“Horror made me understand and face fear , and be aware of the community that shared the same feelings.”

Ivotres Littles

KyFx Creator Creature Feature 

Meet Ivotres Littles !

Horror Youtuber , Enthusiast , and Commentator .

by Kyasia Fields on September 04

Ivotres Little is the creator and host of Horror Movies and Beyond, her show that reviews films in the genre while uncovering the hidden creativity, history, and nightmares that inspire them. Her extensive expertise in film production, screenwriting, and blogging aided in creating her media platform. From interviewing celebrity guests at genre conventions to being featured as a guest on many podcasts and websites, she has accredited herself as “The Oprah of Horror.” Her knowledge and ambition to rediscover and explore the Horror genre have made her an advocate for the Horror community. We got a chance to discuss Horror’s effect on mental health , the importance of community , haunted dolls , and her experiences being a Horror loving Black Woman. 

Who/What Started Your Love For Horror Films? 

Oh, Man! It should come easy for me because people ask me these questions a lot, but there are so many elements. I’m afraid that someone will be like, “Oh, she didn’t say that last time” because there are so many things, so it’s kinda hard to choose. It’s my family. We started going to see Horror films when I was a little girl, so it was natural to go as a family. I remember sneaking in to watch The Thing with my parents, and they made me watch it because I kept trying to sneak and watch it. Ever since then, it’s been like ‘okay, I was terrified,”, but I wanted to keep watching. It was a family thing. We would go to the drive-in theatre when those were popular. Man! The drive-in theatres were packed! I always tell people that the ’80s were it for everything. Horror films were usually coming out during those summers. It started with watching The Thing with my family, and it didn’t stop. I like all Horror. I don’t have a specific type that I watch. The Thing just happened to be the one that started it, and it kept going from there. It’s the only one that I can remember. I’ve seen all kinds of Horror from foreign to psychological, so I am a fan of all Horror. The Thing just so happens to be my favorite. 

How did you come up with your title #TheOprahofHorror? 

When I was first starting Horror Movies and Beyond, I wanted something catchy, like a catchphrase, and I already have a long one, which is “reviewing Horror movies for the living to understand the dead,” and that is attached to the title. Everyone has a tag attached to them in some form. While attending a birthday party with a friend of mine, I was sitting down at a table talking to a woman who so happened to be a motivational speaker (who helps individuals as well). I was sitting there talking to her, explaining the start of this Horror thing, and she was interested. I was like, “I want a title for myself,” “I like The Oprah of Horror.” And when I said it out loud, she was like, “Oh, I love that! Keep it! I grew up watching Oprah in her late 80’s, early 90’s. She could always talk to people. It didn’t matter what background or story. She was always able to get information and make people feel welcomed and comfortable, and overall was a great speaker. I’m not a great speaker, but I can talk to anyone, on any level, no matter who you are. When it comes to Horror, I started walking up to directors, producers, and actors to talk to them when I started my blog Nerdtastic Girl. So Horror Movies and Beyond was a branch of another project. I realized that I was good at that, and Oprah was good at that as well, and I like Oprah, so I was like “The Oprah of Horror” works. When I explained this to the motivational speaker, she said, “keep it” and “put it on everything but don’t put it on everything.” I didn’t understand what that meant until after, but it is just a title that I go by and a hashtag, but it’s not something I’m going to put on a shirt (for said reasons). I don’t want to put it on clothing and sell it, of course, because my name isn’t Oprah, but you get it. We all know who Oprah is, what she does, now add Horror to it. 

Who Is Your Favorite Final Girl? 

Growing up when I was young, you didn’t see a lot of Black final girls. At the time, you saw everything but that, and you know they usually die within the first 10 minutes of the movie. As time progresses, you start to see more Black Women in Horror films staying alive. I would have to say the reason for her staying alive throughout the entire film, becoming a warrior in the Alien’s eyes, and being able to fight the queen alien, I’m going to have to say Sanaa Lathan in Alien vs. Predator. Growing up and seeing only one thing, I remember seeing the film and watching her name pop up, thinking that she would die. Instead, she was the star and stayed alive till the end, which was rare, especially for Black actors who are usually secondary. The only other actor I can think of is Brandon Adams, who played “Fool” in The People Under the Stairs. He was a young kid that lived; But for my final girl, I would have to say Sanaa Lathan. I love her, she is so pretty, mellow, and soft-spoken, and she did very well in the film. 

What has been one of the biggest lessons that Horror has taught you? 

What I have learned is what it has suppressed for me to understand things about myself. Now I am going to have to jump around to help explain what that means. I suffer from anxiety and depression, and I’m not ashamed to talk about it, but that’s the problem, people think that it is a secret. That’s where we have people harming themselves because they feel like they can’t talk about it. I am a big person on mental health and what Horror has given me, is a chance to understand that I can survive whatever I am going through. We all know Horror films are fake, with actors and fake blood, but there are situations where someone had to face something that haunted them, and once they faced it, it may have killed them or put them in another state of mind, but it allowed them to face it. For me facing Horror was very difficult at first because I started out watching Fantasy like The Neverending Story and Romantic Comedies. I would get really sad and depressed because I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be happy, in a relationship, and in love. I wanted friends like in those films. When I watched Horror, I never felt that way. I understood my feelings, and I wouldn’t be depressed for long periods. I could condition myself to seek the help I needed and understand these feelings of depression and where it was coming from. When I watched romantic comedies, I would get depressed; I didn’t when I watched Horror. I still watched romantic comedies, but when I watched too much of it, I would feel depressed and hopeless. Horror always gave me time to understand myself, why I’m depressed, understand it, and reach out to someone. When I watched Romantic Comedies, it wasn’t the romance that would make me sad; it was the idea behind the message that what was around me wasn’t happiness. Now I understand that it’s okay to be low, but I don’t have to get so sad that it leads to depression.

Horror has been very therapeutic. I have met some cool friends, not just people over social media but also very close friends who share the same feeling when watching certain movies. It’s so deep. It has helped me reach out to a community that is more than just watching movies. I have met people who talk about how Horror has helped through abuse and other tragic moments in their lives. Now that I am open to talking about it, many people have come forward to validate those feelings and help me understand that it’s time to conquer that and be a better person. Sometimes you will always have those feelings of depression and anxiety. When people tell you to suppress it, NO, because the longer you hide, the longer you feel down and have feelings of “oh, I can’t live like this.” Horror made me understand and face fear, face the things in front of me, and be aware of the community that shared the same feelings. 

If you could remake any Horror film, which would it be? 

I’m going to say this one on the fly without thinking too hard. I thought of it right now because you asked, and I’m going to go with Annabelle. When I saw Annabelle, my niece saw it first and told me that I would be disappointed. I was like, “what”? My niece is deadly when it comes to judging Horror movies while I believe, on the other hand, that everything is subjective. What you like, I may not like, and that’s okay. I feel like Annabelle was not as haunted as I wanted it to be. She was just a vessel, but she wasn’t the actual demon inside. The force was using it and latched onto her to scare people, but the doll itself wasn’t scary. That was upsetting. I would have remade it to where the spirit would have latched on to Annabelle and became her so that she would be able to move and maneuver around.

You don’t see that too much. In Dead Silence, she used the doll as a device to scare, but she wasn’t in it. There are very few movies where the spirit inhabits a doll’s body, and it’s able to move, and Child’s Play did an excellent job of that. I wish Annabelle had that element. I would have remade it to where it did. It would have been scarier. Knowing a doll is sitting there, and knowing that the doll itself is not haunted, but the spirit is just putting it in places to aggravate whoever is in the house, I don’t find that as scary. They could have done a lot better than that. It wasn’t bad, but I was expecting more. I wish the doll itself were haunted instead of being used to haunt. I also would have fought to have the rights to have the original Raggedy Ann doll in the film because, in the actual haunting, it was the Raggedy Ann doll. I’m sure Hasbro would not want that association with their product. 

What has been your favorite film review that you have done on your channel? 

I started interviewing people when I started my blog, but with Horror Movies and Beyond, I would interview actors at conventions. I just would walk up to people, and for the record, I am a one-woman show. I do not have a crew. I do have helpers that help when they could, but no one is a set crew, so it’s all me. Every picture and video is all me, which can be very exhausting. I was in the process of creating a team, but COVID halted that for the moment. At one point in time, I did have someone helping me with a camera, and I would approach these actors based on their attitudes and body language. I would read them as I would walk by. If they looked annoyed or unhappy, I wouldn’t approach them. I would introduce myself and have my pre-questions ready, and they would either say yes or no. I have only been rejected once, last year before COVID. I was a little surprised, but it wasn’t the actor who refused me but their manager. Usually, I go directly to the actor unless they tell me to talk directly to the manager, and generally, the manager won’t care. This particular manager (maybe because I wasn’t a big name) was like, “I’m sorry but no.” It hurt my feelings because I was a big fan of this actor. 

For the recent videos that I have been putting up, my favorite one is actually one that I just released, the Re-Animator review. That was a story in itself because I had to record it twice. The first go-around I was sitting and had my set up. I recorded the entire review, and after I was done, I didn’t like it. I didn’t even look at the footage. I just sat there and realized it wasn’t me; this wasn’t my style. So I moved everything out of the way, I stood up, and I re-recorded the review. I like to move around, and initially, I felt restricted, and I didn’t like it. It turned out a lot better, and I was satisfied with it. It was even better having Barbara Crampton involved as well. I just tweeted and asked her, and she responded. I wrote her a script because we didn’t communicate in between the process, so I knew I had to be detailed. When she sent me back her footage, it was exactly how I wrote it. See! That’s an experienced actress. She can understand scripts, which let me know about her career and style. It turned out perfectly. It all went together. When I did the first review over Host, I wanted to incorporate things from the film’s review. Every time you see a review, know you will see something from the movie in that video. I want people to get used to that. 

How has your experience been being an unapologetic Black woman who loves Horror films? 

It’s been an interesting experience. It’s been fun. Many of the experiences that I have witnessed from other people and hearing them and their stories, I’ve never seen the downside of that yet. I have never been rejected because I was Black, or they may have done it so well that I didn’t notice. I never had that response. When I participated in a Black Horror panel, many things were discussed I never experienced, but it made me aware of the truths. I don’t work in Hollywood or with well-known people in the genre. I am just this one Black Woman trying to create a brand and a story. I want to make Horror fun because that’s how I grew up. I never experienced any negative. A large majority of the people I associate with and talk to are not Black. I don’t think that shows anything about myself (because I don’t want anyone to think I don’t hang out with Black people). I just never saw color. I didn’t grow up seeing color; I wasn’t raised that way. Even though all of the current events are happening now, I must be a rare bred not to have experienced that. I am aware and understand everything going on around us and the media with Black people dying and being mistreated. I do have relatives that have experienced these things. My mom grew up in the ’50s, where if she wanted to get a drink of water, there were fountains labeled WHITES ONLY. She grew up in the South then moved to California, which was different and still had its moments, but it wasn’t as tough as the segregated South. She never taught me to see color. I can recall a conversation we had where she said, “I don’t care who you love, who you like or who you marry, as long they treat you with respect and love you for who you are.” She didn’t care, and that’s how I was taught. I went to a Christian private school in the early years of my education in Longbeach where the majority was white at the time. I am glad that I am this Black Woman that loves Horror because I stand out. I tell people all the time, “If you love Horror and you are Black, stand out” because that’s rare. Horror is a white-mans genre. That’s all you see, it’s plain as day, and if we are in there, we are dying. It’s surprising for some that Black people like Horror.

I have been to conventions where I could count how many Black people were there on the one hand during an entire Saturday at that convention. Monsterpalooza was the first one I went to in Burbank, and when I walked in, I realized I pretty much was the only Black person there and that was okay. I didn’t feel any different or that anyone was looking at me because of such. Over time I saw that number grow and grow. You also have to think of demographics of where these conventions are located as well. I stand out, and I love what I do, and I hope it helps other Black people come out. We are all here to help each other rise to the top. 

Be sure to check out Ivotres Littles on Social Media 

https://linktr.ee/hmbeyond

Twitter:  

Instagram:

Youtube:  

Facebook:

Email: [email protected]

KyFx Horror Group, LLC.

Houston Texas