Evil Has a New Name: Talking With SIN-JIN SMYTH Director-Writer Ethan Dettenmaier by Owen Keehnen

One of the most highly anticipated as well as secretive horror films in the works is Director/Writer Ethan Dettenmaier’s ‘SIN JIN SMYTH’. This is a story with bite from a determined first time director with vision. In brief -- The Devil appears in two places at the same time on Halloween night … on the high plains of India and in a quiet cemetery in Kansas. On Halloween night amidst a tornado warning two federal marshals report to Shin Bone, Kansas for the midnight prisoner transfer of a man with no past and no identity – a man known only as SIN-JIN SMYTH. Sounds unique and damn creepy. The FX are by MAKE UP and MONSTERS and the music is by Midnight Syndicate. The cast is first rate as well -- Richard Tyson and Jason Hildebrandt (both from Black Hawk Down), Lee Ving (The Decline of Western Civilization), Greg Travis (The Toolbox Murders), Jacqueline Moore (former star of WWE), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm), Jonathan Davis (of the group Korn!) and more! This is a must see and we were fortunate enough to get an exclusive Q & A session with Mr. Dettenmaier.


 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethan: Owen, how are you?

Owen: Hi Ethan, 'Sin-Jin Smyth' is your first feature film.  What has been the main stressor for you when it comes to directing?

Ethan: Stress is cut to a minimum when you take command of the planning. Once you re-draft the script into the best shape possible, every line, on every page, needs to be mapped out from a creative and logistical standpoint, so your production team can maximize your resources and put every element on screen for your audience----and that means everything!

Owen: What was the main thing you wanted to keep in mind when it comes to filming horror?

Ethan: To stay true to what it’s about…to transmit fear into the audience…but also build it into a ride that movie fans today would respect!

Owen: Can I just say THANK YOU for saying, "I refused to start production until we had the best possible script". 

Ethan: You wouldn’t pay for anything but our best possible effort, right? And that starts with the script. These days, the hip industry move is to dumb things down for the audience, to treat them like they’re a pack of 15 year old kids, stuck in some…mental time warp! I won’t disrespect the audience like that…the fans, in general and of this genre are too smart for that stunt and they deserve better, that’s why when this (the SIN-JIN SMYTH production team) unit gets to work---love it or hate it---you get our best possible effort!

Owen: But I can't believe how often the writing is relegated to a "lesser part" of horror. Did the fact of writing the screenplay make you want to take on the directing chores to make sure your script wasn't "Hollywoodized"?

Ethan: I have had some projects dismantled in the past, there have been times when my work has been optioned and then the producer does a complete lobotomy on it, without my involvement like, I’m good enough to come up with the original idea but not good enough to consult in regards to any possible re-write…and the end result is a script developed by committee, a pack of writers all trying to win favor for the next job and the film suffers. I don’t like to operate like that…either I’m IN, for the right creative reasons, or I’m OUT! I’m not IN just to get the next studio job…I’m in to make the best film possible! You put me on a film and…you’ll get the best I’ve got! Once we started to shop SIN-JIN SMYTH (There were several offers on the property) and different execs put forward their ideas, based on other movies they has seen, like The Exorcist or The Omen---two movies already available for you at your local video store---it was clear that they didn’t want to get revolutionary and make something new. They wanted to make Sin-jin Smyth more like last week’s hit. That’s when we decided to bite the bullet and maintain our independence… You see, this Hollywood machine is sometimes---not always---but, sometimes top heavy in bullshit! From a producing angle, and I have one of the best as a partner, Lota Hadley, we saw this as a chance to get back some of the genre---because we’re fans---not marketing execs trying to rape your wallet and we were personally offended by films like Battlefield Earth, Exorcist: The Beginning, Cat Woman, I mean I almost started a riot when I saw a screening of House of Wax, Vincent Price must have been trying to scratch through his coffin when that hit the theatres! I remember Lota, half way through a screening of Boogeyman, she spiked her pop corn on the floor and stormed out of the theatre stopping only to close in on certain people (That worked on the picture) to say that they ‘should be ashamed of themselves!’

Owen: The casting of 'Sin-Jin Smyth' is very solid with established actors and strong personalities (Richard Tyson, Jason Hildebrandt, Lewis Smith, Jacqueline Moore, Jonathan Davies, Reggie Bannister, Lee Ving, Greg Travis) rather than bland beautiful people.  Was having the word in casting essential for you in order to make the film you wanted to make? 

Ethan: We wanted survivors. Real rough players, I didn’t want to get stuck in the countryside making a film with some yuppie punk! I needed people who could mix it up, jump in the trenches and get it done. Once you start with a solid script, then you need solid, unselfish talent. Talent that wants to make the best film possible, not change the script to fit their image…people that put their talent to work and morph into character and give you an absolute real performance…that is what makes a film memorable!

Owen: But the studio-

Ethan: The studio wanted some high profile personnel but I can’t authorize a multi-million dollar payday for someone off the cover of People Magazine if that money comes out of the mechanics of the film’s budget and hurts production. I’d rather make a better movie with less than listen to someone with a ‘star’ mentality bitch!

Owen: I also deeply admire you for wanting to keep so much of the film a secret aside from the basic plot synopsis - "...Set against a Halloween legend that warns of a midnight appearance of the Devil in a quiet Kansas cemetery follows two Federal Marshals as they report to the small town of Shin Bone, Kansas (moments after a tornado warning) for the midnight prisoner transfer of a man with no past and no identity. He is known only as SIN-JIN SMYTH!".  Was it hard to deal with the studio when it came to making a trailer?  Did they want you to "reveal your hand" when it comes to plot?

Ethan: We did lock up in a fire-fight over promotional techniques, potential partners wanted an extensive press kit with everything mapped out, cast, story, ending, trivia, pictures of SIN-JIN SMYTH, too much…I mean do you want to see the movie or read the movie---hopefully you want to see it, right? I mean, that is if I did my job right. And they also wanted some extensive trailer that you could use to navigate through the film with. I wanted to show almost nothing! Once the ride starts and you’re in the dark, you’re stuck there with no trailer points to guide you --- (laughs) good luck.

Owen: Something that I enjoy about the project is the legendary horror aspect, which I find so much creepier than a "mere" maniac.  Do you think that sort of "destined terror" adds to the sense of human powerlessness in the face of overwhelming horror? 

Ethan: Inventing new ways to kill people has its place I guess. But this film is not about the body count; this film is a trip into a dark place! It follows tough characters---not sorority girls who run off to fuck somebody in a dark corner of some barn and pay for it with a machete chop to the neck---SIN-JIN SMYTH brings you the threat of the unknown, not knowing what? When? Or where? Evil will strike! The masters of this art specialized in bringing an audience member to the edge of their seat and leaving them there without the opportunity to relax---When we walk through a dark cornfield as the moon rolls behind the clouds, taking away any source of light, with a wicked silhouette that starts to close in on you! That, to me, is much better than a machete splitting the collarbone. Once that (the chopping) starts, you can relax…because you’re at the point where the build up was suppose to take you but, what if you don’t get attacked? What if, when you turn around, the silhouette is gone---somewhere in the cornfield with you!?! What if, he hides in the fog between you and the local farmhouse just…waiting? If I was on a Halloween film, I would write it in a real fashion which would be “I’m leaving…I’ll call the National Guard---If they’re not all in Iraq---and let them fight it out with this guy! Bye! But SIN-JIN SMYTH takes advantage of the fact that most people have been conditioned to fear the devil to begin with and now…he’s coming for you!

Owen: Did the studio have problems with that approach?

Ethan: It’s popular to take a studio paycheck and shazam—you’re somebody’s bitch! But what will people remember…the work! The work is what people will remember about you, this is how we---for better or worse---make history…nobody remembers the charity work of Boris Karloff, they remember his presence on screen, same for Ed Wood, that is what lives with us forever and that is something more film makers need to remember when they take on a film job. It’s what I do for the audience that makes me a filmmaker, not what I was paid. I can work within the Hollywood system and would be happy to do it under the right circumstances like a genuine artistic collaboration but, me, I’m not gonna have some Harvard punk tell me he knows about art because he can read a studio marketing manual…I’d rather make a film with the change in my pocket than be drafted into a production situation where I’m forced to transmit someone’s instructions to the screen…

Owen: Were the pending tornado conditions, also present in the film, meant to reflect the scope of this malice?  Again, man's smallness in the face of bigger forces?

Ethan: You like that element? I do too but the idea to use weather, almost as a weapon, comes from the effort to maximize each frame, to texture each shot with something more that just the talent and the landscape. And with the theme of the film being what it was, I wanted the weather to slowly close in!

Owen: I also like the fact of the effects being there, on the set.  In my humble opinion CGI's have been so overdone, sometimes just dwarf the story and everything else about a film.  What can you say about the FX in 'Sin-Jin Smyth'? 

Ethan: If we can’t blow it sky high on the set, it doesn’t go up. Real is real I don’t want to have some animator coming in to cartoon the effects (most of which can be way over the top anyway) When somebody gets cut down by gunfire or an explosion on our set, it has a ‘real impact’ to it!

Owen: On another somewhat technical note I have read that the film is going to be one of the first 7.1 surround sound features, as opposed to the usual 5.1 sound.  Was that an important consideration for you or was it merely icing on the production cake?

Ethan: I want to rip the roof of this f—ker! And punch you through the back of the theatre and into the parking lot and the best tool for that is well designed sound package that is unlike anything you’ve ever heard…I feel sorry for the people in the theatre next to ya’ (laughs).

Owen: You have been quoted as saying "We started our pre-production work with the idea of striving to revolutionize the way a film transmits fear to an audience...I wanted to build something new."  How does one go about doing something like that?

Ethan: I’m impressed Owen, you’ve done your homework. It starts with hiring an inventive production team. Me, I have my limitations, and I am nothing more than just a part of a unit but, with the right people on board, you build the movie out brick by brick and strive to re-invent…

Owen: As someone eager to do that with the genre what are your favorite horror films...or rather what horror films in the past do you think have achieved that same thing?

Ethan: For it’s time, the work of Lon Chaney, James Whale, M, Psycho-

Owen: The original?

Ethan: (Shakes his head no, direct tone) There’s only one! I’m not sure what that stunt was a few years back but it wasn’t Hitchcock.

Owen: What others?

Ethan: The Exorcist. The Omen, Alien, Carpenter’s The Thing, Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre…also the original Haunting, Them, The Watcher in the Woods has some good moments in it.

Owen: Without revealing too much, is there a clause in your contract for the possibility of a 'Sin--Jin Smyth 2'?  Would that be possible?

Ethan: There are no plans for SIN-JIN SMYTH 2 or SIN-JIN SMYTH 3 or a SIN-JIN SMYTH CHRISTMAS but, I have said that if we are fortunate enough to do well with this film then we won’t turn our backs on the people who put us there and if the fans who make SIN-JIN SMYTH a success want it---we give it to them---no questions asked. That being said, a franchise in my opinion, is only worth doing if you break away from what people expect, get very creative and add different dimensions to it that make a sequel less of a sequel and more of a new movie with a ‘dark and sinister’ past.

Owen: Do you have plans for more horror features in the future?

Ethan: I’ve been getting some serious offers to make this a full time job but right now I want to make SIN-JIN SMYTH the best film possible and then wait and see what feels right…

Owen: What scares you in real life?

Ethan: Harm coming to my family. I’m afraid of that---and---what I’ll do to the individual who’s dumb enough to inflict it! Thank you Owen for your time…

Owen: Thanks Ethan.