Be Afraid and Do It Anyway: Interview with Catastrophe Cate of The Handmade Horror Shoppe

Catastrophe Cate, Image courtesy of the artist

Catastrophe Cate is a DIY queen, actress extraordinaire, a wild woman who has traveled the country and believes in risk- taking, and a dear friend of mine. She also happens to make some incredible spooky homegoods in her newest venture, The Handmade Horror Shoppe. I have always known her to be the person that dives headfirst into her passions, for better or worse, and as a newer member of the horror-maker scene, Cate has instantly planted her wares as timeless, high-quality, and unique Halloween items. But there’s a larger story behind Catastrophe Cate: She’s a multifaceted artist stretching her skills from acting to knitting. Cate makes everything from garden beds to micro-swimming pools, and in her most recent venture, her famous Murder Dolls. And as someone who made the hard transition from acting and waitressing full-time to opening her own store during the pandemic, I can’t think of a better person to talk to about the pivot from employee to small business owner. 

Cate went to university for theater where she learned acting, directing, stage combat, set painting and sculpting, costuming, and puppeteering. All of these creative skills combined are what has culminated in her brand The Handmade Horror Shoppe. She often makes the things that she would like to buy for herself but can’t find. Her work is based on responsible consumption with a huge focus on sustainability and quality. 

As an actress, Cate learned how to create something from nothing. Instead of learning the ins and outs of every single possible role that she could ever play, she learned flexibility and adaptability, skills that would ultimately transfer into the rest of her life, especially during the pandemic. “Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo,” she says—a very good statement to keep in mind when you’re pulling out the thirty-fourth row of stitches in your knitting project for the hundredth time. Her personal mantra—“Be afraid and do it anyway”—comes from her experience in improvisational theater—making mistakes, learning from them, making more mistakes, starting all over again. It’s a reminder that things often turn out better than you planned, and helps her to find strength in moments of doubt.

You’re a jill of all trades: knitting, sewing, gardening, crafting, etc. How did you get started making things?

I’ve always been a creative person, having been drawn to theater and music from a young age. My grandma, who I’m named after, was an incredible seamstress and master knitter. She made me a Halloween costume every year, whatever I wanted, and they were always beautiful. When she passed away in 2010, I regretted never learning those skills from her so I resolved to teach myself. I learned to knit by watching YouTube and asking the nice old ladies at knitting stores for help if I ever got really hung up. I inherited my grandmother’s old sewing machine, an old 1950s “White” cabinet machine I called Margaret, and learned to sew with a lot of trial and error, as well as from the costuming classes I was taking as part of my theater degree. I took additional classes in both costuming and theatrical drafting/construction because I really enjoyed the skills associated with them. When I’m interested in something I tend to become totally obsessed with it, so it’s only natural for me to learn to do all the things. 

One of your best-selling and most famous items is your hand-knit Murder Dolls. How did you get started making them?

I started them as an end-of-show gift for my beloved supervisors! I was working as a scareactor in Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights Trick ’r Treat maze in 2018. I got to portray Anna Paquin’s character, Little Red Riding Hood, except it was after she had already transformed (I had a delightfully terrifying, vicious wolf mask by Magee FX and I literally scared people onto their asses every time I was on set). Scareactors tend to be a tight knit groupI am still friends with so many people from that cast—and also Trick ’r Treat has a huge cult following, so it felt like a very special thing to be a part of. I decided to make a pair of Sams for my lovely maze supervisors, who made a very hard and often dangerous job fun and doable. I adapted a teddy bear pattern that had been my grandma’s, made the Sammies for “Mom” and “Dad”, and before I knew it I had a dozen requests from castmates who wanted one, too. And almost immediately I started getting requests to do Michael. And Chucky. And Freddy. I was amazed by the response and have never quite been able to wrap my mind around it. I am forever grateful to that cast for helping me to realize my potential. 

What is it that makes The Murder Dolls unique?

Firstly, they are totally hand crafted, which is increasingly rare these days. The bases are knitted, not crocheted or stitched together from fabric. Knitting is a very time-intensive activity. There are also sewn, painted, and sculpted parts to the dolls. Each element is very intentionally crafted to be as detailed and accurate as possible to the original source material. I’m a total nerd and a perfectionist who revels in details and hair-splitting, so I hold myself to a pretty high standard. And I want to be sure that it’s a quality made piece of art, durable enough to be used and still last a lifetime. It is still a doll at the end of the day.

They are also entirely soft with almost no metal or sharp pieces (with the exception of the metal snaps used for securing their accessories but those are not at all sharp). This wasn’t something I was doing intentionally at first, but got the feedback twice that a lot of the time horror dolls are not child safe and have sharp or easily breakable elements. Mine are entirely soft, which is an advantage I wasn’t even aware of! Finally, they themselves are unique because there are only a select few out there in the world. If you are a collector and a lover of spooky, unique, one-of-a-kind art, this is for you. 

Where do you get your inspiration? How do you decide what to make?

A lot of times I work “outside in”, meaning I wait to find some material or item to inspire me and I go from there. But a lot of times I’ll look at something—a character in a movie or another doll or plushie—and I know exactly what I would do if I were to make it into a Murder Doll. (Not how to do each step; those are “minor details” to be sorted out when we reach that point, not something to deter me from jumping in headfirst immediately). 

Trick or Treat Murder Dolls, The Handmade Horror Shoppe

I have a lot of stories that I really enjoy and want to revel in as I create things for the shoppe. I’m completely obsessed with The Rocky Horror Picture Show and more than anything want to make a Frank-N-Furter doll, but first I need to find some perfect curls for his hair and to get better at doing human faces; most of my creations are masked, hideously deformed, or both. It’s actually significantly easier for me to do creature faces than it is to do a human face, which has factored into what I’ve decided to make up to this point, but I’ll keep practicing until I can make a face I’m satisfied with. 

I also just really love the general passion of the horror community, and I want to do right by the people who have been supporting me the last few years while I got HMHS off the ground. A few of them have put in requests for dolls they want me to make, and I’m going to do my best to honor them, even if they’re not from a horror movie I’m particularly in love with. (For example: I’ve never seen and probably couldn’t handle The Texas Chain Saw Massacre even if I tried, but I enjoy making the Leatherface dolls because so many people love him. Also because he’s rendered adorable in yarn and felt, yet he’s still menacing, and who doesn’t love contradiction in art?

Why horror? What do you love about it?

I love the thrill. I love the swooping, tight feeling that you get in your stomach, just below your solar plexus, that you get as the anticipation is building. I love that it makes you doubt your reality and question what’s real, long after the movie is over. And I love the underlying subtext of horror: the perversion of societal norms to show you that society is perverted, the symbolism, and all the Olde Stories with gods and monsters all being brought to life again but with different faces.

I know you’re very committed to sustainability. Can you talk about how that influences what you make?

It influences less of what I make and more of the materials that I chose to make it with. I don’t think sustainability practices have to be limiting in any way; you just have to be willing to go slowly and find a lot of creative solutions. In general I try to limit the use of plastic everywhere in my life, but there’s some notable exceptions. Instead of wool felt (which is challenging to source locally, especially in the range of colors I need), I use a PET felt which is derived from 100% plastic bottles. I also try to use what’s available to me locally or what I can find secondhand, which reduces shipping and packaging waste as well as diverts waste from landfills, but that sometimes only leaves me with acrylic or polyester options. I’m committed to finding sustainable alternatives, but it’s a process that can’t happen overnight (I have to first use up what I already have, and it’s quite a yarn hoard, tbh.) 

What are your plans for the future of the Handmade Horror Shoppe?

Ghost Garlands, The Handmade Horror Shoppe

Onward and upward, baybee! I’m hoping to start working horror conventions next year. Conventions are cool because it opens up a realm of possibilities for larger, heavier items that would be expensive and difficult to ship. And I do think The Murder Dolls are way more impressive in person. 

I have a whole list of dolls that I want to create. Up to this point, I was almost exclusively working on a commission basis so I didn’t get to pick what I worked on. But now that I can really devote the time into developing my Murder Dolls, I want to pick characters that speak to me. I’ve been wanting to make Dracula for a long time, and I’ve been gathering the fabric and the confidence to tackle The Pennywises. (I’m a massive Stephen King and Tim Curry fan, so I want to do both incarnations and I want to make sure I do them right.)

I also want to branch out and do some building and sculpting with different medias. I’ve always really liked masks and masked theater, so I’ve begun playing with mask-making, building some masks that can either be worn or used as decoration from cardboard and paper mache (using recycled materials and homemade paper mache paste, of course). I am utterly obsessed with The Nightmare Before Christmas and there is literally endless inspiration there, so I’m definitely diving into bringing some of that to life ASAP. A huge part of my mission is creating plastic-free Halloween decorations, too, so I’m expanding the home decor stuff now, hoping it can pay the bills and float me while I develop new characters. 

You mention acting. Would you ever be in a horror film?

Oh, I would love to. I’ve done a few darker plays. In college I played Lucy in Steven Dietz’s Dracula. We did it around Halloween and it was so much fun. Lucy is turned into a vampire so I got to die on stage and rise again, attack my lover, and reappear a few scenes later as a full vampire with blood in my hair and a flowy white dress. It was marvelous. There was a trap in the stage that served as my open grave in the scene; I was originally blocked to crawl into it but I asked if instead I could leap into it. The dress would billow up around me and it was so perfect. Then I was staked and screamed my heart out from the pit below the stage. Actually, my college ended up recording my scream because they said it was the quintessential horror movie scream, and it is saved in their permanent sound FX bank. 

Who is your favorite final girl?

That’s a tough one! When I was little I wanted to *be* Jessie from Queen of the Damned—an occult expert living in London who gets turned by a rock and roll vampire? Yes, please. And Midsommar’s Dani is very inspiring to me with her journey of transformation. But my ultimate favorite has gotta be Wendy Torrence. Shelly Duvall is *the perfect* lens for the audience to experience The Shining through because she is so expressive and vulnerable and present. When I was little I was uncomfortable with her level of emotion, but now I think it’s excellent and part of why she is able to survive The Overlook. She is willing to engage and be honest and emotionally present in ways that the men in the film are not. Also if I were in her shoes you’d better believe I’d be borderline hysterical, especially if my child were in jeopardy. And despite all her fear, she is so brave and practical and she and her son make it out alive. I have the phrase “Be Afraid & Do It Anyway” on the wall in my office and that’s Wendy Torrance to a W.T. Wendy is an Everywoman, quietly strong and effectively taking care of business without being rattled by her less-than-ideal surroundings. You’re a hero, Wendy. 

Why the nickname Catastrophe Cate?

I have a knack for creating mishap, and  my boyfriend coined this phrase and lovingly says it any time I knock things over, drop things, break things in fun new ways, etc. It ALSO refers to my tenacity and willingness to throw my whole self at something, come hell or high water, and I make things happen. Sometimes a little chaos is just what people need. Most importantly it’s a message to everyone that yes, sometimes we mess up and fail and make a mess, but that’s okay. Don’t let that stop you.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Interview by Theresa Baughman

Theresa totally hates movies but sometimes watches them with her friends. She writes about the intersection of art & anthropology, gendered horror, and she loves demonic possession horror.