Red Rue: A New Supernatural Lesbian Webseries
“Rue died more than 100 years ago, on the night of a rare Red Moon, and generations of evil Hunters have been chasing her ghost ever since. The Hunters need her spirit in order to unlock the gates of hell. So it's up to her human friends Katie, Hardy, Justine & Stella to find a way to save Rue, before all hell breaks loose. Literally. But the farther Rue's friends go to try to save her, the more Katie realizes she has feelings for Rue.”
Last week I had the chance to sit down with Red Rue creator and director, Michelle Hanson, as well as most of the cast – Colleen Dunne (Rue), Laura Spires (Katie), Cat McAlpline (Justine), Anna Leeper (Stella), and Stephen Woosley (Christopher) –, to talk about the upcoming webseries.
Michelle tells me the inspiration for Red Rue came one day at work while she was listening to a song with lyrics about the ghost. “I kind of laid out the basic outline of the story and just starting working form there. It kind of just happened on a whim.”
The series begins when Katie moves in with her college friend Justine, who has recently inherited a house. Katie doesn’t anticipate her third roommate, Rue, whose spirit has been trapped in the house ever since she died of influenza in her early twenties. Justine is Rue’s great-great niece and the house has continued to be passed down in their family for generations. Katie soon also meets Hardy, Justine’s friend in town, and the gang later brings in Stella to help with their mission of saving Rue from the Hunters. Michelle calls Justine the Monica of the friend group, bringing everyone together. “It’s her house, and everyone comes over.”
In reality, the house belongs to Laura Spires. Laura tells me the house, which is pre-civil war, may or may not be haunted. Her neighbors, whose house is connected to her own, are convinced they have ghosts, and she’s mentions a framed photograph mysteriously falling off a shelf and shattering. All of filming took place over a busy weekend, the entire series being done in just two days.
Michelle and the Red Rue actors met at a local theater company, where they’re all ensemble members. Although most of the actors have never done a webseries before (specifically Laura, who jokes constantly that she’s “never done film”), Michelle says specifically having theater actors was actually better. “It was only one camera that we were shooting with, we couldn’t do cut scenes, so we had to go straight through each time and because they’re theater actors and could learn up to three minutes of dialogue each time, that really helped.”
The series follows the popular format that many webseries employ by using a single “web” camera, but with a twist -- instead of the classic vlog format where the characters are actively recording their lives, their webcam has been hacked and they’re being watched by the hunters who are chasing Rue. “They make jokes that that’s how they’re probably being watched by the evil Hunters, but they don’t have any confirmation of it,” Michelle says.
The camera format allows us to see more than just the friend group’s quest to save Rue – it also lets us see inside Katie and Rue’s budding relationship. All of the main characters are part of the LGBTQ community, but Michelle makes the distinction that it’s not a story about being gay.
“The story is about five friends coming together and helping one another and it’s kind of this allegorical tale of ‘life gets better’, with true friends, there’s nothing you guys can’t accomplish. The story is about friendship and friends who just happen to be gay, not gay friends. […] It doesn’t make the story. I think having a general storyline for the LGBT community to relate to and find a hero within themselves is really important, especially for the younger part of the community.”
This also means you won’t be seeing any of the characters coming to terms with their sexuality or coming out. Surely these moments have happened in each of their lives, but this series follows their story after coming out, unlike so many other shows featuring LGBT+ characters. Instead, you’ll hear casual mentions of crushes on girls and, of course, Katie and Rue’s romance. Cat jokes that “The only coming out in this show is Katie coming out as a phantom lover.”
As the interview wraps up, I ask Michelle if there was a potential for a season two. While she can’t say too much about it, she does have ideas cooking and hopes to continue the series.
Red Rue premieres on Youtube on Monday, September 18 and will air every Monday and Wednesday. Follow them on Twitter, Instagram, like them on Facebook, and of course, subscribe on Youtube.
