The following is an interview with Kimberley Elizabeth and Jonathan de Haan (Nightmare on Film Street) regarding the recent release of their frighteningly fantastic cocktail book, Cocktails from the Crypt: Terrifying Yet Delicious Concoctions Inspired by Your Favorite Horror Films, through Page Street Press. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Elizabeth and De Haan about their shared creative process in adding a delicious twist to everyone’s favorite horror movies, how their work with the Nightmare on Film Street podcast gave way to these amazing cocktails, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of Cocktails from the Crypt! What can you share with us about the genesis behind this incredibly fun book?
Jonathan de Haan: Thank you so much! The drinks in Cocktails from the Crypt have been slowly clawing their way into existence for a couple of years now, but they really started to take shape during the pandemic when we began hosting watch parties and online events with our podcast audience.
Kimberly Elizabeth: Watching horror movies with your friends is always more fun than sitting alone on your couch, and to make each event feel more like a party we were all attending together, we would create custom drink tutorials paired with the movies we were watching. Some of those early drinks even made their way into the book! They’ve gone through some evolution since we first whipped them up, but if you’ve attended our watch parties in the past, you’ll definitely recognize some of those OG recipes.
BD: These cocktails will appeal to horror fans and drink connoisseurs alike! Are you able to share a few of the recipes that readers will find in the book?
JD: Two of my favorites from the collection are Sour Soil, inspired by Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary (1989), and our The Cabin in the Woods (2011) inspired tiki concoction, The Merman’s Revenge.
I love the Sour Soil because it’s a sweet and earthy blend of pear and thyme with a kick of Cognac. It’s like taking a sip of a cool autumn evening. The kind of drink that might make you think twice about interring the family cat in a cursed burial ground.
And The Merman’s Revenge is one I always come back to because it went through so many different (delicious!) variations before we had our lightbulb moment and shifted our base spirit to Tequila. Tequila isn’t a super common ingredient in Tiki, but it made for an absolutely crushable showstopper in our Tiki Terrors chapter, and “Tequila is my lady!”
KE: Jon’s the real cocktail wizard of us both, so I mostly taste test and write the silly puns, haha. The most delicious cocktail in the book is, hands down, Blood Connection, inspired by Malignant (2021); it’s bitey, strong, and a little bit sweet, and also anything in the B-Movie chapter is great because they’re just so fun – we have one inspired by Jason X (2001) that’s an absolute brain freeze!
BD: In addition to your work on Cocktails from the Crypt, you are also co-hosts of the critically acclaimed podcast, Nightmare on Film Street! For those who may be unfamiliar, what can you tell us about the premise of the podcast, and how much did you work on the show influence your planning for this cocktail collection?
JE: Honestly, Cocktails from the Crypt would not exist without the podcast. Not only did it give us the opportunity to build some of these recipes with our fan club and online pals throughout the pandemic, it also helped us discover so many new recipe ideas while traveling to film festivals in our RV. Along the way, we would stumble into new ingredients and new techniques that all helped shape our own cocktail creations. We haven’t stepped foot in Central Park or seen the Grand Canyon (We’re terrible tourists, lol.), but we have had some unforgettable nights with friends over drinks at cocktail bars and tiki joints from coast to coast.
KE: Oh yeah, Nightmare on Film Street is 50% horror movie podcast, 50% weird cocktails in the basement of a theatre singing karaoke at 3 a.m.
BD: What makes Page Street Press the perfect home for this book?
JD: Page Street has been such a dream to work with, and the whole team has been incredibly supportive of the book from start to finish. They understood our tone and our voice from day one, and they always felt like collaborators, working with us to make the absolute best version of this book possible.
KE: It was also really cool to see how many people at Page Street were secretly big horror fans, so we spoke the same language when it came to all the gory details. They got all of my silly references!
BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?
KE: Beyond Nightmare on Film Street and Cocktails from the Crypt, we are both writers and filmmakers, and we’re always working on getting something spooky off the ground and in front of horror fans.
JD: Day to day though, we spend a lot of our time talking each other out of buying rundown movie theatres in Winnipeg, Canada. One of these days, we’re going to run out of excuses, though, so keep an eye out for our future Multiplex of Madness next time you’re in the Great White North!
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Cocktails from the Crypt and your other work?
JD: We have a few in-person cocktail + movie screening events scheduled for later this year in Canada and the United States, and we’re planning to make them recurring events going into 2025. The best way to make sure you don’t miss out on anything cool ‘n’ creepy is to visit www.nofspodcast.com/go.
KE: That’s where you’ll find all our social media links, event info, spooky merch, and our weekly horror movie podcast. It’s basically your hub for all things Horror, and it’s also where you’ll find info on how to get a personalized copy of Cocktails from the Crypt for your home bar (or your mobile Doom Buggy).
