We just chatted with Sammy Montana, author of the new Devil’s Due graphic novel The Haunted Caves.  Caves follows a group of teens who stumble upon a corn maze and an old house, where the most evil of intentions await them.  We asked Sammy about how he got involved with the project (an adaptation of a screenplay by writer Michael Stevens), how he kept the pace of the piece balanced, the shocking ending to the graphic novel, and much more!

Can you tell us about the history of The Haunted Caves and how you got involved?

Initially how I found out about the project is… Michael, the screenwriter, had submitted the project to a company I worked for a while ago, and I thought he had a very good concept and I liked the idea.  At that time we were looking for specific types of projects, and we weren’t looking for that type of horror. So the company passed on it, at that point, but then, after a while, Michael and I hooked up and – to make a long story short – we basically became friends.  He decided that he would like to release it as a graphic novel to help with marketing the script.  This was like a year later.  So at first he was going to have Stef Hutchinson, the guy who did Halloween: Nightdance and the other Halloween comics write it, but Stef had a schedule, he had other projects going on, and the schedules just didn’t match.  So I ended up getting the project and I pitched my take to Michael on how I would adapt it, and he liked it and I spoke with Devil’s Due, and they liked it and here we are!

In your adaptation of the script, were any major or minor changes made to the story?

Yeah, there were.  It was mostly in terms of structure.  For example I have a certain structure in what I try and follow.  The type of structure that I like in horror movies is the type of structure that you see in Wolf Creek, The Descent, the original Halloween.  It’s where you build up the characters and you throw little hints of creepy elements, or little hints of what’s going on out there. Like, you show the killer killing somebody but you don’t show exactly where it’s going on.  So the audience keeps thinking that this could happen anywhere, because they don’t know where the location is.  So you kind of build up the horror in these people’s minds.  Meanwhile you go back and forth and you show the protagonists, you show what they’re doing, you show their lives, their personalities.  You get the audience to like these characters, or at least understand these characters, so that they’re so interested in them that by the time the killer gets his hands on them, you’re so interested in the characters that it’s scary, almost like it’s family.  That’s the way I like to write horror.

Is that different from how the screenplay was written?

Well, it’s different in the way that the original screenplay took some time to build the characters.  But the original screenplay had extra scenes that would not work in the graphic novel.  So I wanted a different take on it.  I felt like there were certain things that could be done with the characters that would not work in the screenplay but would work in the graphic novel.  So I added some scenes, I changed some dialogue.  A few of the scenes are actually from the screenplay, and they worked.  They were just so good you couldn’t get rid of those scenes.  So basically I just focused on trying not to rush the graphic novel too much.  Whereas in the screenplay… the screenplay didn’t rush but it needed to be a little faster.  Michael and I have the same kind of style on what we like horror movies to be and horror graphic novels, so we agreed on which direction it should go in.

Was it a challenge to keep the graphic novel balanced while incorporating intense action?

It was somewhat of a challenge in the sense that I wanted more pages to do more stuff.  Once we got to the maze I wanted it to be a little bit faster, but the problem is…it would have looked completely different.  On the page it would have looked good, but when you see it, when you picture, “Okay, this is how it’ll probably be drawn, and this is what the pacing is going to look when it’s drawn,” it just wouldn’t work.  So I had to play with the pacing a little bit, I had to slow it down at times.  At times when it may come across as slow to some people, it eventually builds up.  But had I gone in the other direction, it wouldn’t have worked.

We recently talked to Stef Hutchinson about the Halloween comics, and he mentioned that sustaining the suspense of the comic is one of his greatest challenges.  Was that also a challenge for you?

Yes, and first I just want to say I think Stef is a great writer.  And I completely agree with him.  It is a challenge showing suspense on the page because these are static images, these are not moving images.  So we need to show that there’s tension in the scene, without looking at the image and going “Oh this is flat”.  In a movie you can show glimpses of the guy, you can show the door creak and stuff like that.  There’s only so much of that you can do in a graphic novel without losing your audience.  The way I saw it was, I would write down everything that’s in my head on how to create suspense in a scene, without showing the killer.  Then I basically draw it like stick figures, because my art is pretty bad – that’s the reason I’m not an artist.  I’d draw stick figures and draw different versions of the scene and remove elements that didn’t work because it’s a static image.  I did get a bit of feedback from my wife, so that helped, to get a different point of view.

Were there any specific scenes that you wrote that, when you saw fully realized, you thought were done especially well?

If I have to pick one…I would say the scene where you’re not seeing much of the killer, and this girl is looking for her sister and her clothes are slashed and torn, and it’s dark and barely lit.  That was perfect, that’s exactly how I pictured it.

The ending to this is very shocking – was there ever any debate on how to end the story?

[Laughs.]  That’s a good question.  Yeah, there was a lot of debate.  Without giving anything away, the screenplay is very, very different.  The ending is similar in the sense that…it’s what you want in a horror graphic novel.  But it’s different in the way that it ended.  Because initially, when Michael and I were discussing it, we were discussing certain things happening to certain people towards the end, and Michael had a certain way in the script and I discussed with Michael and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we did that, that, that and that,” which is the way it’s now ended.  “Wouldn’t it be great if it ended like that.”  Because the audience isn’t going to expect it, I’ve never seen something like that done to this type of a character in a movie, let alone in a graphic novel.  And he said that, yeah, he liked it, but he was hesitant.  So again I went to my wife, because she is very critical, which helps give me an objective eye.  I said, “Which would be better, which would be more shocking?”  The one she picked is sure enough the one I came up with.  So I went to Michael and he was finally like, “Okay, go for it.”

What’s next on your plate?

There’s a project that I’m going to keep a little bit under wraps, it’s a horror thriller.  It’s a little bit different from this.  It’s got the slasher element to it, but it’s got a…very different kind of killer.  There’s more of a background to it.  The other thing which I’m going to be working on, which I’m discussing with Michael… We had the idea in our heads that there would be a sequel to the script, so that maybe we should also have a sequel to the graphic novel.  Because there are some things that need to be explained and some really good stuff that Michael and I were talking about.  We may end up doing a sequel to the graphic novel, which I feel would be justified.  It’s complete in itself but it needs more.  I’m going to pitch an idea to Fangoria, because they’ve brought back their comic book line.  Also, in terms of The Haunted Caves, we’re talking to a few producers who are interested and looking into the property for production.  They really liked the pitch.  And I’ve already passed the graphic novel on to a few people.

So what is the status of the screenplay?

Well, initially, we had interest from investors, who were interested in funding the film.  The thing is, we wanted to get the right people on board, because there’s certain people, certain producers, that are good for this type of a project.  You get the wrong people on board and it really shows when the film comes out.  So right now the status of the film is basically in development, but as soon as we get certain people on board we can immediately start filming because we have access to most of the funds.

What’s your biggest fear?

The dark.  Definitely the dark.  Hearing noises in the dark, that’s my biggest fear.

That wraps up our interview with Sammy Montana, for more info and to pick up the comic, check out Devil's Due and watch the official trailer for the graphic novel below!