This week on Rib Classic Movies, we tell the story of young actress Sarah Clapp, who, at the tender age of twelve, took the film industry (of the Boston suburbs) by storm when she starred in two movies produced by her creative arts camp class “Big Strange Movie.” In that fateful summer of 2009, she captivated an audience of small children, her immediate family members, and those with a keen eye for pure talent. With her short frizzy hair, teeth that had yet to be straightened by orthodontics, and stiff on screen presence, Sarah had that special It Girl quality which makes it even more unfortunate that she withdrew from the spotlight.
Sarah’s first film was Enter the Namuh, the story of five cousins who gather in a spider invested attic to summon otherworldly spirits for shits and giggles before going on interdimensional romps with creatures called Namuh. Sarah plays Sarah, the eldest cousin, a quiet and powerful visionary who looks completely possessed throughout the entire film. In the one interview Sarah gave after the movie’s release, she is quoted as saying that “we had an audition of sorts where we had to react to being pursued by a paranormal force and, well, I was pretty shy so I just kind of stood there and looked into the distance.”
It is this intense gaze that anchors the film, as we open with a slow zoom on Sarah’s steely blue stare. Set to a soundtrack of Gregorian chants, the cousins embark on their strange individual, journeys surrounded by an aura of mystery. On their adventures, they meet a memorable supporting cast of characters, including a steampunk weatherman, a counselor dressed up in an ape costume, and the all knowing, metallic lipstick wearing goddesses Chaniqua and LaFonda, who contribute heavily to the surrealist landscape of the film.
Our Indie Darling/America’s Sweetheart Sarah is noticeably absent in the middle of the film, but she returns just in time to save her cousins from being trapped in these realms forever. Though a character of few words, she holds immense power—both in terms of her supernatural abilities, and her ability to command attention in khaki cargo shorts. At the end, Sarah must sacrifice herself to save her cousins, and the film ends where we started, with her trademark blue eyes. The last scene is of her in a wheelchair staring out a window while the rest of the cast waves from the outside. The most apt description for this ambiguous ending is “trippy.”
This is the type of movie that you’d come across in the corner of a dusty consignment store, watch late at night, and wonder–“woahhhh, did I just hallucinate that?” because it simulates a drug trip. For it’s psychedelic special effects and high fantasy, Enter the Namuh could easily become a cult favorite for people who are into that sort of thing.
Later that summer, Sarah showed her versatility by taking on the role of the smart and sarcastic vampire hunter Daphne in the film Escape from Vampire Island. In the thick of the vampire craze of the mid-2000s, this film approached vampire lore from a variety of interconnected angles: vampire children displaced from their home, vampire campers trying to keep their identities a secret, a documentary film crew on the beat, and the vampire hunters on a mission, known as Black Coats for their polyester uniforms (think, “Matrix Junior”).
Sarah steals every scene she’s in–wearing cat eye sunglasses while steering a canoe, inspecting a syringe full of garlic juice, and eventually embracing life as a vampire when she gets bitten at the end of the film. There are many unforgettable scenes throughout the movie, such as an elaborate chase sequence set to a rendition of ‘Paint It Black’ performed by the camp’s resident rock band and a poignant scene where a vampire child disintegrates into a pile of pebbles, but the most memorable scene for Sarah Clapp fans is when the Black Coats recruit a cyborg to help with their mission. When a malfunctioning bot knees her annoying male cohort in a sensitive region, Sarah quips “I like these robots,” showing her undeniable comedic chops.
While only a few copies of this film survive, the film trailer is online. One might stumble across it after watching every Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan video, or listening to a lyric video playlist of the Twilight soundtrack in a moment of intense existential confusion. But once the artistic and cultural significance of this film is widely recognized, Escape from Vampire Island is sure to be shown at art houses on nights celebrating the occult, the bloodthirsty, and the Sarah Clapp.
We may never know what happened to Sarah Clapp after that summer of cinematic excellence. Some say she is a student at Brown University, but obviously those people are just thinking of the less impressive Emma Watson. But for her nuance, her pathos, and her complete inability to act naturally on camera, she is a performer hard to forget.
Images via Sarah Clapp.