Three Girls Walk into a Bar, They Find a Stairwell to Talk

"Leaving the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, the Soska sisters and I hunted for a place to chat. Clad in their usual armor of sultry micro-minis and sky-high heels, we made our way through the downpour outside, and into the Pauper’s Pub. Scavenging the building for a quiet place to talk proved difficult. Ultimately, our goal was met. 

Sneaking up the stairs leading to the Pauper’s famous roof-top patio, now closed for the season, we attempt to perch ourselves on one of the plateaus. Not so fast, it seemed. The manager of the pub sent security after us, and they attempted to coax us back downstairs. Unfamiliar with such situations, I was prepared to go find another location. The twins had other ideas. 

In a flash, they not only managed to secure us the Pub’s stairwell to conduct our interview, but to charm these two men into oblivion. I’m in awe. Quick witted and fiercely intelligent, they know exactly how to work a room, without an inch of compromise. It’s no wonder they’ve managed to take the indie horror film circuit by storm. Shortly after this interview they cleaned up at Screamfest, walking away with Best Picture, Best Directors, Best Actress for Katherine Isabelle, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup. Each award skillfully earned and well deserved. 

With such acclaim comes much curiosity. The Soska twins have been flying just under the radar – until now. What fascinates me about these women is the quality of their work, and integrity of their work ethic. In a male-dominated industry, it’s a struggle to make a mark. The twins have what it takes not only to make their presence known, but to make a change, bringing female writers, directors, and producers to the foreground. Smart, creative, and driven, they’re starting an army, and are about to take the industry by storm."

I absolutely love this interview we did with Ariel Fisher at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. If you have a moment, please take a boo or two, fuck even three. It's one of my favourites that we've had the opportunity to do. Kudos to Ariel for killing it on the piece.

It's very easy to talk to such an intelligent, well versed woman in the industry and this interview gets some amazing insight on filmmaking, our experiences herein, and how we've gotten to the point that we're at.

AF: On that note, what’s your endgame? What do you ultimately want for your careers? 

JS: I would like our names to be synonymous with Horror. There are so many great male horror directors. I can’t name three great female horror directors. Mary Herron did American Psycho, and she’s done a couple of other things. 

SS: Mary Lambert – 

JS: done Pet Sematary – 

SS: They’re all Mary’s, aren’t they? I like Alice Guy-Blanche, I love her. She was the first director of fiction cinema. Most people don’t know that the first director that did non-documentaries was a woman. And it was because she was a woman that so much of her material- 

Just as they were about to give me an insightful glimpse into the first female director, the unsettling bar manager returns. For what reason, I’m still unsure. Bantering like pros, Sylvia and Jen swoon him into oblivion, getting him to leave. 

JS: Feminine wiles. 

SS: Oh, it’s so easy to do that. It’s like an evil superpower. 

JS: You should have seen us on Dead Hooker in a Trunk. Of course, we had no permits. It was half Rodriguez, half Ed Wood. If we got it ‘oh, it’s good enough! Let’s do it! Might happen in nature!’ But an officer would show up, and there’d be Sylv in her little outfit, just go over, act really confused – 

SS: And my makeup was even whorier than this, if you’d believe it.- 

JS: and just pretend you’re with a film school, and your teacher is David, and he said it’s okay. 

SS: it’s a double edged sword, because someone looks at a girl like me and assumes I’m the stupidest thing ever. Jen and I, we had a 4.0 GPA through everything, we never left the honor roll. After [Jen and I] graduated, [we] were hired on promotion teams, and we were paid $50 an hour to stand by things and smile, and I was so disgusted with myself, because my brain is important, and I am standing by a car and waving. […] So I decided I’m gonna use my brains, mix it with all this makeup and pushup bras, and do something with myself. What I would like to do is grow tWISTED tWINS to the point where we can open tWISTED tWINS Studios, where we not only make our films, but we finance our own films, like Troublemaker [Studios]. And we find other filmmakers, talented people that might not have the opportunity otherwise, and fund their project. And it would be nice, because I feel, especially in the horror genre, it’s so diluted with soulless crap. They know things make money, but they don’t understand why. And it would be nice to give the power back to the fans, the creative people. I feel like it’s a gift to have this opportunity, because this is a bit of a spectacle. This opens a lot of doors, and as long as you work hard, you don’t make any of the mistakes that a lot of people do, the pressures of an easy life, and you show that you can do it that way. Hopefully this is the start of a fucking army. 

JS: Little girls are always told – that’s how we got into acting – you can be an actress, you can be a model, you can be a singer. No one ever says you can be an executive producer. You could be the CEO. You know you could be a director or writer? Oh my god, we’re story tellers! If I’d known I could be a director, I wouldn’t have worried with all that acting shit. My happiest moment is when a little girl, or boy, messages us and says ‘I didn’t know if I could make a movie, but you girls made Dead Hooker in a Trunk and I’m gonna start my feature.’

READ THE WHOLE EXTREMELY REVEALING, HONEST, THOUGHTFUL PIECE HERE.

When you have the opportunity to travel as much as we have been blessed with, it's a special treat to meet new friends and kindred spirits - this was one of those lovely experiences.

-Sylv

Twitch Film Exclusive at the Mary Cast & Crew Screening

 The buzz surrounding Canadian identical twin horror directors Jen and Sylvia Soska is growing increasingly loud, despite the fact that their second feature film, American Mary, has yet to even premiere. Following the unlikely success of their ultra-low-budget grindhouse flick Dead Hooker in a Trunk, the girls quietly cultivated both a reputation and a serious fan base that includes director Eli Roth.

This past Monday, something very special happened for the cast & crew that came together to create a film called AMERICAN MARY - we reunited in the Rio Theatre to watch the film together for the first time. If you were part of the creation of the film, you had the opportunity to see her exclusively for the first time - also, if you were the brilliant Rachel Fox of Twitch Film, you got to see the film and be the very first person to speak to the cast that night.

On Monday, I attended a private screening for cast and crew at the Rio Theatre in the Soska's hometown of Vancouver, where the film was shot. American Mary is the story of broke medical student Mary Mason, who becomes disillusioned enough with the "establishment" to drop out when she discovers a more lucrative way to make use of her surgical skills in the dangerous, underground world of extreme body modification. Starring Vancouverite Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Freddy vs. Jason) and an eye-popping array of old-school prosthetics and special effects courtesy of Todd Masters and MastersFX (True Blood, Slither), the film is an homage to the kind of classic horror movies Jen and Sylvia grew up watching. "We're such horror nerds," Jen tells me.  

Following the screening, the jubilant directors (donning a pair of matching dresses worn by Mary in the film) brought their own Mary, actress Katharine Isabelle, up on stage for a round of applause. Sylvia issued a heartfelt apology for "covering her in so much blood, which she hated. But it was worth it!" Isabelle seemed both emotional and overwhelmed. "I'm very happy. I had a little bit of anxiety going in, but I knew that it would be good because of these girls. It turned out to be just wonderful. I love you two."

I want thank Rachel for coming out to the screening and having a chat with us, Katharine Isabelle (Mary Mason), Tristan Risk (Beatress Johnson), and John Emmet Tracy (Detective Dolor) following the screening. Making this film was the most important thing I have ever done in my life and I have never been more proud. The team you saw in the theatre that night were the ones responsible for making AMERICAN MARY possible.

Want to know Katie's original reaction to the film, what it is like to have identical directresses on set, what it was like to bring Beatress to life with her Masters FX makeover, how it was creating the film, and why is there a dedication at the end of the film to Eli Roth? Read the whole fucking wicked piece right here!

-Sylv