A ‘Scream Queen’ is defined as an actress who has become associated with horror films, either through an appearance in a notable entry in the genre as a frequent victim or through constant appearances as the female protagonist. Fay Wray is the first and Jamie Lee Curtis is the most revered.

If you ask any horror fan who is their favorite, who is the hottest, and who is the sweetest one who honestly appreciates her burgeoning fanbase –  the answer you will most likely get is Brinke Stevens. Before hitting her zenith in popularity in the late 80’s/early 90’s, Brinke had appeared in a variety of films like Private School, Sole Survivor, Fatal Games, The Naked Gun, and The Slumber Party Massacre. Of all the movies she has appeared in, which is well over 100, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama is the best in my opinion. It is the ultimate party movie where you invite your friends over for drinks and some pizza. I had the thrill of interviewing Brinke about the film that defines the meaning of  ‘Late Night Classics’.

Jason Bene: You spent time on your academics before entering film, what schools did you attend and what were your majors?

Brinke Stevens: At San Diego State University I doubled-majored in biology and psychology. I knew that I wanted to work with animals and animal behavior, so I applied to Scripps Institute of Oceanography and was accepted as a Marine Biologist. I wanted to do my doctoral thesis on dolphin communication, but nobody wanted to talk to dolphins. I ended up working with seals instead. Then in 1980, I married Dave Stevens and joined the media circus. I didn’t intend to, all I knew was biology. Dave was my childhood sweetheart whom I met at a comic book club at San Diego State. When he moved to L.A. in 1980 he said come on up, let’s get married. I left all that behind and expected that I wound find a science job in Los Angeles, but there isn’t a lot of science that goes on here.

Jason Bene: You did a movie called Nightmare Sisters with Director David Decoteau and fellow ‘Scream Queens’ Michelle Bauer and Linnea Quigley. How did Sorority Babes come about?

Brinke Stevens: My first big movie was The Slumber Party Massacre in 1981, and to support myself I was doing a lot of extra work – shower scenes, body doubling, things like that. I ran into Linnea and Michelle over and over again at auditions and we worked on a few small jobs together like the shower scene in The Man Who Wasn’t There in 3-D. They told me about Dave, and I think they got me involved with Sorority Babes and then we did Nightmare Sisters.

Jason Bene: Where was the bowling establishment located and what was the shooting schedule like?

Brinke Stevens: [Laughs] The bowling alley was located near San Diego, so it was a location shoot. I can’t remember exactly how long we were down there, it had to be two or three weeks, though it seemed like months. Because the bowling alley was open during the day, we had to wait until they closed at 9 o’ clock at night to shoot our scenes, so we would shoot until 9 o’clock in the morning. After a couple weeks of this you really start to feel like a vampire because you sleep all day and have breakfast at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and then go to work. I’ve had this a lot with horror movies though where so many are set at night and I really don’t like night shooting, especially when you have to shoot all night for a long period of time. It totally alters your inner clock.

Jason Bene: Was there any time for the cast to have some beers and throw some strikes?

Brinke Stevens: [Laughs] Toward the end if we got there early towards 9 o’clock at night when the bowling alley was closing people would bowl. There was a lot of camaraderie. I shared a room with Michelle Bauer and I remember she would always have a cooler full of beers. It was good, we all liked each other. It was a nice encounter down there.

Jason Bene: I can’t talk about this film without bringing up the ‘Spanking’ scene. That was the flogging heard around the geekdom world. Was that the ultimate ‘Brinke’ moment among your fanbase?

Brinke Stevens: I must say that the spanking scene did get a lot of attention from fans and the fact is we were never really coming into contact with the paddle, we just sat and pretend. We made it look convincing, so that was kind of fun. You don’t see spanking scenes in a lot of movies.

Jason Bene: You might hold the record for any actress for the number of times stripped down to your birthday suit and took a shower. Was doing full body nudity something you were comfortable with?

Brinke Stevens: I had lived in San Diego and I frequently went to a nude beach there called Black’s Beach, so nudity was never a problem for me. Plus, the very first movie I did [The Slumber Party Massacre] required that you had to be naked at least once – twice would be better. That trend continued throughout the video movies where nudity was just expected. It’s a good thing I didn’t have any problem with it, and usually they do a closed set where only just a few people would be on the set at a time. Although in the end millions of people will see you. One of the things about the 80’s was we had the whole video technology revolution in the mid-80’s, so this new form of entertainment came out and they had to find a way to sell it, and they did it with a beavy of beautiful babes.

Jason Bene: In the later half of the 1980’s – you, Linnea, and Michelle were at the height of the ‘Scream Queen’ world. Was there any kind of friendly competition between you three? Did you all get along?

Brinke Stevens: We were all great friends. We hung out and we’d go shopping together. There was never a competition between us and I really think we were the first original ‘Scream Queens’ of that era. Then as magazines started appearing like Femme Fatales and Draculina, every girl who could reference anything suddenly said I’m a ’Scream Queen’. It really muddied the waters for a long time about who really deserved that title.

Jason Bene: There’s your Jamie Lee Curtis type who did a few horror films, but that isn’t what she wanted to do. You guys embraced it and still do it.

Brinke Stevens: I think the biggest part of our popularity was fan conventions were really taking off then and we were so accessible. We’d go to conventions and sit at our tables and sign autographs and talk to people. You can’t get that with Julia Roberts. The fact that we were so accessible to our fans really helped us, plus the fact that we had all been in Playboy or Penthouse. I’m sure that didn’t hurt either. That was mainly the target audience during the video craze, college-aged males.

Jason Bene: I don’t really think too highly of the ‘Scream Queens’ now, I like the ones I grew up with.

Brinke Stevens: The whole market has changed where I’m not even sure if it is even possible for a girl to repeat the kind of career that I had. When I started there where studios from Fred Olen Ray, Charles Band, and Dave DeCoteau; and they were making six or eight movies a year, and we were in a lot of them. We had a very blue collar attitude where we were just working to pay the rent, and we did so much product so that really helped. Nowadays it’s much harder for an actress to be in so many different products.

Jason Bene: I always tell my younger friends that they missed out on so much fun back then.

Brinke Stevens: Last November I was a celebrity guest at Screamarama at The Loft Cinema in Tuscon, Arizona. They showed ‘Sorority Babes’ and then I got up on stage afterwards for an hour and did a Q & A. A lot of the kids in this audience had not even been born when this movie had been made. They laughed at all the right places and truly loved the movie. I realize that there’s just not that much horror-comedy that’s being done. It was very light-hearted, very fun. It didn’t take itself seriously and yet I was reminded that it has such good production value for a low budget movie. There’s a guy on fire, a car flips, it really did deliver as far as production value.

Jason Bene: I have always applauded the fact that you never altered your body with some kind of augmentation to your anatomy. For me, that made you sexier that you were yourself and all natural.

Brinke Stevens: Thank you, I appreciate that. The main reason I didn’t do it was because I was happy with myself and I am very squemish about anything that involves needles or knives. A lot of people would tell me you will never get work in this town unless you get a breast job and a lot of my friends did. I’ve done 140 movies so I’d have to say they were probably wrong about that.

Jason Bene: The late George ‘Buck’ Flower is one of the the most beloved character actors around and is most remembered for his work in countless films from John Carpenter. What do you recall about him?

Brinke Stevens: I remember running in to him here and there. He seemed like a real character and what you see on the screen is what he was really like.

Jason Bene: If you had one wish from an Imp what would it be?

Brinke Stevens: To be healthy all the rest of the days of my life.

Killer Film would like to thank Brinke Stevens for granting us an interview and for being such a sweetheart. Brinke has agreed to do another ‘Late Night Classic’ feature in the near future. Look out for it!

Tags: Andras Jones, Brinke Stevens, Craig Caton, David DeCoteau, George 'Buck' Flower, Hal Havins, John Stuart Wildman, Late Night Classics, Linnea Quigley, Michael Sonye, Michelle Bauer, Robin Stille