truth. I’ve always loved the medium. I’ve always wanted to partake in it to some degree, but I grew up in a small town in Ireland looking out at cornfields. I didn’t know that I could have a hand in doing anything related to creating anything that would be in people’s hands. You described Fatal Fest as your most “twisted” story yet. What did you push further here than in your previous IDW series? With Fatal Fest we go full fledged; we’re pushing characters to the absolute limit. [Smile: For the Camera] is child’s play compared to what is in store for [Fatal Fest]. We listened to the audience, people kept saying, ‘Hannah, I would love for you to do more gore, like more of a horror book,’ and I was like, you know what, it’s coming. There’s twists and turns in every element, there’s death at every issue. The hope for Fatal Fest is that I hope that you read one issue and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I wasn’t expecting that.’You’ve said Hollywood is a system that consumes people. How did that idea shape Frank Finch and the world of Fatal Fest specifically?I think it comes back to what we talked about, and I think at the core of most horror movies is trauma. And that’s why Smile is so brilliant, because Parker managed to use that trauma and create an entity around that. In a lot of horror, the underbelly is something traumatic. You know, we’re now at a time period now where the main focus in theaters is incel trauma and incels in general, but everything horror has always had a really layered substance, and I think now we’re finally giving it credit and we’re paying attention and realizing that these movies weren’t just slapstick. With Fatal Fest, it’s a meta-narrative on the horror industry as a whole. A lot of horror directors have their thing, right? Horror directors specifically have a thing, a niche. They’re kind of characters in their own way, and in Fatal Fest, we get to put that at the forefront, where our lead [Frank Finch] believes that to show horror, you have to experience horror. So he basically puts all of the contestants to the test to be like, ‘Your movie was good, but you didn’t get there because you haven’t experienced real trauma.’ Now that a studio as closely tied to modern horror as Blumhouse is adapting The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, are there any story elements you would consider non-negotiable for the film to include? Yeah, great question, because sometimes they cut stuff out, and you can’t get to everything, so my non-negotiable is that we do an exorcism in the White House. The only thing that I have voiced in the creative conversations is that I would like for the family to look like the family on the page, as in we have a first female president, and we have a diverse family. What about this film are you hoping will appeal to the Gen Z audience who are craving more unique horror media like Backrooms and Obsession? Do you think the movie will appeal to the younger horror generation? Yeah, a lot! So as much as it is our first female president’s story, it’s really Mara and Kevin, her children’s story. For the movie, we are going to focus on that. Can you imagine being the child of the president? You don’t choose that, you don’t choose to be born. You don’t choose who your parents are, and you don’t get to decide what they do for a living. We put a lot of emphasis on that throughout 1600. We see that dynamic between them as siblings and see how their differing opinions are on taking on this. Kevin is loving his new popularity, Mara’s struggling with it. She’s struggling with what the media has to say about her mother. So yes, Gen Z, it’s your movie. I think all ages will be able to relate to it in some way, too. Parents will be able to relate to our first female president, our first gentleman, and then Gen Z will be able to relate to being those children and the expectations that are set for you. All five issues of Smile: For the Camera and all four issues of The Exorcism at 1600 Penn are available where comics are sold and via IDW now. Fatal Fest #1 is expected to release in 2027.The post Hannah Rose May On Navigating Horror From the Runway to the White House appeared first on Den of Geek.