There’s the blood, the plastic fangs, and the spilled popcorn. But for Sarah Webb, aka Scarah, Damsel of the Doomed, she makes it work — one ghoul at a time. As the face of HorrorWeb, an Austin-based shriek-your-head-off production company, Webb creates videos promoting local events and projects nationwide while staying plugged into the broader horror scene as the brand grows.
Whether reviewing movies from her bathtub or starring in her horror feature, Webb is busy living in a perpetual spooky season. She also fronts a horror-themed rock and roll band called The Immortalz. When I caught up with her in her Halloween-themed office/bedroom—decorated with pumpkins, skeletons, and nods to ’80s slashers — Webb had much to say about keeping the content creepy between Halloween seasons. Her dog, Gomez (named after the Addams Family patriarch), made several cameos during our chat.
Webb didn’t wake up one morning like most of us and decided, “I’m going to show people obscure horror movies!” There was a little more to it. After working as a radio DJ and later as a speech pathologist at the Texas School for the Deaf, she wanted more. A health scare pushed her toward new experiences.
“I missed out on a lot of life,” she says. “So, I started saying yes to everything.”
The first “yes”? Mitch from Gore Noir magazine needed a host for his game show Splattergories. She volunteered. That led to hosting gigs at horror conventions, and soon after, HorrorWeb was born.
The Birth of Scarah
As HorrorWeb took off, so did Webb’s horror host persona, Scarah Damsel of the Doomed. “I started doing interviews with people in the horror community,” Webb explains. “I hosted a show called Tub of Terror, and then we made a movie.”
The HorrorWeb crew is affiliated with Austin’s Bat City Scaregrounds, home to three haunted houses on 15 Acres of Fear. One day, while filming at the newly built Castle Orlock, Scarah was born. “I was dressed as Scarah, holding a candelabra as they filmed me walking through the castle,” Webb recalls. “That little bit of footage sparked our first short film, Witch’s Bargain.”
Since then, Webb has written her feature film. “It’s not a straight-up slasher,” she says. “It’s definitely inspired by Elvira, but not quite as campy.”
The Business of Horror
The horror community isn’t just passionate — it’s a $20 billion juggernaut. Haunted attractions rake in $500 million annually, Halloween spending tops $12 billion, and horror films reliably pull in $1 billion yearly at the box office. Horror-themed video games like Resident Evil and Dead by Daylight bring in another $2 billion, while collectibles add another $300 million. Horror is big business — and Scarah is surfing the ghoulish wave.
And that’s not even counting social media. TikTok’s #HorrorTok boasts over 42 billion views, while YouTube channels like Dead Meat pull millions of views per video. On Instagram, horror cosplay and spooky aesthetics dominate timelines, and horror-related tweets spike 300% every Halloween season.
For Webb, it’s all about staying connected to this vast community while constantly evolving.
Halloween Roots and the Power of Scarah
For Webb, her love of Halloween started as a creative escape. “We didn’t have much money growing up,” she explains. “Christmas was great, but it was always kind of melancholy — you’d get a couple of presents and had to be happy with what you got. But when Halloween rolled around, if you were creative, you could make a costume and be whatever you wanted.”
Her earliest horror memory? Watching Night of the Living Dead when she was way too young. “I’m from the generation where your parents just left you home with the TV,” she says. “My older brother thought it was a good idea. It scared the shit out of me, but I loved it.” By third grade, she was already reading Stephen King.
The Realities of Being Scarah
Building Scarah into a recognizable character took time. In the early days, Webb styled herself to match whoever she interviewed. Once, she painted her face to look like a watercolor portrait while interviewing artist Dale Carroll. Another time, she dressed like a vampire for an interview at The Glass Coffin, a vampire-themed bar. Eventually, she realized she needed a more consistent look.
“At some point, I was like, Man, I need to stop dressing for other people and brand a character that’s recognizable.” That recognizable brand comes with its challenges, though. The connection her fans feel is genuine, but it sometimes crosses boundaries. Webb recalls one stalker incident that still rattles her.
“I thought I needed to respond to every ‘Hey, what’s up?’ in my inbox,” she says. “One woman would constantly comment and send messages. I’d heart her comments, but I didn’t realize how obsessed she was. One day, she got on a Greyhound bus, traveled five states, and showed up at my house. We found her sleeping in my bushes.”
The Future of Scarah
For Webb, the future is about growing Scarah and creating new content. “I want to continue hosting events,” she says. “I love doing murder mystery nights at Doc’s Drive-In and want to bring back Tub of Terror as a web series.”
Her focus is also on expanding her social media presence. “Instagram works best for Scarah right now, but my personal Facebook page has the most followers, which is weird,” she says. “Eventually, I want to sell more merch — T-shirts, things like that — and maybe start monetizing my content so I can reinvest in the character and keep building.”
And that’s the plan: to keep building, growing, and leaning into the horror community that has embraced her. For Sarah Webb, the world of horror isn’t just a genre; it’s her home.
Ultimately, Scarah is more than just blood, tears, and Halloween vibes. She reflects on everything that makes the horror community special: creativity, connection, and the drive to build something bigger. In a world where attention fades with the flick of a thumb, Scarah’s spooky kingdom keeps growing.
And for Sarah Webb, there are plenty of screams left to come.