Aramis Sartorio leads FrightFest Halloween’s World Premiere of On the Edge this weekend. The film is the latest movie from the connected minds of Jen and Sylvia Soska. Known for American Mary, On the Edge sees the Soskas return to their own original ideas after having previously reworked David Cronenberg’s Rabid. The story tells of family man Peter (Sartorio) who gets more than he paid for when he books a 36-hour session with the sadistic Mistress Satana (Jen Soska) who seems more intent on making him suffer for his sins.
Although new to the feature films of the Soska Sisters, Sartorio has known the pair for a number of years. He also participated in their Women in Horror Massive Blood Drive PSA series. On the Edge marks their first feature film together and in Peter, the Soskas have written a very complex character. Sartorio is wonderful in the role, which is one that requires significant vulnerability, both physically and emotionally, and the actor handles it with great skill.
Whilst he may be new to Soska feature films, Sartorio appeared in Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure playing director Mike. That’s not his only role however; Sartorio has over eighteen years experience within the adult entertainment film industry where he performs under the name Tommy Pistol. As On the Edge tells a story about kink culture, Sartorio’s background makes him the perfect person to play Peter. An actor with experience in the BDSM world, it made sense to cast him as Peter. Unfazed by situations that might make other actors sheepish, Sartorio commits 110% to the part and On the Edge is richer for it.
There are lots of hopes and dreams tied to the success of On the Edge and if any festival can make them come true, it’s FrightFest. The festival helped place Jen and Sylvia Soska on the map after screening American Mary and the team have everything crossed that history will repeat itself. Ahead of On the Edge’s debut at FrightFest Halloween, THN spoke with Sartorio about his own hopes for the film.
You have been friends with the Soskas for a number of years; how did you meet?
I actually went back to my Twitter feed, and I have the day, it was in 2014. I messaged them, “hi, I just saw American Mary, holy shit it was amazing. You’re really awesome and I just wanted to say hello”. Then they messaged back, “well, we’re familiar with your work and we think you’re awesome!” From then we stayed friends. They invited me to the premiere of See No Evil 2, we hung out, we went bowling after, and it was very cool. We just kept that communication for years. I always appreciate when somebody from the mainstream is, “you know what, you’re really talented.” They’ve always really respected my work. One thing we always said was, “wouldn’t it be great if we could work together.” So for all these years we’ve been talking about it. I got to do some of their women of horror. Me and my girlfriend Nicole McClure, we work together, we write together, and we’ve done a few of those Horrors skits together. Since 2014, we’ve just been a chilling and touching base, then this came up.
So how did you get involved with On the Edge?
It all happened pretty fast. They called me in July asking, “hey, we got this movie, are you interested?” I said, “sure”, and then I read it. My first impression was, “holy shit, this is intense. I don’t know…” It took me back a little. Then the more I started looking at it, and the character Peter, the idea came that if I pull this off right, this could be really cool.
Peter spends a lot of On the Edge in a state of elevated stress. How did you tap into and maintain that energy level?
There were definitely a lot of feelings and emotions about the pandemic shutdown that had been lingering. All that stress and burden and worry. Just life in general was rough at the time. Coming in there was already a weight of sadness, worry, and depression about just life. Once I got the phone call for this I started dieting, cutting out sugar and white bread and all this stuff. That put me in a weird state too. Then once I started really reading, I realised there were a few monologues in it that I knew I needed to practise. I was up pretty late almost every night, just reading it and trying to get to that point of delivering it and crying. I’m sure at some point, if my neighbours were awake, they were freaking out – “this dude’s crying again. It’s like, 3:00 a.m. what the fuck is happening? Every night he’s crying and he’s saying the same thing, what’s going on?!” I left LA on 6th August, we started shooting the seventh, we ended the twentieth, and I left the twenty-first. It was just full-on for the two weeks I was there. It was just work, work, work.
Leading up to the shoot, I ended up getting Covid. That was stressful. I was already trying to get into that head space of Peter and ideas that the possibility of everything riding on this crept in. What this means for a career. What this means for my children and everything. That added extra pressure and anxiety. This is everything right now. This is my dream. This is what I want. Within all the anxiety and stress of getting ready for it, it being the biggest script I ever read and having to memorise it, getting Covid, everything was just so much on me. When I finally got out there, I was already in this state of total exhaustion.
With everything that happened coming into shooting, I was already in that state. This continued once we went into night shoots. We would start around 8 PM and end around like 6:00 or 8:00 AM. I wasn’t getting enough sleep, it all kind of worked together, keeping me in this state of just misery and sadness. I knew what I had to do to stay there. A lot of that too is hard because certain lines I had to deliver….You kind of block out stuff as a child, and I love my parents, but they were raised a certain way and I don’t do that with my kids. That was another part – opening up stuff I had stored away. I was like, “oh shit. Oh no. I know how to deliver it now, but I had to go there.” It was really hard. What you see in the movie, it was really hard. It kind of broke me a little. This was hard, but this was also amazing. The fact that what we did and the time that we did, with the amount of people that were there, I can’t believe we pulled it off. So it was all these emotions of joy and also like, holy shit.
It sounds a little like your experience shooting mirrors Peter’s own journey in many ways.
It was intense. The goal is, we want people to kind of dislike Peter at first, and then slowly realise he’s not well, and this is what will make him better. The point we also want to make is that not everybody who does BDSM is a horrible person. A lot of people do use it for therapy. People have got to be more open-minded about that and not just point their finger and be like, “well, that’s wrong because I think so.”
There’s definitely a misconception that BDSM is depraved or dangerous, when in reality it’s actually really safe as there are all these rules in place beforehand…
I’ve been a Dom for kink.com for a very long time, and through doing that I really respect it. So there were people on set who have experience with this, who know about it. It was great that everybody was on the same page and respectful. There’s a moment in it where there’s a conversation and that’s exactly how you do it. That’s the right way. This whole 50 Shades of Grey contract is bullshit, that’s all fantasy, and that’s what will get people hurt. There’s the Dom and the Sub. The Dom wields the whip, but the Sub has the power. If you’re doing it right, they say when and how hard, and everything. This movie is a horror movie so it takes it a little different direction, but it still was very respectful to all that.
As well as being directed by them, you also star with Jen and Sylvia; how was that experience?
Working with Jen and Sylvia on both sides, from directing and acting, was incredible. Jen wrote it and Goddamn that girl can also act. She’s fucking amazing. She had huge quotes, bible quotes and monologues, and she nailed it. And Sylvia with her eye. She knew what she wanted. Working with a director who knows their shit is so good. They don’t have to shoot more just because. Nobody wasted time. Nobody was on set that didn’t need to be there. The both of them were so professional and working opposite Jen was absolutely amazing. We really bounced off each other so well. You would think we had so much more time when you see to hone this in and make it perfect, but it was such a short time. All of us were just so zoned in and knew exactly where to go. It was just perfect. Working with the both of them was honestly one of the best experiences I ever had. They were professional, they were courteous, they were kind, they were respectful. Just everything you want. It made that whole process of going where I had to go doable.
This means everything to me. Just being a part of it is enough, but also I want it to do well. Now from what they’re saying, the way people are responding to it, I’m glad. It’s like the way everything happened was meant to be, it was perfect. As intense as it is and how demanding and exhausting, it fucking worked out perfect. It is so good and they’re so freaking talented. I’m always going to be in their debt and thankful for them giving me this opportunity.
The crew was kept small meaning that at times you all had to jump onto other roles, making it more of a collaboration, what was that experience like?
If there were more people on set than what there was, if there was this huge crew, I think it would have taken us out of the moment. The fact that there was only a few of us, and some nights it was just the four of us – Sylvia, Jen, Luna and me – shooting, getting fifty-two shots in one night. Luna was doing camera and then cooking, everybody took up whatever responsibility we had to do because we had to get it done. You have to really love what you do to commit to that. If there was somebody there just for the ride and like, “well I just want to be a part of it so I can say I was”, we don’t need you. There’s so much riding on this for all of us. This doing amazing means everything to us. This wasn’t just like another gig. It really could change all of our lives. I think when people see it, and when they hear how much we did with so little, I hope it inspires a lot of people. It was intense, but it was also like the best experience ever.
In some ways the smaller crew helps to feed into the intimacy of the film.
Can you put two people in a room and keep the audience entertained? That’s a huge demand and I think we did it. My girlfriend and I went over the script and she would help me rehearse. I didn’t know Jen has a photographic memory. I was like, “how are you memorising all that?” and she was, “well, I’m kind of cheating. I have this thing.” I was like, “oh my God, this has been so hard for me!” I felt like I just had to be ready every night. It was just basically two people in a room, delivering the most insane dialogue, emotions reacting, and that it fucking worked is really awesome.
On the Edge gets its World Premiere at FrightFest Halloween, how are you feeling about the screening?
I’ve always wanted to be in the mainstream. I’ve always wanted to be in regular movies. I did sketch comedy for eleven years with guys I met in high school. Then becoming an adult performer for eighteen years and reaching, I guess the highest status, I can, in 2015. I hosted the AVN show that aired on Showtime to millions of people. But because it is adult, and the way society is, it’s always… I’ve got a closet full of awards, but I can’t put them out. So I have all this experience and it’s great, but I don’t really get to enjoy it as much because it’s always separate. But this, I’ve been having anxiety ever since it’s been announced. It’s like starting a whole new career. It’s really exciting.
I’ve heard of FrightFest. Anything promoting horror is amazing. Just to be part of something that is a feature and I’m leading it. I keep thinking, something’s going to prevent something from happening, but it is happening and I’m so excited. It means everything. The more festivals On the Edge gets into, whatever I can attend, this is like a dream come true. I am so excited. I can’t believe it’s happening. I can’t believe just the response so far, and how they’re talking about it and how much they appreciate it, it just means everything to me that people are really enjoying my work and I’m getting to show something that I’m really proud of. To be in a feature playing a festival that’s highly respected really means a lot. It’s really awesome.
I’m definitely gonna get emotional [at the screening]. There’s parts in the movie, because we did so much. I try to think about them and I don’t remember how we did it. There’s blocks of it because so much of it was done at night and I was in this state, so I don’t know what we just did, but everyone’s happy so I’m sure it’s good. It’s going to be a trip to see it on the screen the first time and to just be around people seeing it. They keep asking if I want to see it and I keep telling them no, I want to wait.
What do you hope the FrightFest audience makes of On the Edge?
I’m really proud of it. Just for the subject. Like at first, it was kind of, “we want to make a movie about BDSM”, you know, and it was like, “okay”, and then as we started really getting into Peter and emotions, it became so much more. The more I got into the character of Peter and just being in that state of mind, it was like, “holy shit, I think people are going to really relate to this.” And not just BDSM, also dealing with trauma in childhood. I think anyone who says they don’t have some kind of childhood trauma from their parents [isn’t aware that they have]. It’s going to trigger a lot of emotions. If anybody watches this and it helps a little, it says, “you’ve been through shit and it’s okay,” that’ll be great.
On the Edge will have its World Premiere at FrightFest Halloween on Saturday 29th October.
