During last month's San Diego Comic-Con, this writer had the extreme pleasure of chatting with both Jen and Sylvia Soska, as well as with WWE’s Kane (Glenn Jacobs), about their involvement See No Evil 2, which will be getting its VOD/Digital HD release on October 17th and a subsequent Blu-ray/DVD release on October 21st.

Check out some of the highlights from our interviews with The Soskas and Kane, who gave us some tidbits on what we can expect from the sequel and more on their collaboration together for See No Evil 2.

I think it’s pretty cool that you guys decided to pick up the story of See No Evil right where the last one left off, especially because it has been a few years since the original. What was behind the decision to go that route?

Sylvia Soska: The ending of the original See No Evil has this amped-up feeling, so it felt natural to pick up the story right there.

Jen Soska: I love Halloween II; I love that it’s just an extension of that day and if we do a See No Evil 3, it will pick up right where this one leaves off so that you can watch these movie right in succession. It’s just a crazy week for Jacob Goodnight (laughs). He’s just a single guy out on the town for one week, just trying to figure things out (laughs).

I’ll be perfectly honest and say that I enjoyed some aspects of the original, but I didn’t outright love See No Evil. That being said, I was very excited when they announced you both were going to be involved with the sequel. Was that the biggest challenge taking this mythology and the character of Jacob and getting them to the places they should have been for the original?

Jen Soska: Being horror fans and growing up in the 80's, there’s no reason Jacob Goodnight can’t become another Michael Myers, or another Pinhead, or another Freddy. And I think that was because of a few of the shortcomings of the original film. I love the eye kills, but after the fourth or fifth one, it just needed to be more. It needed to be more exciting; you should be afraid around every corner that Jacob could be there waiting for you.

Sylvia Soska: The missed opportunities is where it really started for us. We then went into all these slasher movies we liked- and not just the ones in the 80's either. And when slasher movies first started, it was just these masked men going out and killing people, so we felt like we had some room to play with the character of Jacob for the sequel. What was he missing? What could we change so that we can make him actually scary this time around?

Jen Soska: And we do have a lot of character development this time around- in fact, a big part of it feels like John Hughes movie and then you remember, “Oh yeah, that guy Jacob is here. This isn’t going to go so well for these guys” (laughs).

Sylvia Soska: We wanted to lull audiences into this false sense of security as they’re watching it, so, at first, you get to know these people and you begin to really like them, but it’s definitely not going to be a good night for any of them once Jacob shows up and ruins everything. A few of ‘em do alright in the sequel, but most of them don’t (laughs).

So Kane, was it the weirdest thing ever to have this conversation of, “Oh yeah, it’s been something like seven or eight years now- are you ready to make a sequel to See No Evil?”

Kane: (Laughs)It was... it really was. I thought that if a sequel was going to happen that it would have been within a couple of years after the first one. The first See No Evil was a commercial success, so it was something I expected at that time. But then, one day I’m just sitting there and out of the blue, I get this call that I was expecting five or six years ago. But it’s cool, it’s cool (laughs).

Because I know that the Soskas are such huge wrestling fans, do you think that brought another kind of sensibility to See No Evil 2 that was maybe lacking in the original film?

Kane: Okay, yes. Let me tell you this story (laughs). Because I’m constantly traveling and I don’t get to watch that many movies or TV shows, when the sequel was presented to me, I didn’t know who The Soskas were. So I had to go and do some research on them, right? So they seemed pretty cool as filmmakers, but I hadn’t met them in person yet so I didn’t know what I was getting into.

So I head up to Vancouver and I walk into the room, and they both just go ga-ga, screaming “Ahhh!” (laughs) and come running over to give me a big hug. And then they started talking about wrestling so I was worried that it was all going to be just about my career in wrestling. And then, of course, within a matter of a day, they’re both on set ordering me around telling me what to do like the total pros that they are.

But they gave me a copy of American Mary and I watched that and I was like “Holy cow, these girls really know what they’re doing.” Anyone who hasn’t seen American Mary, whether you’re a horror fan or just a fan of movies in general, it’s a work of art- very beautiful camerawork and great storytelling. So I knew they knew exactly what they were doing for See No Evil 2 and I think because they are fans, it really helped.

Unfortunately, when I’ve done some other projects, you see where they treat it like “Okay, the wrestlers are here” and they treat us like we’re idiots and start talking really sloooowly so we can understand them. And The Soskas didn’t do that at all; they were just like “Okay Glenn, just do this, do this, do this.” They got it completely. They understood that I’ve been like acting for 20 years now in the ring and with the WWE and doing stunt work, so I know what I’m doing when I show up to do a movie.

Even with the first See No Evil, I don’t think the cast and crew even realized that I knew how to handle myself.  I even went to an acting coach for a week and he was going over things like hitting the eyeline or hitting your mark, which of course, I knew a thing or two about already (laughs). Chris Jericho calls the WWE the boot camp of the entertainment world because we do everything there, so you’re prepared to do anything. So with the first movie, it was like that for a big part of production until I think they finally realized I was way more prepared than they had expected initially and that took a few weeks (laughs).

But with The Soskas, that happened instantaneously. They were both even asking me for input constantly, which was great. And I don’t know that if they hadn’t been wrestling fans to begin with that they would have had that confidence with me as an actor. So I do think it was really beneficial that they understood our business and our product and brought a great sense of enthusiasm to the table as well.

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Look for more with The Soska Sisters and Kane on See No Evil 2 exclusively in the upcoming premiere issue of DEADLY - Horror & Sci-Fi Magazine this September!

  • Heather Wixson
    About the Author - Heather Wixson

    Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.