Classically trained in Shakespeare at Montclair State University, prominent stints as Shakespearean heroines followed in regional theatre, with a progression in television work on SEX AND IN THE CITY and STRANGERS WITH CANDY. Following a role in Dante Tomaselli's seminal film HORROR nearly ten years ago, Ms. Brown has carved a niche for herself as both victim and perpetrator in a genre that has a devoted following. I spoke with Ms. Brown recently regarding her latest projects.

Raine Browne: I was born and raised in New Jersey. I'm an East Coast girl, and I like it here because I get the best of both worlds. I can live here in a fairly quiet neighborhood and relax and take my dog out for walks, but I'm also ten minutes away from New York City where all of the excitement is and where I do my auditions. It's great.

JS: Were you a movie and television fan growing up?

RB: Actually, I have a funny story about that. When I was little, my parents had some strange rules. I had to pay ten cents per half hour to watch TV.

JS: What?!

RB: (Laughs) Yeah! I was eight or nine, and we had an allowance, and we would pay my parents ten cents per half hour. But it would come and go. One month they would be strict about it, and then the next month it would disappear (paying to watch TV). And then at the end of the year they would donate the money to PBS (the Public Broadcasting System). I've always loved TV shows as a kid. That's one of my favorite things to do. I'm a big fan of movies. I love watching movies to relax. I'm not so much of a TV viewer now; I don't like the reality TV. But, I love movies.

JS: Do you remember the first movie that you saw in a theater?

RB: I remember when I was very little my mother took me to see THE FOX AND THE HOUND. This, to me, is a horror movie! Because five minutes into the movie they shoot the mother fox. I started screaming and crying hysterically. My mother had to take me out of the theater. I couldn't calm down. That, to me, was the most awful thing in the world, to see this animal's mother get killed. I couldn't understand why anyone would want to watch this, I was just flipping out. After that I didn't want to see anymore Disney movies! The movies that I make now have people getting killed in awful ways, but no animal mommies are hurt! I have been a vegetarian since I was in the seventh grade, and I link that back to the fifth grade when my school showed us CHARLOTTE'S WEB. I was thinking, Oh, no, they're going to kill Wilbur - I mean, I was just out of my mind. After seeing that, I made the decision not to eat meat anymore. And I haven't eaten meat since then! I cannot watch animal films!

JS: Did you go to any drive-ins as a kid?

RB: No, there really weren't any around where I was growing up. By the time I was born, that really wasn't the most popular form of family outing. They've recently started to have a bit of a comeback. I know that there are at least two in New Jersey now.

JS: The bulk of your filmography is horror films. What attracts you to this genre?

RB: It started out as just dumb luck. I landed a role in Dante Tomaselli's film HORROR. That film became pretty well-known. I then started sending out my resume and headshots because as an actress, I want to work, period. So, I tried out for theatre, film, television, everything. So, after HORROR, people recognized me from that and they would send me more scripts of horror films. What I like about the horror genre is that it can be a lot of different things and still be a horror film with a lot of blood and guts. It can be an off-the-wall comedy with blood, it can be a drama with blood, and you get the picture. I'm attracted to scripts where there's an actual story and characters that really come to life. I'm not interested in running around flashing my boobs and saying, "Hi, everybody!" That doesn't interest me. I want to act and do cool characters. I did 100 TEARS in Florida in 2005 and I got to play the villain and she goes way off. That's exciting. That's fun. Horror has a built-in audience and these people love it. That's why it's so much fun to meet the fans at these horror conventions, because they want to talk to you about your newest project. We shot BARRICADE in 2004, and it's still one of the top-selling DVDs here (at the horror conventions). People are still buying it in droves! I get this wonderful family feeling from these groups of people who follow the horror films and the people who make them. I know that sounds a little strange! You think that these people are really creepy, but a lot of the fans I have met over the years could not have been nicer to me.

JS: What do you look for in a script?

RB: As far as scripts are concerned, I always look for characters that I would want to go and see in a movie. I've been very fortunate that I have worked with the same people several times on a group of different movies, so it's also important to me that behind-the-scenes, people have their act together. It all depends upon what I am looking to get out of the project.

JS: How easy or difficult is it for you to be terrified in the movies you have made?

RB: Well, with AUNT ROSE and BARRICADE, I played victims and in 100 TEARS I was the perpetrator. I must say that I really do like doing the gory scenes because when I'm doing these scenes, it's actually a lot of fun. The preparation before and getting covered with goo, I enjoy that. It's actually hard for me to watch movies like this that I'm not in, but the films that I make are fun to do. Once I get into the zone where I have to be terrified, though, it is exhausting, because there are a lot of emotions that I have to go through.

JS: Who are some of the people in the industry you admire and would like to work with?

RB: Oh, Tom Tykwer is wonderful. I loved RUN LOLA RUN. He also did THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR and HEAVEN.

JS: RUN LOLA RUN is an exhilarating film. I loved that as much as TRAINSPOTTING. I haven't seen HEAVEN yet, that was part of the final trilogy (HEAVEN, HELL, and PURGATORY) that Krzysztof Kieslowski wrote before his untimely death in 1996.

RB: Yes, and he has such an artistic, visual style. HEAVEN is a beautiful film. Tom, if by chance you're reading this, please call me!! (Laughs) I would love to work with Quentin Tarantino. He has such kick-ass women in his films. I like directors who really love and respect women and give them great roles.

JS: What are some of your favorite horror films?

RB: I like the classics, you know, like HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH. I mean, those are iconic horror films and because of those movies horror is where is it is today as a genre.

JS: Your filmography is huge!

RB: Yeah! I've finished PSYCHO HOLOCAUST for Krist Rufty and GALLERY OF FEAR for Alan Rowe Kelly. PSYCHO HOLOCAUST was a really great movie to do, and right now they are looking for a distributor. It's film where I get to kick butt! I think I'm kind of getting typecast as a heroine, but that's a really cool thing to be typecast as.

JS: You also did BEAST for Timo Rose, who also did BARRICADE.

RB: When we finished BARRICADE, we didn't have any plans for anything specific. I think it was almost at least a year later when everything kind of came together again. With BEAST, it's a lot of the same cast, and a lot of the same crew. It was a very fun experience because we already knew each other. There was a camaraderie that was built up over the past films that we had done. So, the script just kind of came up, with Joe Zaso, Timo Rose, and John Davidson who I had worked with on 100 TEARS...It's kind of one huge incestuous family. I play a tomboy in this film. I got this really short, dark-haired wig. I wanted a different look this time around. I did BARRICADE with long blonde hair, and that was fine. I just want to spice things up this time and add something extra to the character. The thing that I remember most about BEAST was that Timo had this action sequence, and it was the longest, biggest, hardest fight sequences I have ever done. I did a lot of my own stunts, there's one scene where I jump over a couch and I almost broke my finger! There's a lot of punches thrown, kicks, and getting thrown around. It took almost a day-and-a-half to film. It was so painful, but the next day I felt all the muscles over my ribs which I've never felt before! Timo was great, and we had a really great stunt coordinator and he made me look like this really great action hero. Since BEAST, I've done a lot of other films. INSATIABLE is a short film that I did where I play a vampire, and what's cool about it is there's no dialogue.

JS: You worked with Yassmin Pucci on DARKNESS SURROUNDS ROBERTA and now in BEAST. What was your experience working with her?

RB: In Italy, the Italians who were casting for DARKNESS SURROUNDS ROBERTA actually found her. She's a very cool person. I believe she studied in New York for about a year, but I don't know much about her. Like I said she's very cool, she speaks English and is really nice.

JS: Tell me about SCULPTURE.

RB: SCULPTURE is a film that is close to my heart. It's most definitely in the horror genre, but there is a great deal of attention paid to character development. A lot of movies have decent characters and there's a lot of action and gore. In this film, I play Ashley Steele, who is an artist and she's coming home for her father's funeral. He emotionally and sexually abused her. Her mother is already dead, possibly by her father's hand. She's coming back home for the first time and her brother is there. She gets this art show, and her brother is excited for her to say. Since she has returned to this environment, she's slowly starting to unravel, and she is having a lot of flashbacks. Within that framework, she is creating art. With her art, she decides to make the perfect man. That's part of her creation. It just so happens that her father worked at a gym with a bodybuilder and her brother now runs the gym. She therefore has material for her creation of "the perfect man." A lot of people have compared it to MAY with Angela Bettis. My character isn't quite as quirky as the MAY character, but it's one that I really got to play with and develop. I managed to build some depth to it, which I really enjoyed.

JS: How about EXPERIMENT SEVEN?

RB: EXPERIMENT SEVEN was with Joe Davidson from 100 TEARS and Alan Rowe Kelly, and they shot about 80% of that film in Florida. This was the main story, and then they had a sub-plot which took place in New York. It's a post- apocalyptic story wherein there's this virus that's going around and it turns people into this zombie/mutant kind of thing. In the New York subplot, I play a scientist who is trying to find a way to purify water after the water supply has been tainted. We're basically trying to save people and escape the zombies. It's a fun little movie. GALLERY OF FEAR is another film that I did which is an anthology film which was recently completed. I play a character in this comedic/monster story. I am the ex-wife of this lead character, and I basically berate him and put him down. I have is really horrible accent! I'm just a horrible person, and I love it! (Laughs)

JS: How about I HEART U?

RB: I executive-produced, co-created, co-produced with Billy Garberina and star in this project. It is really like my baby. It is best described as a dark comedy, mixed with a relationship, horror film. Ha-ha! It is really fun because I get to play a really whacked-out character. I am a Type A personality character, a caterer, who lives in the suburbs. I'm married to a man who seems stable but boring. We are living the perfect life on the outside, but secretly I am a reformed serial killer who starts up again, and he is also a killer, but neither one knows it. It is kind of like MR. AND MRS. SMITH meets THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. It has really cool effects and a great story. It delves into the idea of this perfect world that is only on the surface and how people keep up appearances. Also, it twists the normal story around because you actually end up rooting for these horrible people and hopefully laugh during it! It is still in the process of being edited, but will be finished soon hopefully! :)

JS: What about BRAINCELL?

RB: That's available through Joe Zaso's company, too, Cinema Images Productions. We shot the film in Liverpool, England which was very cool. Cinema Images takes me everywhere! It's a psychological thriller. Joe Zaso plays my evil uncle. I am this girl whose whole family has been killed. She goes to England to visit her uncle who is the only living family member left. She is drained, she's sullen, and she's just distraught. He's doing dream research. Some things that start happening aren't quite on the up and up. It's very cool!

JS: Thank you for your time!
RB: Hey, no problem!