Aimee Kuge is a Japanese-American independent filmmaker with a passion for crafting thought-provoking horror films that explore the human experience. Her credits include writing, directing and producing Cannibal Mukbang, co-producing Black Eyed Susan, and serving as a story producer for MTV’s Teen Mom franchise. 

Aimee is currently based in New York and she found time in her packed schedule to sit down with us and discuss her directorial feature debut, Cannibal Mukbang. 

Ella Valentine: Hi Aimee, thank you for being here. I absolutely loved “Cannibal Mukbang” – tell us more about the idea behind it and the process of getting the film made!

Aimee Kuge: Thank you so much for having me Ella! I’m so happy and honored to be featured in Horror Valentines. I’m so glad you enjoyed Cannibal Mukbang! So the idea for Cannibal Mukbang came during the pandemic, I was reflecting on past relationships, both with myself, with friends, with family, and with food. I dove into the reasons why I had lost myself in toxic relationships in the past and just put pen to paper. 

The cannibalism and mukbang part of the equation was solidified at a random pandemic party (aka people just hanging out at each other’s apartments and drinking hah). At this party, I met a friend of a friend, who told me about her friend. This girl had gone on a date with a guy she matched with on an app like Tinder. They had amazing chemistry. The guy invited her over to his apartment and prepared an incredible dinner for two. After dinner, she wanted to stay the night, but he insisted on ending the night and sent her off. The next day, the girl’s stomach starts hurting terribly. It gets bad enough that she checks herself into a hospital. At the hospital, they conduct tests on the contents of her stomach and find human meat inside her. Horrified, she tried to find the date again, but he completely vanished from the app. 

I have no idea if this story was true since I was so far removed from it, but it got me thinking… what would I do in a situation like that? I feel like one of the most messed-up things you could do to someone is feed them human meat without their consent. From there, the seed for Cannibal Mukbang was planted! 

I wrote the first draft pretty quickly after that and had multiple rounds of critique with friends and family. Once I was satisfied with the script, I started submitting to festivals. I told myself that if the script got into even ONE festival, I would pursue producing the film.

Ella Valentine: Oh my god, absolutely terrifying if the story was true! Just another reason to avoid dating haha! You wrote and directed the feature which is also your debut. How did you find working alone on the project? 

Aimee Kuge: I never felt completely alone during the process of writing and directing Cannibal Mukbang because I have an abundance of incredible friends and family members who supported me throughout every step of the film. In the future, I don’t want to be the main producer of my projects and will definitely ask for more help production-wise. The hardest part was having a full-time job and a few side hustles throughout the project.

Ella Valentine: Your career prior to “Cannibal Mukbang” was predominantly as a producer. How did your journey lead you to making your own movie or was it always the dream?

Aimee Kuge: I’ve always wanted to write and direct, but what’s funny is that after I graduated from film school, I had this idea in my head that most directors were egocentric narcissists. While I’m sure some are egomaniacs, I’ve realised that you don’t have to be this controlling, crazy person to be a director. The most important thing is having a vision and being able to communicate that vision effectively. 

Over the years, I tried to work on as many sets as possible, whether that be as a PA, as a sound person, still photographer, doing art, or SFX. I couldn’t get enough of being on set. I eventually started producing other people’s projects. With each passing project, I felt more and more excited about the idea of directing. I wanted to be a leader for other people to follow, who didn’t fit that preconceived idea of what a director should be. 

Ella Valentine: Going back to Canibal Mukbang, both of your main characters, Ash and Mark are very relatable in today’s isolated society, albeit in different ways. What kind of inspiration did you draw from the world of social media?

Aimee Kuge: Thank you for thinking Ash and Mark are relatable! I have worked as a social media manager in addition to filmmaking since 2015, so I have a wealth of experience in the social media realm to draw inspiration from. I accidentally became a vegan food influencer in Boulder, Colorado, during college and felt the pressure firsthand to feed the constant content cycle, to create and promote, create and promote, over and over. There’s something quite sinister about social media from both the creator side and the consumer side. Ash is constantly feeding her hunger for revenge, which in turn feeds content to her followers. Mark is constantly searching for connection through media consumption. They are two sides of the same coin. Does this mean they’re compatible? Or are they enabling each other? These are questions I want the viewer to ask themselves while watching.  

Ella Valentine: I was a vegan so I know what you mean about content consumption! I love how you entangled a lot of important messages about social media, love relationships and justice. I was really invested in the world you created. Do you think true love should be as accepting?

Aimee Kuge: Thank you! That’s a hard question in the context of this film. I do believe true love should be accepting… BUT killing AND eating people, yeah, that’s a major red flag in my honest opinion! The lines between right and wrong can feel so blurred when you’re in love. That’s why boundaries are so important. Throughout Cannibal Mukbang, Mark sets a boundary with his body and with intimacy, but lets Ash break his moral boundaries down almost instantly. He accepts her for who she is, cannibalism and all, until it’s inconvenient for him. 

Ella Valentine: Unfortunately there are so many predators out there who never get caught. Do you, as the creator, justify and forgive Ash?

Aimee Kuge: As a creator, I do justify and forgive Ash. She’s responding to her own experience. Ash doesn’t even think about what is “morally” acceptable. In her world, it’s her moral duty to try and stop other people from falling victim to the same type of predators that took her sister’s life. Yes, her response is pretty unhinged, but hey, if she can make a free meal out of it AND monetize it on social media in THIS economy? The more power to her! 

Ella Valentine: Making a movie about cannibalism as your first feature is quite ambitious. Were there any particular scenes that were harder to shoot?

Aimee Kuge: Almost every scene that involved SFX was a challenge to shoot simply because we didn’t have a lot of time (principal photography was 14 days) or a lot of money. I decided from the get-go that we weren’t going to use any digital effects while making Cannibal Mukbang, so I relied heavily on my SFX team, Ashley Thomas and Alex Solarzano from Yellow Moth Makeup, Jackie Hughes, Matt Weir, and D’Ana Maria Bugs to create believable (and edible) gore for April Consalo and Nate Wise to play with.

The dismemberment scene was the hardest to shoot because I initially envisioned Ash dismembering an entire dead body while delivering her monologue to Mark. For budgetary reasons, we weren’t able to get an entire fake dead body, so we just filmed close-ups of Ash cutting through a leg, an arm, removing fake organs from a split-open chest, etc. We had to film Ash and Mark’s conversation while avoiding the table, and then film all of the gore close-ups. It was tough to edit, but my co-editor Hayley Zalkin and I pulled through!

Ella Valentine: Excellent job! You must have also had a lot of fun on set! Can you share more about the directing process?

Aimee Kuge: We did have fun! It felt kind of like we were at summer camp, to be honest! For the most part, directing felt like a breeze because I had such an amazing and talented cast and crew to work with. My director of photography, Harrison Kraft, and I had worked on a few music videos together, Something’s Not Right and FOMO by Peter Kleinhans, so I knew what being on set with him was like. Harrison and my gaffer, Danny Rinaldi are a dream team. I truly love collaborating with them and owe so much to them for being part of this journey with me and helping bring my vision to life.

April Consalo, Nate Wise, and Clay von Carlowitz are incredibly talented actors and did a lot of work to get to know their characters from the inside out. Fortunately, we had a few months of pre-production to have meetings and rehearsals, so we all felt prepared to rock it once the cameras started rolling. 

It’s important to me to be collaborative when directing, too, so I made sure that my cast and crew felt like their voices were being heard if they had any creative ideas they wanted to try out on set. I had also worked with the majority of my crew in the past, so there was a sense of trust on set that made things flow more easily. 

Ella Valentine: What are your favourite horror films of all time? And are you binging any series right now?

Aimee Kuge: My favorite horror movies of all time, oof, that’s a tough question. I’ll give you my favorite horror films at this very moment haha. I adore The Fly, it’ll always be in my top four because I love David Cronenberg and feel like The Fly is the perfect film. It makes me laugh, turns me on, makes me cringe, horrifies me, and leaves me devastated. What more could I want in a film? I also really love Trouble Every Day by Claire Denis, she has such an intimate way of filming horror that I really respect and find mesmerizing. I also recently watched Sasha Rainbow’s film Grafted and LOVED it. Body horror is probably my favorite subgenre, and Grafted delivered plenty for me to be grossed out and inspired by. I’m slowly making my way through Severance and loving it. Next up would have to be Yellowjackets, I’ve heard so many good things! I avoided a lot of cannibal movies while making Cannibal Mukbang, so I am catching up on what I missed out on over the past few years. 

Ella Valentine: I loved Grafted too! Let’s get to know you a little bit! What inspires you? Biggest icks?

Aimee Kuge: I’m inspired by relationships and the weird, fine lines we walk as humans with each other. I also pull a lot of inspiration from personal experiences and conversations with friends and loved ones about what excites or terrifies them. 

One of my biggest icks is people who steamroll a conversation and don’t know how to ask interesting questions or listen. I know it sounds kind of silly to say, but I love listening. I make an effort to pay attention to people’s conversations on subway rides and walks. There is so much inspiration from the world around us, sometimes you have to just stop and listen. 

Getting inspiration from other artists is also very important to me! I make it a point to go to art galleries and exhibits, concerts and shows, and consume as many films as possible, whether at home or in theaters. There’s so much interesting art out there for us to explore.

Ella Valentine: Is there someone you’d love to collaborate with?

Aimee Kuge: It’s a dream of mine to collaborate with Larry Fessenden and Barbara Crampton! I would be so honored to direct something that they act in together. I loved seeing them in Jakob’s Wife and think they’re so talented and cool. 

Ella Valentine: What advice would you give to female horror filmmakers on making their first feature?

Aimee Kuge: My advice is simple. Just go for it. You have amazing ideas that are unique to you and deserve to be heard and seen. Just write, draw, do whatever fills up your creative cup, and don’t wait for people to give you permission. Share your work with friends and people you trust, don’t gatekeep your own stuff! If you don’t have a lot of resources, write something that you can film yourself with your friends. Experiment. Take up space. Don’t worry about being cringe.

Ella Valentine: Can you tell us more about what’s next on the agenda? Will you continue to both, write and direct and will you remain in the horror lane?

Aimee Kuge: I have two features that I’m trying to get funding for! One is a horror comedy that I wrote about an emo band set in 2004. The other is a dark comedy that I’m co-writing with my co-producer and long-time friend, Madeleine Ours. Two narrative shorts that I assistant directed and produced are in post-production right now, and another short that I’m assistant directing and producing is in pre-production as we speak!  

Horror is my home, the genre continues to surprise and inspire me. I’ll keep making genre films for as long as I live! 

Ella Valentine: We look forward to seeing what you do next! 

Aimee Kuge: Thank you so much for having me! Cannibal Mukbang will be available to stream in the UK and Ireland on June 9th! You can pre-order it on Apple TV here: https://tv.apple.com/gb/movie/cannibal-mukbang/umc.cmc.716uslrl3wd91mz4t0tdwn904