Thanks to Jen & Sylvia Soska for taking the time to do this! The Soska sisters have always loved film. Since childhood, they were heavily involved in acting. Above all, they had a special place in their twisted little hearts for horror. In elementary school, they began reading Stephen King novels, much to the dismay of their teachers. They would go to video stores and sneak over to the horror selection and look at the backs of all the boxes. When they'd find a "good one", they'd call the other over and then convince their mom to let them take it home. Not satisfied with the stereotypical roles often presented to identical twins, they set out to expand their horizons. Together, they trained in martial arts and hoped it would open up more opportunities and possible open up some stunt performing roles.
Dead Hooker In A Trunk was their debut film. The twins wrote, directed, produced, starred in, and preformed the stunts for the film. They took lessons learned from Rodriguez's book, Rebel Without A Crew, on how film making could be done on a modest budget if you have the creativity and ambition to make your film.
On December 11th of 2008, the twins incorporated their company, giving it the name Twisted Twins Productions. Always knowing that Dead Hooker in a Trunk was the first project of many to come, the twins wanted to create their own label from which all future projects would come.
Plenty Of Horror- What was your first experience with horror, and at what age?
S: We spent much of our young childhood, under ten, haunting the decorated horror section of our local video store. We would look at the boxes, read the descriptions, and make up what we thought the films were about. We begged our mom to let us watch one, which she did when we were ten and that film was POLTERGEIST. We made it through the film, but were terrified when bed time rolled around. My mom did something that would forever change the way that I look at film - she explained what we had actually seen: the actors, the script, the sets, the director, the makeup and FX teams that all worked together with the intention of scaring the audience. It made us hopelessly hooked.
J: Same. We share 30 years of life experiences and in jokes, ha ha.
Plenty Of Horror- What attracted you to horror initially?
S: I can't remember ever not being attracted to it. We were drawn to things that others weren't. I remember playing with spiders my whole life. Once as a child at a BBQ, I showed a nice garden spider that I was playing with to family friends and I could see the horror on their faces. They ran off and screamed. I didn't understand why that happened, but it fascinated me. What frightens people still fascinates me.
J: I don't remember a time not being into horror. It just kind of chose us. Our parents always encouraged our interests and they just leaned towards horror. Our mum had and still has this massive collection of Stephen King novels. She was very clever in the way she allowed us to read them. She said if we read the novel, we could watch the film. This jump started our reading in a life changing way. In Elementary School, we'd sit there and read with our King novels and dictionaries and thesauruses. We were reading at a highschool level fast. I blame my mum and mister King for our sense of humor as well. I feel that good horror has to have elements of comedy to them. If you can't laugh at something awful, you're going to have a very hard time in life.
Plenty Of Horror- What is your favorite horror film new and old?
S: My favorite old horror film would be - yikes, what's old now? - like DEAD RINGERS, MAN BITES DOG, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, AMERICAN PYSCHO. The new ones that I love are THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH, MANBORG, THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, A SERBIAN FILM. Where would AUDITION fit? I love that film too!
J: OH!! Well, clearly everything on Sylv's list, but I'd also like to add... THE THING, THE EVIL DEAD FILMS, THE SHINING, IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, I SAW THE DEVIL, THE PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE....
Plenty Of Horror- Do you have a favorite subgenre like Slasher, Zombies, B-movie, etc…?
S: My favorite would be art films if that counts. Sad ones like the ones Lars Von Trier makes.
J: Musical horror. I like the "lulz".
Plenty Of Horror- Are there any films or subgenres you really do not like?
S: I don't like things that are following a subgenre that someone else created that the new filmmaker isn't adding anything to. Zombie films have been done to death, but something that approaches it in a new way like PONTYPOOL is phenomenal. I hate remakes - I really do not like anything that makes profit over someone else's hard work and original vision.
J: No. It's not the genres fault or subgenres fault that some bad films were made in them. I have a real problem with uncreative "found footage" films. However, MAN BITES DOG is one of my favorite films ever. SO well made and the use of putting it in "found footage" form is much more than just a shtick or a way to save money.
Plenty Of Horror- What was the last horror film you saw? What did you think of it?
S: One of the last films I saw was JOHN DIES AT THE END and it was fucking good. To see original, creative thought alive and well in the genre makes me optimistic for the future. Then I see a remake rule the box office and get depressed again. At least I have NYMPHOMANIAC coming out soon to cheer me up!
J: I think it was Jennifer Lynch's CHAINED. I love her. She has this incredible way of making horror so real. I loved it. I love Jennifer Lynch. I loved BOXING HELENA.
Plenty Of Horror- Any favorite Horror themed video game? or band?
S: I used to love Silent Hill until it sold out, losing focus on the atmosphere and story elements that gave it its unique horror reality. My favorite band is Fake Shark-Real Zombie! Their stuff is just fantastic and we've been lucky enough to feature their music in all of our films, even with Kevvy writing original pieces for MARY. They have a new album out - LIAR - I've been listening to it non-stop. Great stuff and if you're curious about what might be on the soundtrack for the next film, definitely check it out.
J: Everything Sylvie just said. I hate what's happened with the SILENT HILL franchise. I wish we could come in and give it a firm kick in the ass. A loving one.
Plenty Of Horror- If you could invite any Horror Movie Icon to your birthday party who would you like to party with the most?
S: Patrick Bateman. Dating is hard when you work so much, so I might as well use this party invite to get laid. That would be a nice birthday present to myself.
J: Oooh.... Patrick Bateman. Totally Patrick Bateman. He could even DJ the party with commentary, ha ha
Plenty Of Horror- I thought Katharine Isabelle did an outstanding job playing Mary Mason, How long did you look to cast the part of Mary Mason? and did you know you had your actress immediately after seeing her?
S: Jen and I have been fans of Katie's work for years, but we were frustrated at the roles that we saw her in. She's so phenomenally talented, but many films don't utilize the calibre of actress they have on their project. We wrote the role for Katie, it might sound cruel considering what she goes through in the film, but it was everything we wanted to see her do in a film. When writing, I feel pretty hard for Mary and started to feel anxious because I didn't really know Katie, I just had all these assumptions from being a fan. We sent her the script and we had a meeting. We ended up closing down three places, up til 5am talking passionately about body modification, the recession, and radical feminism - that night I knew she would be even better than my unrealistically high expectations of her, and I was right.
J: We have a feel for people. You have to when you're a writer and director. Your job is to recreate life and you need to be able to pick up signals and qualities off of people. Most of life is people talking without coming right out and saying what they really mean. You have to read between the lines. You can pick qualities of strength, intellect, bravery, humor, vulnerability... all those attributes were so important to the character of Mary. We saw all of that in Katie and more. She's got this amazing presence. You see her and you just know she's special. We never write for an actor because you just don't know if it'll work out. You end up seeing an actor instead of the character, but Katie IS Mary. She has that power and can show her vulnerability in such a beautiful way. She is one of our generations great actresses and she's more than proven that with the film and in her body of work. You'll certainly be seeing us working together again. We've fallen hopelessly in love now.
Plenty Of Horror- Where did the idea for American Mary come from?
S: We stumbled upon body modification years prior through an April Fool's prank featuring identical twin brothers who swapped limbs. It scared me. My mother taught me that if something frightens you it's because you don't know enough about it, so educate yourself and your fear will be gone. I researched the body mod community endlessly, my fear turned to fascination to admiration. We were in the hospital with ailing loved ones for days on end, out, then back again. Medicine and doctors became a part of our lives as film had. We used mainstream medicine as an analogy for our trials and tribulations in the film industry, and the body mod community for the indie scene. It became a lot more of a personal story with so many elements of our lives in it, but I think that honesty is part of what makes the film what it is.
J: The film is very much an analogy for our own ventures in the film industry. We started out acting and modelling and as you can imagine we came up against so very unsavory characters. I heard the stories, I thought I saw it all. Then when we made DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, we saw a whole new ugly side to this business where as much as we struggled to be seen as equal to our male counter parts, our gender and usually our age became the object of discrimination with many monster producers and execs. We found that the people you're meant to respect and hold in high regard are often the real monsters and the outsiders, the indie brats and the horror community which can appear to look a little different or seem intense are in fact the sweetest, most generous and honest people you'll ever meet. That's largely where our theme, "appearances are everything" came from.
Plenty Of Horror- Now I read on you website that future scripts are The Man Who Kicked Ass, and Bob, Can you tell us what those are about? are they horror? and any possible time frame when you hoping to have the first one done?
S: BOB almost went before MARY because MARY was a very fucking tough sell. BOB is an original monster movie that we are teaming with Masters FX to create something special. The tagline is: There's a monster inside all of us, sometimes it gets out. We're in early prep, hoping to shoot this year. There are also two amazing scripts by one of our favorite artists that we are very excited to bring to the big screen as well as a couple projects we cannot announce quite yet - we're going to be be pretty busy for the rest of our lives which is great. I'd like to put out a new film every year.
J: ha ha, oh, THE MAN WHO KICKED ASS. That's a special one. It's a horror movie, but it's a western. But with a twist. I love old classic westerns. There's a lot of violence in that one. It's a real blood bath. I can't say too much about it, but I can tell you you've never seen anything like it.
Plenty Of Horror- With Dead Hooker In A Trunk, you caught the attention of Eli Roth, how was that when you found out? and do you think in the future you could do a collaborative project? I could only imagine what your three minds together could come up with.
S: DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK wouldn't have existed without our being so inspired by the multi-collaborative GRINDHOUSE. When the film was finished, we sent the trailer out to all of the directors with a message saying thank you for inspiring us to make this. Eli got back to us in two days and has become a mentor and dear friend of ours. He's one of the coolest guys on the planet and a real horror movie buff - like an encyclopedia of everything in the genre, a brilliant man. I don't know if we'll collaborate, he's already shaped our filmmaking so much. If it ever worked out that way, I'd be stoked.
J: I love Eli Roth. He's a truly wonderful filmmaker and he's been a wonderful friend and mentor to us. He's been there for us with truly the greatest advice we've received in this business. He's given us some very harsh reality and as much as it sucks, the hard stuff to hear has been the most important and empowering. He knows his horror and he's a brilliant business man on top of that. If we ever had an opportunity to collaborate with him I'd love that. We'll see what happens.
Plenty Of Horror- Do you have anything else you’d like to say about the Horror Genre? Or to any of your fan’s reading this?
S: Thank you for taking the time to read this, thank you for supporting the films, that you for watching them, and getting the word out about them. That is the only reason we get to continue to do this, because you have made it so. I can never thank you enough properly, so I'm propose that we promise to keep making original films as a means of thanks for this opportunity. Please check out AMERICAN MARY, see again if you've already seen it, force it on your friends and strangers alike. Hit us up online, twitter - @twisted_twins - our tumblr, our FB pages - twisted twins productions, and if you want to make a film, don't just talk about it, go out and do it. We need more original material now than ever before.
J: I love you. Each and every single one of you. I know a lot of people say it, but we mean it. We're horror fans ourselves first and foremost and to have the horror community embrace us and our work has meant the world to us. And we love you for it. You're the reason we get up in the morning, the first thing we do in the morning being checking in online to see how you're all doing, and the reason not only for why we do what we do, but you're the reason we're able to do what we do. THANK YOU more than I can ever hope to type. If we get to travel to where you are, please come see us. We love meeting you all. And I can say we're only just getting started.
Thanks again!!
Bloody Best,
Jen and Sylv
