Beginning this project was easy, accomplishing it was not.
The film you will see is the result of hard work and dedication of a few individuals, all of whom sacrificed their time, effort and considerable talents towards making this a reality. Where to to begin?

After meeting on another independent film shoot, Melantha Blackthorne and Jason Cavalier discovered that they had a couple of mutual interests which were filmmaking and horror\action films. They decided to embark on a project of their own, one that would reflect their unique sensibilities [ie.twisted sense of humor & paranoid conspiracy theories].

Winter of 2001 Cemetery Fight Scene
Shooting became a reality.
This scene took about 7 days to shoot not including inserts and re shoots. Conditions were spartan, testing the mettle of the performers and crew who had to endure the rigors of shooting action scenes in mid-winter Quebec.

Spring of 2001 Rape Scene
The next block of shooting took place in the spring which was the sequence proceeding the cemetary fight where Suzie Mills is abducted and raped. This scene took an astonishing 1 day to shoot thanks to Melantha's skill with camera direction and Lucy's and Jan's professionalism. This would be a good time to say an extra special thanks to Jan who has demonstrated the skills necessary for this type of production. He is equally at home in front of the camera as well as behind it-the look of our film would not have been possible without him. 

Summer of 2001 The cop chase
This scene took a total of 2 days to shoot, would have been 1 if our fake police car hadn't been impounded by the real cops. A week before shooting the scene, Melantha and Jason made an appointment at city hall to request permits to shoot in their city, unable to get in contact with anyone, they made arrangements with the sûreté du Québec [who were extremely helpful and encouraging] to shoot a few minutes outside of their town (across border). The shoot was going extremely well right up until our actress needed to relieve herself, as we were in the middle of nowhere, we drove her back to a small bar just a block across city lines. As the actress went to attend to her execratory duties, we sat in the parking lot, reviewing the footage. Moments later one of our actors approached our fake police car with one of the city officers, who immediately began an illegal search of our vehicle. When we informed him that we had permission from the city to park our 'police' car within city limits, as long as we didn't shoot, he became belligerent. He quickly stopped the search as soon as we began to document the incident on video. Unable to intimidate us, they instead impounded our vehicle and sent us a $700.00 fine. You will see this footage in the special features of our sinners and saints d.v.d.

Flash forward to the
Summer of 2002  Warehouse Fight
This began the entire fight sequence in the warehouse. 
It took us about seven days-about 4 weekends in a row to finish. Long nights till 4 in the morning ripping bodies apart, doing kung-fu, and firing semi-automatic weapons at each other.

Fall of 2002  Necrotia's Throne Room
We built the sets for the confessional, and Necrotia's throne room, which took about a month and a half. Jason had some previous experience with set design, but was pleasantly surprised to see Melantha was adept as well. The throne room scene was fun, but very challenging. Melantha was directing this sequence and in turn preferred not to perform with the actors at the same time. We ended up shooting the elements separately, then editing everything together later as a whole. If you watch closely, you will notice that she is not ever interacting with the other actors directly. This was done also because we had a limited amount of time to shoot with the supporting actors, so we split the workload in two - Melantha directing one unit while Jason directed another. 

move forward again to the
Summer of 2003  School and Milk Man Scene
The shooting schedule was relatively light, but beset by technical glitches. we spent our time shooting mostly exteriors, except for the school scene. Here we must pause to heap praise on  Elisabeth Faure [Sister Jordan Merrick]. Her skill and training are apparent in what at first must have seemed like a thankless job. Thanks Liz!!!! Another performer we had the pleasure of shooting with was the inimitable Tony Watt. Although the role was small, Tony agreed to come out on his own dime from Toronto Ontario for what amounted to about an hour of shooting. It was nice to meet a like-minded soul-good actor :o) We'll be seeing more of Tony.

To View Some Of The Photos Click Here

Fall of 2003  End Fight Scene

SHOT ON A BLISTERING COLD DAY IN A MUNICIPAL PARK! We had three stuntmen with us to help co-ordinate and rig the wire gags. Melantha trained for about a day and a half with the sai, a Japanese martial arts weapon, for this fight. For someone with virtually no martial arts experience, she did an amazing job [I think she could give Jennifer Garner a run for her money] plus, she performed two wire gags flawlessly in less than a half hour. The only drawback to the day was the onset of winter winds. Thanks again to Alan Chou for his camera work capturing this fight sequence.

Winter 2004  Drake's education (c.g.i.) and Editing

Well this is it, the final stages of editing. As I sit here writing this, Melantha finishes off the final fight sequence and my computer renders a 3-d interior shot of the giant brain chamber where Drake receives his training. It has taken 2.5 days and the shot is only half completed.

We now have only a few green screen elements left to shoot for purpose of composting it into other scenes. After this, all that is left is the sound mixing and music selection\composition - thanks again to all the great bands who contributed.

Hopefully, we'll finish in time to submit to this years Fant-asia film festival in Montreal.

Summer 2004  Finished!!!

Reviews

Rue Morgue reviews 'Sinners and Saints'!

Fantasia Film Festival reviews 'Sinners and Saints'!

Screaming Stoner gives 'Sinners and Saints' 4.5 out of 5  puffs!

BumsCorner gives us 4 cans out of 5!

Horrorwatch gives 'Sinners And Saints'  3.5  out of 5 very humorous, but mildly disturbing kicks to the groin!

Film Threat reviews 'Sinners and Saints'.

Microcinema Magazine gives us 4 out of 5 stars!

EMVG reviews 'Sinners and Saints'.

Unspeakable Magazine gives 'Sinners and Saints' 5 out of 5 stars.

'Sinners And Saints' at The Fantasia Film Festival.

Film Asylum reviews 'Sinners and Saints'.

Living Corpse gives 'Sinners and Saints' 5 out of skulls!

Celluloid Trailer Park gives 'Sinners and Saints' 3 out of 5 stars!

Joblo reviews 'Sinners and Saints'.

No-Fi Magazine reviews 'Sinners And Saints'.

Horror Heads gives 'Sinners And Saints' 4 out of 5 bloody knives!

Vengeance Magazine raves about Sinners And Saints!
Read the 5 page layout

Scars Magazine gives Sinners And Saints a great review!
Read it here

 

Interviews

Screaming Stoner Screaming Stoner Video .

Horrorwatch interviews Melantha.

DeadMan's Dirge interviews Melantha.

Bums Corner interviews Countess Bathoria for Christmas.

Women In Horror interviews Melantha.

Film Asylum interviews Melantha.

EMVG interviews Jason and Melantha.

Racks And Razors interviews Melantha.

Rue Morgue interviews Melantha.

Secret Scroll interviews Melantha.

Elites TV interviews Countess Bathoria.

Bumscorner interviews Melantha.