By WILLIAM J. WRIGHT
On May 21, award-winning horror actress-turned-director Devanny Pinn (hit the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival‘s Marché du Film for the market entrance of her directorial debut, BLACK MASS. With the film’s stars Greg Tally (Mystery Science Theater 3000), Sarah Nicklin (The Retaliators), and Michelle Romano (Spoken Word) in tow, Pinn took time out from the festivities at the inaugural Fantastic Pavilion to show some love for “the best damn magazine in the genre.”
WANTED! More readers like the “BLACK MASS” crew (Wendy Wallace, Sarah Nicklin, Michelle Romano and Devanny Pinn)
Check out more exclusive photos below:
Devanny Pinn, Sarah Nicklin, Greg Tally and Michelle Romano strike a pose at Cannes
Devanny Pinn and Sarah Nicklin on the red carpet at Cannes
Sarah Nicklin and Devanny Pinn at the Cannes Film Market “BLACK MASS” premiere
BLACK MASS is a true-crime thriller inspired by a terrifying series of slayings that took place in Florida during the winter of 1978. (The filmmakers have chosen to keep the real-life killer’s name out of the film’s promotional materials, but you don’t have to be an FBI profiler to figure out his identity.) However, director Pinn intends to take the focus away from a “celebrity” serial killer and place it on the victims and the survivors.
“Black Mass aims to tell a famous serial killer’s story from a perspective that has not yet been done – by spending a day with the victims,” Pinn says, adding, “The media has played a significant role in giving murderers publicity and lending celebrity, even at times a ‘cool factor,’ to their persona. I feel it’s time to change that narrative. It’s time to shift the public’s focus to the people whose lives were prematurely taken from them and I saw Black Mass as an opportunity to approach that cinematically.”
Inspired by Pinn’s vision, Michelle Romano, who also serves as co-producer, jumped at the chance to work with the freshman director on BLACK MASS.
Devanny Pinn on the set of “BLACK MASS”
“When Devanny first approached me about this project, I was so inspired by her passion and commitment for sharing her vision and making this film. The deeper we got into the development of this project, the more impressed I was with her dedication for telling this story in such a way that really hasn’t been done before,” she says. “It was important to both of us to honor these women as the beautiful people that they were; filled with hope and love… and life. They were real people, not just victims.”
“It was very important to me to capture the essence of the person my character is based on. I want the audience to feel her warmth and light, and how brightly she shined so that they can understand how devastating and truly evil the events that happened to her were,” says Nicklin, who portrays one of the massacre’s survivors.
Lew Temple (The Devil’s Rejects), Jeremy London (Party of Five, 7th Heaven), Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5), Kathleen Kinmont (Halloween 4), and Eileen Dietz (The Exorcist) co-star.
BLACK MASS will be distributed in the U.S. by Cleopatra Entertainment. Keep an eye on RUE MORGUE for more details soon!
