Interview: Jason DeVan (Along Came the Devil 2)

Jason DeVan wrote and directed ALONG CAME THE DEVIL 2 starring Bruce Davison, Laura Wiggins, Mark Ashworth, Cassius DeVan, Heather DeVan and Tiffany Fallon.

ALONG CAME THE DEVIL 2 is in theaters, On Demand and Digital on October 11^th.

Jason- Hi Janel.

Hi Jason! How are you?

Jason- I’m good. How are you?

I am good. Thank you. I was actually waiting for this sequel. I was excited. You did an amazing job with Along Came The Devil 2.

Jason- Thank you. That puts a big smile on my face.

I was a little concerned for a minute. I was watching Along Came The Devil 2 on my laptop. You know watching the screener and I had the lights out and all of the sudden I hear music. It’s music from the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. I thought, this music isn’t coming from the movie.

Jason- Okay! (Laughter)

So, I paused Along Came The Devil 2 (Laughter) and its, “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar was playing on Spotify. Should I be concerned?

Jason- (Laughing) were you freaking out?

Ummmm, a little bit. Nothing usually gets me but I thought maybe someone was trying to tell me something? Do I need Jesus, an exorcism something? I don’t know. I turned the lights on and checked the doors.

Jason- Right! That’s a cool story. That’s freaky.

I guess without spoiling anything. THE ENDING was awesome. Will there be a third movie?

Jason- From the first one, we wanted to make sure that we answered some of the questions that the fans had. We weren’t shackled to sticking to the family story anymore, we could kind of elaborate and take it where we wanted to go with Jordan (Laura Wiggins) coming home. You see that we left it open. There still needs to be some closure and without giving too much away. I wanted to leave it in a way that we have Bruce in a sense that what is this is all in Bruce’s mind and he’s done all of this to these people? If there is a part three?

It did have some psychological parts but, you weren’t entirely sure.

Jason- Yes. We felt that was kind of the direction we went. The first one we tried to tell a story and make it scary all while being an exorcism film in part one which drew the comparison to The Exorcist which is hard for a low-budget movie in today’s world. We felt like it was a great story and with this movie, we were able to go in more of a thriller direction that I think the fans won’t expect. I think they will enjoy it.

ACTD2 had intense traumatic scenes and the psychological aspects. How did you prepare the actors for the film? The actors did a great job.

Jason- That’s a good question. Right away, we had in mind, Mark Ashworth who plays the father. I spoke with him and told him I had this idea and I wanted him to come back for part two. So my wife (Heather DeVan portrays Sarah Winbourne) and I as we were writing the treatment plan. We decided that we wanted to push the envelope a little bit more and make sure that this was, I want to say maybe an R rating, mature rating for the horror fans. We held back in part one where as with this one we knew we would go a little further with it. We touched based with some of our actors to make sure they knew what we were doing. We wanted to do things as tasteful as we possibly could but also give the horror fans some of that blood, gore and violence that we didn’t have in the first one. They were all excited. They trusted me and I trusted them and we made it happen.

You guys did a really good job. I think Heather did such a great job as Sarah. What is like for the two of you working together?

Jason- Working with my wife is nice because we obviously spend so much time together. It’s kind of like two brains but one thought. She kind of knows where we’re going with it. Some of the scenes and I just was talking about this in a write-up that I was changing all the way up until the week that we were shooting or the day before we were shooting. The under the bed scene, we originally had her standing with the head off and then her head actually fell off her shoulders for the little boy in the room. That’s my son Cassius who plays the little boy, Xander in the film. I woke up in my sleep which happens all the time and I wrote up a note. The under the bed thing always scared us when we were kids. There is always an under the bed shot where we’re looking across the room upside down and usually there is never anything that happens under the bed. BUT, what if what we think is under the bed IS REALLY under the bed. She did an amazing job.

Cassius did a great job and what his character goes through. So many emotions and it is intense. That scene was scary. It isn’t the average under the bed scene at all!

Jason- Thank you. Yes, Cassius is my son but he is such an amazing little actor. He is so devoted to his craft. He’s done some commercials, a few things, some shorts.  I knew working with him and how our relationship to, it would be a fun experience. He’s not afraid of many things growing up around horror and he loves his horror movies. As an actor I knew I wasn’t sacrificing anything using my own son. Some times when families work together you are making sacrifices. Cassius did a great job.

Jason, what do you want to say to the audiences that will be watching the film? What do you want them to know or take away from Along Came the Devil 2?

Jason- I hope they will enjoy the ride. I hope that it surprises them. I hope they know everybody put our heart and souls into it as filmmakers and scary movie lovers and horror movie lovers. We wanted to give the fans of those types of movies something that they can turn off the lights and raise the stakes and come away with a good film.

Well, I think you rocked and did a great job. What are you working on next?

Jason- A movie called Broken Souls which is a thriller. It’s a heck of a ride with an amazing ending.

I know you did mention The Exorcist before. What inspired you to write this? The scene that stood out to me was Mark walking up the steps in the darkness with an axe. Also, the under the bed scene is scary.

Jason- You know what, I was inspired by a lot of horror movies. One in this case being The Shining. Not knowing Doctor Sleep was coming out or anything like that. I wanted to take it in the direction of The Shining with the relationship of the father and the family. That’s neat that you pointed out the shot of Mark coming up the stairs with the axe because I had a lot of homage shots to The Shining that we put in there. My DP Jay Ruggieri before we even shot the film, we were so detailed on our shot list. There are so many classics shots in the film. When Mark is leaning over and looking down at the closet that he broke into, that’s an homage to Jack Nicholson. There’s an old movie called Slumber Party Massacre that resonated with me as a kid. The older sister hiding the little sister inside of a suitcase. We drew from that and the old school Dracula with the shadow of Mark coming up the stairs. The way Dracula walked when we saw his shadow. We had some ideas and pulled from some classics. I hope that the fans recognize and see some of those shots.

I think you did an amazing job and that was cool to see some of the homages to some great classics. I loved the movie. It was fun and scary and beautifully shot.

Jason- Thank you so much. That makes my day. You are the first person I am interviewing with [for the day] so it’s good to hear from people who actually watched it. Thank you so much.

Thanks Jason.

Jason- Thanks Janel.

Follow Jason and Heather on Twitter @DeVanClan

Along Came The Devil on Twitter @TMYNtheMovie

IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9652888/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_2

JASON https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9652888/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_2

HEATHER https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2860951/?ref_=tt_cl_t6