Shannon LeClerc, You Draw Fucking Pics!

Shannon LeClerc is a wickedly talented 'wanna-be comic artist, animator and Horror fan' - and you know what, being avid, rabid comic book fans ourselves - we really want her to be one. Above is the cool as fuck drawing of Badass and Geek from DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK and, no surprises here, WE TOTALLY FUCKING ADORE IT.

You can check more of Shannon's work here and twitter stalk her here. You'll be glad that you did! Shannon, we love this. Thank you for making a pair of nerds have a stupid grin on their faces for days with this now.

~Sylv

Hayes Hudson's House of Hooker

"DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK wins two awards from me. First off, it wins my award for best title ever! Second off, it wins my most unexpectedly enjoyable film of the year. Not to say I didn't think I would like this film, but I just really didn't know much about it and being the Soska Sisters first feature film, I had my concerns. Well, you would never know this was a first feature from the directors. I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would for sure."
- Hayes Hudson, House of Horror

Like the best people on the planet, Hayes has always loved horror (and alliteration for that matter - double cool points) and his fucking fantastic (alliteration) site is there to share that love. It's like two people marrying for love rather than bucks and perks - you can't fake the real thing and it's an absolute pleasure to check his stuff. Yes, I creeped his site - I'm not too much of a creepo to admit it.

When Jen and I came up with the idea for DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, it was a flashy fuck you for (alliteration) the 'film school' that ripped us off and squandered what should have been the budget for our final project. It was a fake trailer in the realm of the multi-collaborative and ridiculously underrated GRINDHOUSE flick which truly was all the film school we needed. That and like every 'Ten Minute Film School' Rodriguez ever made. The excitement over the fake trailer led to excitement for a feature and it was our main priority to make something crazy and fun that you could turn your brain off and laugh like a moron to for 90 minutes. The format - well, we were making a chick road trip flick with a very visible love for the flicks we grew up loving.

"As I stated before, it is very hard to categorize this film. It definitely has a lot of dark comedy elements to it, and reminded me a bit of the (very underrated film in my opinion) VERY BAD THINGS. But don't worry, you gore hounds will have something to enjoy as well, as there is a LOT of blood in this film and some crazy scenes involving a dismembered arm and someone losing an eyeball. That is all I will say about those things, as I don't want to spoil all the surprises for you."

Thank you so kindly to Hayes for taking the time to check out our HOOKER in his house of horror (alliteration) and writing such a cool piece on his thoughts on the flick. VERY BAD THINGS - dude, I love it when the leads get fucked up. Too often they are miraculously unscathed and where's the fun in that? Please clickity click here to the whole piece and see if this HOOKER is for you! (answer: yes it is)

~Sylv

FearNet's Top Twelve Favorite Hookers in Horror - & They Even Threw in our Dead Hooker for Good Measure!

Fearnet is phenomenal. Edgy, brilliant, thoughtful, fun, and always there for the horror fan like a bouquet of roses to make you fall in love with your favorites all over again. I loved that Alison Nastasi conjured up a list, lovingly entitled 'Stalking the Streetwalkers: 12 Hookers in Horror'. We cannot deny the allure of the female victim, our hearts jump harder when a damsel is in distress, and in the world's oldest occupation, these damsels much like in reality often fall prey to some of the most terrible monsters that can even put their cinematic doppelgangers to shame.

My main interest in the working girl victim is that all too often these women get so dehumanized by society for the work that they do. Many times, their deaths are considered a casual casualty - they're asking for it, right? You see these films, you relate to these women, and suddenly that realization of the actual humanity is there. As it should be.


Now I must admit, our DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK got a ranking between two of my favorite flicks on the list - AMERICAN PSYCHO and FROM HELL. An utter and complete honor. Here is what they had to say about our girl -

"Dead Hooker in a Trunk

The Soska Sisters' debut feature sports a Canadian working girl of the dead variety, stuffed inside the trunk of a car. Four friends make the discovery, which complicates matters and sets them off on a series of deranged encounters with bizarre characters. Even though she's dead, the hooker's role here is essential in forcing the misfit gang to face their own personal demons."

A huge and humble thank you to the team at Fear.net for their support and especially, Alison Nastasi, for compiling such a fun and fabulous list. Get the whole piece here and maybe plan a day with your buddies for a marathon viewing of these flicks. A day full of hookers, now all you need is some really choice coke.

~Sylv

Halloween Memories on Slammed & Damned

Boys and grrls, if you are avid readers of our Penny Dreadful Diary (and truly, why wouldn't you be?) you must be well acquainted with our beloved friend and exquisitely talented writer, reviewer, and interviewer, Theron Neel of Slammed & Damned as well as Planet Fury.

I hope all you fellow creatures of the night are recovered or recover-ing at this point. And hopefully, my darlings, you remember exactly what you did this Halloween, even if it's fuzzy patches that slam back into your mind like post traumatic stress disorder style acid flashbacks. We had the pleasure of chatting with Theron about our Halloweens past...

"We would look forward to it all year long. My parents thought it was funny because we would muchly prefer Halloween to Christmas, birthdays, anything else. There have been lots of folks that used to come over to me and say, “It’s not Halloween” because of my attire. Now, every day kind of is." ~ Sylvia Soska

"We’re very lucky to be able to have Halloween every day, but there is something undeniably special about Halloween. We’ve almost religiously dressed up every year. It makes me sad to hear “grownups” say that they don’t like Halloween and haven’t dressed up since they were kids. Where is it written or said that once you reach a certain age you have to stop having fun? And that’s really what Halloween is — a whole lot of demented fun." ~ Jen Soska

For the full Halloween Interview, please enjoy it RIGHT HERE!!!

And thank you, as always, Theron. You're absolutely wonderful.

Bloody Best!
Jen Soska

Happy (belated) Birthday Bad Ronald with a Special Twisted Twins Interview

Last night Sylv and I did something we should have done years and years ago. We watched DEAD RINGERS, the brilliant film by David Cronenberg starring Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons as identical twin doctors. I imagine it could be called a horror movie, but being identical twin ourselves it was a heart breaking tale of two twins, their complicated relationships with one another and themselves, and their decent into drug addiction. It was beautiful.

As you may guess, twins always have a special place in our hearts. From the 1988 film TWINS (yes, they're not identical) to the badass babysitter twins of GRINDHOUSE. Another sensational set of duplicates? Bad Ronald and his twin who merrily celebrated their birthdays yesterday. Bad Ronald has been beyond sweet to us clones and how does this outstanding doppelganger party on his birthday? By giving us Twisted Twins a sensational, in depth interview. Didn't I tell you? Twins just can't be beat.

It's actually quite a brilliant series of questions, the kind a only a twin would know to ask a twin. Get the low down on our super secret twin powers, how to tell us apart, who crossed the "finish line" first and how, and even about our upcoming elusive baby, AMERICAN MARY.

Enjoy the full interview RIGHT HERE.

Bloody Best~!!

Jen

Round Two With the Twisted Twins & Ravenous Monster

"I have always been a die-hard feminist when it comes to the horror I love. I fist pump in triumph every time Jennifer Hills mutilates a perverted mountain man in I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Ripley and her alien-whoopin’ ways will always hold a tender spot in my heart. Danielle Harris’ portrayal of Marybeth in HATCHET II offers one of my all-time favorite “fuck you!” moments, when she goes berserk on Victor Crowley at the end of the film.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that a film made about two bad-assed chicks by two bad-assed chicks would rank amongst my top favorites. The Soskas’ driving force and my deep-rooted love for the bad-assed X chromosome is a perfect match. When Sylvia snarled the epic line “like dying could kill me”, I immediately made room at the top of my 'Most Bad-Assed Moments in Horror' list."
-Justin Hamelin, Ravenous Monster

My sister, Jen, has given me so much strength in my life. I lived a nightmare for two years when I was 21 years old when a customer at the Starbucks that I worked at became infatuated with me. He was thirty years my senior and decided he wanted to fuck me. He would show up constantly, grab at me, even touch himself while watching me work. You'd think a big corporation like Starbucks would have done something to protect me, but they simply transferred me to another location where the harassment could continue.

Despite the police reports, despite all my efforts to stop it, this went on for two years before the circumstances and reports would allow me to take the case to court. The judge was so angry that he could barely speak and the ruling was five years - no contact. The event left its mark on me and I wasn't myself anymore. I didn't want to leave my room. I got rid of my apartment and Jen and I returned home. But Jen would never allow me to feel weak for long. She forced me into private, hardcore martial arts training and created Badass.

When we wrote the script, I had to be that character in her mind, even though - Jen more appropriately would get those parts. All these feelings came back to me when I stood in front of the flame bar and said Jen's fucking ridiculously tough line "Like dying could kill me." Ironic that I saved her, because she's always been there saving me.


I am one of the luckiest girls in the world because I have the most amazing people in my life. One such amazing gentleman is Justin Hamelin who took the time to do a massive interview with us. He's one of these people that honest to fucking goodness love the genre and when he speaks about it - you tend to like even your most beloved favorite flicks that much more. Speaking of incredibly kind, love the genre, gentlemen - here's a little peek at the part two of our interview --

RavMon: Eli Roth is a big time supporter. I love the fact that he seems very pro-“women can be bad assed, too”. How did you get in touch with him?

Jen: Eli is amazing. He’s been incredibly supportive and a very good friend to us. We sent our DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK trailer around to every director from GRINDHOUSE as they had each inspired us. We couldn’t believe that only two days after we messaged him, Eli Roth wrote back to us and asked if he could see the finished film. We spoke back and forth and he gave us some really good advice. And you know what? He still does.
His films are very pro-feminist. We loved HOSTEL 2, especially the Blood Bath part. It was incredible. It was so empowering to see a female murderer that was every bit as blood thirsty as any man.

Sylvia: Eli Roth has to be one of the nicest, most down to earth, honest to goodness horror nerds in the world. He started with CABIN FEVER, so he knows what it’s like to be there. What I love about his work is that it isn’t the same shit you see in every other movie. In the first HOSTEL, you’ve got an openly gay, crazed doctor-wanna be. He wasn’t some outrageous stereotype with a lisp; he was a badass, creepy motherfucker who liked to cut people up. In the second part, you get this beautiful, intelligent female protagonist and guess what? There’s an evil bitch that gets her into the hostel. There’s a sequence in that film with the bloodbath that has to be one of the best horror scenes I’ve ever seen. With two incredibly talented actresses that killed it in that scene.

I hate when you see a film and the female characters are just written so pathetically that it’s fucking annoying. Give me a strong character that I can watch and say I wanna be like her. Eli writes women like that and he’s been an amazing supporter of our stuff. The script for AMERICAN MARY came from him asking about what other scripts we had. He’s a great guy.

No more previews, click here to read the entire lovely piece. If you missed the first part, get caught up here.

A very humble and sincere thank you to Justin for taking the time and dealing with our crazy schedule to have this chat. It was a wicked time and hope to come back and bug you with news about AMERICAN MARY!

~Sylv

Two People We Love Got Married Today

The world can be a fucked up place and life can be quite the battlefield. It's made that much better when you find wonderful people to share your life with. People who are true friends. People who see you and are genuinely happy to rather than saying, "where the fuck you been?"

Today, two of the most kind, giving, selfless, and all around outstanding people we have ever had the pleasure of calling friends have married. Kristian Hanson wed the beautiful Fernanda Lins today in gore~geous California. They are the very best of the best and it fills us with so much happiness to see that two such phenomenal people have found one another. Never being one to believe in marriage or happy ever afters, these two have changed my mind.

Kristian, Fernanda. All our very bloody best to you both. You deserve all the happiness in the world and we cannot tell you how much we love you guys.

Blood Soaked Best!
Jen and Sylv