It’s a little over a week until Halloween comes to town, and we’re already up to our (severed) heads in horror movie must-sees. Hopefully you’ve been keeping tabs on our special column Unseen Halloween this month, where the Arrow in the Head staff gives you ideas for horror movies you may not have heard of – or at the very least, have never seen but should. Keeping up with the theme, we invited a couple of special guests to the party: Jen & Sylvia Soska (aka the Twisted Twins), the beautiful, talented and delightfully morbid siblings behind such flicks as DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, AMERICAN MARY and SEE NO EVIL 2. The ladies have gifted us with a visit or two in the past (check out my last chat with them HERE), and today we’re focusing on your Halloween movie playlist: The ghastly gals are here to lend you a few horror movie ideas to enhance your All Hallows Eve.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug their horrific new game show Hellevator, which just premiered on GSNTV; find out more about it HERE. Who wouldn’t want to be trapped in a large box with these two, even if it is headed for hell?!
Poltergeist
Q: What was the first horror movie that really made an impression on you?
Sylvia: The first one that really affected me was the first one I ever got to watch which was Poltergeist. I don’t know why our mum let us watch that one first as it’s specifically designed to terrify children. I remember Jen and me being so scared afterwards and then my mum did something that forever changed our outlook on horror, she explained how it was made. When she said everyone worked together to make it scary, I was amazed. It’s a job to scare people? And all these years later, coming onto Hellevator, it’s incredibly that the journey has taken us to this dream job.
Jen: It was definitely Poltergeist. You know it’s true, you always remember your first. When our mum told us how it was made and by how many people came together to scare us, I was blown away. I became very easily obsessed with gore as I wanted to see how the FX were done. I’m still that way today. I’ll watch anything with practical or heavy FX to see what they look like and try to figure out how they’re done. I love coming up with new ways to scare people.
(Side note: Patrick Wilson said Poltergeist too, although it had an effect on him for a very different reason.)
Kill List
Q: What’s a horror movie that continues to scare you today?
Sylvia: I don’t get scared the way that I used to years ago. Working in the industry, it’s hard to get me. Kill List made me sleep with a nightlight. Do I lose horror cred by admitting that? Really well done, creepy film.
Jen: The Exorcist. It’s a truly terrifying film in every way. I’ve had the honor of knowing the late and great Dick Smith and I’ve watched every behind the scenes featurette for the film and still it scares the crap out of me. They just don’t make films like that anymore. It set this heavy tone early on and doesn’t rely purely on jump scares of sound ramps to make audiences squirm. It’s just terrifying.
Suicide Club
Give me an obscure horror movie recommendation, a movie that perhaps isn’t very well known.
Sylvia: That’s a good one! I really love Asian horror, they have this super unique creativity to it. Suicide Club is my favorite. I wish I made it. I think a lot of people have seen it, so just in case Sion Sono, the director of Suicide Club, also made a lesser known film called Why Don’t You Play In Hell, which was brilliant. Also, Tokyo Tribe is weird and wild, definitely check it out!
Jen: Oh, wow. Good question. Pretty much any of my favorite foreign horror films are so hard to find by normal means in North America. The coolest and hardest to get film that I’ve seen might have to be the uncut version of Ken Russell’s The Devils. It’s controversial to say the least, but an fascinating look at human nature. It’s brutal, but not without reason.
The Devils
And where can we find these delectable treats, and can you hint at what the best gore bits are?
Sylvia: You can grab them online from Amazon, but walk into Amoeba if you’re lucky enough to have one in your city. They all have a shocking amount of blood and gore, but there is something so uncanny about the story telling. It’s an artist telling his stories without any dilution if that makes sense. I don’t want to spoil any specifics, but you will have never seen gore like this before. Blood baths!
Jen: You can probably hunt down a censored version, but the uncut version is really hard to find. And it deals with religion so its very controversial in that respect and if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing or think it may offend you, it probably will. I can’t tell you the best gore of the film without ruining it, but I was most upset by the, um, thing at the end with the main guy. Yeah, I think that may be just vague enough!
Many thanks to the Soska Sisters for their contributions to our Halloween festivities! You can pick up SUICIDE CLUB HERE and THE DEVILS (UK import Director’s Cut) HERE. Be sure to check out Hellevator on GSN!