By SHAWN MACOMBER 

Though today better known as the mainstream-infiltrating provoc-auteurs behind such visceral visions as American Mary, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, and the bold 2019 remake of David Cronenberg’s 1977 calling card Rabid, Jen and Sylvia Soska first shattered convention not on the silver screen but as two of the first female Roman Catholic altar servers in Western Canada. 

And here’s the real shocker: That little biographical tidbit is less discordant with than intrinsic to the Twisted Twins’ subsequent career. 

“I remember one time I said to my priest, ‘I don’t know if I believe in all this,’” Sylvia Soska recalls. “And he said, ‘You should challenge it, then – because if you don’t, you’re just a sheep.’ And that, to me, is an important part of having  – questioning.” 

In some ways, this long-ago conversation reaches its apotheosis in ON THE EDGE, the Soskas’ harrowing new, reality-refracting film about a 36-hour encounter between family man Peter (Aramis Sartorio) and dominatrix Mistress Satana (Jen Soska). Their meeting quickly transmogrifies from transactional to a mystical battle for the man’s soul in which, not unlike Joshua wrestling with the angel along the riverbank en route to Canaan, Mistress Satana uses kink culture to challenge him in ways that might just deliver true knowledge and perhaps salvation. 

Even by the standards of a career defined by uncompromising vision, brave choices and gleeful boundary-pushing, the uber-brutal-yet-life-affirming ON THE EDGE is a pinnacle moment. And you can thank (or blame, if we want to give the haters an option) another deity for it: David Cronenberg. 

“We read so many interviews with David when we were trying to get into the Cronenberg mindset ahead of doing Rabid,” Sylvia says. “And I remember sitting across from David at one point, and he was talking about how he was on the verge of getting a series produced with complete creative control – no outside editing, no censorship. It got me thinking about how, at this point in our careers, we have more control over what we’re making and how we have the opportunity to work with so many people we love and respect. What batshit crazy, intense ideas could we pursue if we fully embraced that like David has? And I guess you’re witness to the answer to that question right now.” 

“It’s cool because being an auteur wasn’t easy in the first decade of our career,” she continues. “A lot of people were like, ‘Can you make just one normal movie?’ American Mary was actually our attempt at a more normal movie, and the response was like, ‘Okay, obviously you guys can’t make a normal movie…’ Now, we’re adapting American Mary into a TV series, and we’ve done ON THE EDGE. I’m just so, so grateful we weren’t normal.” 

Don’t forget your safe word. Jen Soska is coming for you in ON THE EDGE.

For all its visceral qualities, one of the things ON THE EDGE does well is exploring the world-weariness of Mistress Satana. It’s almost a dark version of the hero’s journey. Because of circumstance and her capabilities, she’s thrust into this position, but there are moments in Jen Soska’s performance when you can feel her reluctance: This is what I’m here to do and I’m the one to do it – but it’s hard. 

“I wanted to do a story that buried the kink-shaming misconceptions that reduce BDSM to somebody beating the shit out of someone else until they say a safe word,” Jen says. “In reality, for many people, it’s a very cathartic, therapeutic experience – a heightened situation where you put everything on the table and process feelings and needs that are hard to engage anywhere else in life.”

To ensure the authenticity of the performance and avoid unintentionally slipping into exploitation, Jen, reconnecting with a childhood desire to explore full-immersion acting, pursued a legitimate dominatrix certification. 

“I did it martial arts style,” she says. “I trained under a mistress. [Laughs] I won’t divulge her identity because I don’t know if she wants me to. But, yeah, I did train and got my certifications. And this woman was like, ‘You are actually a natural dominatrix.’ Which was very kind and flattering, but one thing I learned during the process is that most horror directors probably are natural masters or dominatrices. You’re working to take people through a very carefully crafted experience you hope will affect them on a deeper level. We’re both taking you to a dark place, but there’s an out. You can turn the movie off or you can yell ‘Red.’” 

“There is violence involved in the relationship, but why does that automatically have to be interpreted as sadism or a lack of caring?” Sylvia adds. “It’s almost like going to a doctor or dentist or a tattoo artist – it’s people that know that they’re gonna put you in an uncomfortable situation, and they’re gonna get you through to the other side.” 

An encounter with a dominatrix takes an unexpected turn in ON THE EDGE.

The audience, Sylvia notes, resonates with the realness that her sister; co-star Aramis Sartorio (a prolific actor in his own right – the “Tom Hanks of adult film,” Jen raves); and a supporting cast drawn from the outré fringes of cinema, bring to the confrontation from initiation to … climax.  

“At our premiere, as soon as Mistress Satana came on screen, there were catcalls and whistles, but it didn’t last,” she says. “Even with the separation, Jen is very commanding in that role. The audience very quickly became quite respectful. As if she could step out of the screen at any time and turn her attention on them.”  

Drawing on influences ranging from the aforementioned Cronenberg films to the 2005 Elliot Page-starring psychological revenge thriller Hard Candy to Steven Soderbergh’s 2019 underappreciated trip down the horror rabbit hole Unsane, the Soskas hope that ON THE EDGE is as empowering for sex workers and kink culture as American Mary has been for the body modification community.

“There are a lot of hot topics right now to care passionately about,” Jen says, “but sex workers have been treated horribly. Like professional wrestlers, they work so much harder than people understand. We’ve got actors – talented actors – who have appeared in literally thousands of movies and have to act as if they are ashamed of the movies that they’ve done. I would love it if our film could be part of removing that stigma. I hope that they can be unionized, that sex work can be seen as sex therapy very soon.” 

Sylvia Soska directing a scene from ON THE EDGE.

Though Sylvia shares this lofty aspiration, she also tacks a mischievous addendum onto it. 

“I feel like up until now, we’ve been kind of unfairly labeled controversial,” she says. “And now, after ON THE EDGE, I can be fine with the label. Like, I thought American Mary was very sweet, very tame. I cut away from all the really bad violence that I really wanted to do. But screening this one, there have been a few walkouts, which made me so proud. I haven’t had walkouts in like ten years! After you do a few studio films that just doesn’t happen anymore.” 

“And it has almost no blood,” Jen says. “Which we’re really proud about. Because everybody says, ‘They’re queens of gore. They couldn’t make an audience squirm without blood.’ Oh, can’t we?”

Sylvia fairly cackles, “Give us a little rope and we’ll show you…”

Click here to see the trailer for the Soskas’ ON THE EDGE.