Mike Mendez is enjoying the success of his tongue-in-cheek monster flick BIG ASS SPIDER’s current festival run, but he’s also planning to go back to his creepy roots. Mendez has revealed that he’s planning a prequel to his 2001 horror number THE CONVENT, which revolved around a group of college students who break into an abandoned convent and become possessed by demonic spirits.
Fangoria got the scoop from Mendez at the Boston Underground Film Festival, where BIG ASS SPIDER recently played. While he and his writer Chaton Anderson appear keen on tackling the material, it’s not necessarily a sure thing, as the director notes:
I only want to do it if it has a unique point of view.’ For those who saw the first movie, there’s something that happened in the ’60s [seen in an attention-grabbing prologue] that sets off the events in the present, so we want to do THE CONVENT in the ’60s. It’s more a period piece: the adventures of young Christine [Adrienne Barbeau’s CONVENT heroine], kicking ass early on.”
We want to make it a stand-alone movie, because THE CONVENT, for better or worse, isn’t a universally known film. We’re looking at calling it THE DEVIL’S CONVENT, and it would kind of be its own thing, but if you know the original, they do connect. It’s being written right now, so we’ll see where it goes. I think we’ve came up with some fun ideas that would be cool to revisit, and I never get tired of blowing away demon nuns. If there’s an opportunity to shoot more nuns in the head, why not?”
Are you peeps excited about a potential CONVENT prequel? If so, sound off below!
THE CONVENT screenwriter Chaton Anderson