Directors Jen and Sylvia Soska break into the boys' club of horror movies

If there's a book on how to be a female storyteller who's inoffensive to the Hollywood establishment,twin sistersJenand SylviaSoskawould probably senda chainsaw through it in one of their films.

The Vancouver-born horror writer-directors have dedicated much of their careers to doing things female filmmakers aren't expected to tackling the male-dominated horror and and superherogenres. Their remake of the DavidCronenbergclassic Rabidcomes out next yearand they're also putting their spin on one of Marvel Comics' key female charactersby writing new issues of Black Widow.

Upending horror's penchant for portraying women as victims is a large part of their motivation, theSoskassay, following an appearance on a "women in horror" panel at this month's conference for the Directors' Guild of Canada.

"We gotta make sure everybodygets murdered!"said Sylvia.

'Insane' pressure

That kind of thinking earned them a cult following, and the twins landed on many "female horror directors to watch" listsafterAmerican Mary, their2012 movie about a medical school student who moonlights as a surgeon performing extreme body modification.

Sylvia Soskadiscusses the reality that inspired American Mary:

'You could never be the one everyone was scared of'

6 years ago

Duration 1:27

Sylvia Soska, alongside her filmmaking sibling Jennifer, talks about how the real-life outrage and injustice felt by sexual assault survivors inspired their 'terrifying' character American Mary. 'She gets to be powerful.'

ThoughAmerican Marygave them indie horror cred, theSoskaswill have a bigger spotlight and face greater scrutiny when their Rabidremake is released next year.

"When you handle a piece as iconic as anything from DavidCronenberg, there's an insane amount of pressureand you have to know what you're getting into," said Sylvia.

The essential story remains the same: Ayoung woman named Rose is disfigured in a motorcycle accidentand wakes up in a hospital only to find out she has transformed into something not quite human after experimental surgery.

But theSoskas'version comes with their own feminist perspective.

We may have written [the comic]as aBlack Widowscript.Sylvia Soska

The horror of Rabid"isn'tlimited to the body horror or the biological stuff, it's the actual horror of being a woman living in this world, too," said Jen, pointing to the scenes in which men incessantly touchRose. It'sa discomforting sensation female viewers pick up on, she added.

But the sisters are quick to add that they don't treattheir female lead with kid gloves.

If anything, "there's a lot more suffering for Rose. You live in the mentality of a woman in this world."

Powerful, capable, angry

Rabid is not their only dream project. Their take on Black Widow which focuses on NatashaRomanoff, one of Marvel's Avengers will launch in January.The character,played byScarlettJohanssenin the movies, was previously killed in the comicsby a deranged Captain America and resurrected.

The Soskassqueal from delight when asked about it: "We're sooooo excited!"

"We got to bring her back as a purely powerful, very capable and very angry woman," said Sylvia.

"She's like: 'I need to go somewhere where I'm not an Avenger. Where this bad mood and this lethal training actually have a really good purpose.'"

The twins let it slip that the "good purpose" is hunting down child sex traffickers.

Jen and Sylviadiscuss their take on Black Widow:

Why the Soska sisters' Black Widow won't be a 'den mother' character shuffled 'between love interests'

6 years ago

Duration 1:09

Jennifer (left) and Sylvia Soska, the twin Canadian filmmakers Marvel tapped to write a new comic series about Natasha Romanova (aka Black Widow), outline what's different about their forthcoming take on the popular Avengers character.

They also letit slip that they'd like to direct the next Black Widow movie. (The first is to be directed by Australian Cate Shortland.)

"We may have written it as a Black Widow script," Sylvia said of the comic.

"Black Widow 2 could be a rated-R movie. And rated-R movies do really well.It would be really cool to see Scarlett Johanssen rip apart everyone."

'Last frontier'

While not shy about touting their achievements, the Soskas are also cheerleaders for other women in the industry, especially those directing horror and action movies. They love the success PattyJenkins had with Wonder Woman, for instance, but would alsolove to see a woman direct a superhero franchise led by male characters, like the Avengers.

They've also earned the respect of women directors who came before them. Mary Harron, who spooked the world in 2000 with American Psycho, is one of their mentors. She gave the Soksas noteson their early script for Rabid.

"I think horror is still a kind of last frontier, you know, for women," said Harron, who was also at the DGC conference.

"It allows you to have a lot of freedom in your content. You know, you don't have to have a wonderful consoling message. If you want to do something dark, that's the area to do it," she said.

"I'm excited to see what they'll come up with."