Melantha Blackthorne Interview 2005
By Stuart Andrews Of Rue Morgue Magazine

Official Site

Tell me about your background, how you met Jason Cavalier, and how Sinners and Saints came to be.

As a young girl I was always writing little horror stories and eventually borrowed my father’s video camera to create mini home movies. As I grew, my taste for horror evolved into something of a fetish and I began exploring new and unique ways of expressing myself. In 1999 I created the web character Countess Bathoria dousing myself in a fantasy world of sex, blood, violence and death. Little did I know that the site would gain popularity from those who shared my same love of the genre and I acquired (what seemed like over night) a large fan base. It wasn’t long after, that I was contacted to play the role of a vampire in a locally based independent film. The director’s goal was to eventually sell the finished film to my fans however the outcome was somewhat disappointing, as the film contained no "genre elements". Jason and I met on the set of this film and soon discovered that we had a couple of mutual interests, which were filmmaking and exploitation cinema. We both felt that my fans would be terribly disappointed with the vampire movie and knew that we could do a much better job, and that’s how Robomonkey Productions came to be.

What movies and filmmakers do you look to for inspiration?

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of José Mojica Marins A.K.A. Coffin Joe and love everything that he’s done. He is a remarkable and unique filmmaker who has shown that budget can never constrain a true mastermind. Mr.Marins will always be an inspiration for a filmmaker like me. Some others include Takashi Miike’s ‘Visitor Q’ and ‘Ichi The Killer’, Sam Rami’s ‘Evil Dead II’, Peter Jackson’s ‘Dead Alive’, Ryuhei Kitamura’s ‘Versus’, Russ Meyer's ‘Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!’, Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Requiem For A Dream’ and Tarsem Singh’s ‘ The Cell’.

There are surprisingly very few women directing cult/horror films. Why? Is it tougher for women in the world of indie cinema, particularly working in cult/horror?

I think the fact that there are very few of us is because the cult/horror genre has a lot of exploitation elements and perhaps these elements offend some women. I on the other hand adore the genre and cannot see myself creating anything remotely mainstream. In terms of ‘indie cinema’ being tougher…not really because anyone can pick up a digital camera and start making a movie, as long as they have a vision. The difficulties I encountered while directing ‘Sinners and Saints’ were cast and crew related. It seemed as though I had to constantly prove myself to them before they would accept the fact that I knew what I was doing. Working in a male-dominated industry doesn’t help matters… but it’s definitely easier in the indie world.

Why Sinners and Saints? What’s the allure of sexy, violent exploitation cinema?

The allure comes from my darker side where the sinister Countess Bathoria resides and of course my desire to create something original. I’ve become quite bored of most mainstream cinema and the exploitation genre allows me the freedom to express myself in a way that I wouldn’t be able to if catering to the masses. A production studio’s main concern is return on their investment so riskier elements are minimized in order to satisfy a broader range in movie going tastes, at the expense of the final vision.

How did you finance the picture, and how much did it cost? Did you go the indie route out of necessity or does it offer something you can’t get if you were to, say, pitch this to a company like Troma?

Jason and I financed the picture with our own money spending about 15,000 CAN. We not only directed, produced, edited and played the lead roles in the film but also created the sets, costumes, props, special effects and prepared meals for the cast and crew ourselves etc. ‘Sinners And Saints’ was a labor of love on everyone’s part including the cast and small crew… no one was paid for their efforts. If everyone had been paid we most likely would have run a budget of about 100,000 CAN.

Although we did enjoy having the independence of producing our own film we did find it a very grueling three years because of the lack of help and budget. A special thanks to Jan Pivon who also played Officer Stryker in the film for spending almost as many days behind the scenes as Jason and I did.

And how does this factor into you personally overseeing so many aspects of the film?

It gave us complete artistic freedom and if things didn’t work out we had no one to blame but ourselves.

Despite it’s low budget, there was a great effort made to produce a technically polished feature. Which aspects of the film you think are most impressive from a purely technical point of view.

We took a lot of time capturing many camera angles giving the film more production value. I am a perfectionist by nature and if I had the time would re shoot sequences if I wasn’t satisfied with the original takes. Jason Cavalier who is a professional stunt man/coordinator is responsible for directing the phenomenal action sequences in the film of which I am very proud of. Also, Jan Pivon did an exceptional job with using a set a work lights purchased from a hardware store and gels found in the garbage. He managed to give a very beautiful gothic tone to the film with less than professional material to work with.

If you had a Hollywood budget, what kind of film would you make?

Perhaps a remake of ‘Visitor Q’ starring Jim Caviezel.

An impressive quality of Sinners and Saints is its unrestrained tasteleness. It never flinches and manages to be both delightfully offensive and unapologetically blasphemous. What’s the philosophy behind the movie?

It’s art and we make no excuses for it. It was made to provoke thought, shock and most of all entertain… remember we didn’t take ourselves very seriously. Philosophy? “Think for Yourself”.

Where’d you draw the line regarding some of the more provocative scenes, and was there anything that hit the cutting room floor because you felt it was simply too much?

There were a few incidents throughout the shoot when Jason questioned whether some of my ideas for sequences were actually within the realm of what is considered ethical. Although nothing made it to the cutting room floor there was always a lot of debate before a shoot. One of the aspects of independent filmmaking that originally attracted me to the genre was the fact that I would have that freedom of not having to compromise nearly as much as if it were a Hollywood production.

And finally, what's your next project?

Jason and I are currently in pre production with a project entitled ‘Countess Bathoria’s Graveyard Picture Show’. It will include six twisted tales of the undead in an anthology-style film that revolve around one fateful accident in the same small town. These flesh-munching shorts are sure to provide titillating "deadtime" thrills!!! Updates and progress will be posted on our official website.