Somewhere around a year ago, my friend, Rick Ravanello, alerted me to a film called Devil’s Whisper in which he was honored to play the part of a priest, but every time I searched, there seemed to be no news about when this film might be available to the general public. Then suddenly, the news emerged that the film had already landed a distribution deal before its premiere date, and I was ecstatic. I reached out immediately to the filmmakers in the hopes that I would not only be able to interview some of the key players in the film, but I hoped to review it as well (which I did).  Shortly thereafter, I had the distinct honor of interviewing the director and writer of the film, Adam Ripp, and while a couple of other interviews seemed to fall through, his sat on the backburner until Christmas and January celebrations were concluded. While he has patiently waited for the publication of this interview, I am quite happy to finally share it with my readers!

RH: Adam, it’s so great to get to chat with you.

AR: Same here, Ruth. I can’t thank you enough for the review you wrote of Devil’s Whisper. It meant so much to me and everybody connected with the film. Thank you for your support and all your insights and take away from the film. We truly appreciate everything you’ve done to support us since before the release and now all these months after the release.

Adam, I was happy to do it. I know this film was a step outside of my comfort zone, but over the past couple of years, I have become a strong supporter of independent films. I have been watching a lot of things that I wouldn’t have normally, and I think it’s been good for me because it makes me think a little bit differently. And I can say that Devil’s Whisper had incredible depth to it on so many levels. In fact, I think it is one of those films that you watch and then you spend a lot of time thinking about afterward. 

I appreciate that. I think it’s great when people recognize that in the film because I intentionally and purposely put all of that into the film. I know that everyone watches films differently, and some people watch the film for pure entertainment. I have no problem with that, and I hope that the horror elements, the family dynamics, and everything else about the movie entertained the entire audience.

But I cannot deny that when a viewer invests the additional time to discover the deeper meanings and go beyond the surface of the story, I am delighted. I long for everyone to have a richer experience when watching this film, and when they, in turn, share that with me, it really does touch me. It’s okay to take the film at face value, but my preference would be that everyone really invests the time and effort to understand the story and the meaning behind the story.

Devil’s Whisper

Unfortunately, too many people watch movies today for sheer entertainment. And I think a lot of that is because of these big blockbuster Hollywood movies that don’t often require people to think too deeply.  These films have special effects, the A-list actors, and when you leave the theater, meaningful discussions don’t always happen. I’m not saying that’s necessarily bad as the purpose of those kinds of films is often just to entertain. But that’s something I really appreciate about indie films. They usually challenge you to think on a deeper level. There aren’t any multi-million dollar actors and no special effects, so when you narrow it down, it’s all about the story and it makes you think.

Exactly. And those are the kinds of films I love to make. Those are also the kinds of films that I love to see. And I’m very grateful to the people like you and others who really sought to understand the deeper meaning of the film.

By way of some background, how did you get involved in the film industry?

Adam

I was born in New York, but I grew up in Hollywood. My dad was big in the music business. I grew up in an open, liberal, hippie-type atmosphere. Music didn’t interest me. But I fell in love with film at such an early age.

In the seventies when I was growing up, I lived in the hills, so we had very bad TV reception. And that was around the same time when cable television came into existence. So there was this cable channel called the Z channel, and it was one of the first ever. So here I was about seven years old, and we have this cable channel called Z channel, and nobody else has cable. The guy who owned Z Channel was a lover of cinema, and he placed films on the network like The Exorcist, The Taxi Driver, and The Godfather. I didn’t have a lot of adult supervision as a kid since my dad and the family were in the music business. So I watched these films at a very young age. And that’s when I fell in love with film.

Around the same time, when I was somewhere between five and seven, my parents took me to Universal Studios for the first time. And this is before they had all the behind-the-scenes stuff. But I was like, “Oh my gosh! This is like magic!”

Then between the ages of seven and ten, Jaws and Star Wars came out. So it was all this culmination of my love for movies and cinema and my fascination with how movies were made.

Adam’s parents

Around the same time, my parents were forcing me to take piano lessons. Again, I had no musical talent and no interest in music besides putting records on and listening to them. But the guy that taught me piano would come to our house and teach me piano. He was in a rock ‘n roll group, and he was a hippie. I would never practice what he taught me, and one day he was like, “What can I do to incentivize you and make you practice?” I asked him, “Well, do you have a movie camera?” And he said, “Oh yeah. I have a Super 8 Camera.” So I suggested that when he came over, we could make a movie each week. I assured him that I would practice then. And that’s what happened. He would come over. I’d have to play the song that he taught me. If it was good enough, he’d teach me another song. And then for the rest of the lesson, we’d make a short movie. And that is kind of what started it all.

When I went to high school, I was lucky enough to go to a private school. It was a liberal school and had a great art program. It had a 16mm film class that I got to take, and I was making 16mm films in high school. And that’s what I wanted to do. But I had known what I wanted to do since I was a little kid.

As soon as I got out of high school, there didn’t seem any real point for me to go to college. After all, I knew what I wanted to do. I immediately started working on movies and working in film. I graduated in 1985, and that summer I was working on my first movie as an assistant to the director. And that’s where it all began. I got together with people I knew and made feature films.

Thank you for filling in the blanks. Now I know a little more about you. So, Adam,   Devil’s Whisper was not your first independent film, right? 

That’s right. The first independent film I ever produced was back in the early 90s or late 80s. It was a 16mm feature I did with some friends that were going to USC, and that didn’t really go anywhere. But one of my friends dropped out of USC unbeknownst to his parents, and he used his tuition money to finance an independent film. So me and a friend were involved in producing it, and this other friend wrote and directed it. And it was interesting; it was a funny, quirky film. It was called Tony and David Save America. It was about these two over-privileged, rich kids that are going to a school like USC, and they’re devout Marxists. They want to start a Marxist movement in the United States. We shot it as a mockumentary, and it was this ridiculous, kind of subversive comedy. I learned a lot, and we had a lot of fun making that. But it didn’t end up going anywhere. I guess the filmmaker’s parents got really mad at him because of how he used the tuition money without asking them, so his parents cut him off and forced him to come back home to Northern California and work in the family business. So he couldn’t complete the film.

Now, my friend that I produced that film with…he and I had grown up and gone to high school together. We were in a film production class in high school. He was going to USC, but we knew we had to do another feature and do it for real. He was friends with Brian Singer. Brian had done a short film that had gotten a lot of attention. And there was some company in Japan that was interested in financing some low-budget American films. So we got together with Brian. Brian was really close friends with Chris McQuarrie from New Jersey. They had grown up together. So we brought Chris out to write a script, and we ended up making this film called Public Access. We shot that in 1992, and in 1993, we were accepted to go to Sundance Film Festival. So we went, and me and Brian won the Grand Jury Prize Award. We got to go to the big award ceremony and we got to go up on stage and accept our trophies from Robert Redford. That was all very exciting.

After that, my passion was to write and direct, but at that point, I was producing. So I started doing a lot of writing and putting stuff together. I was attached to produce Usual Suspects, which was written by the same guy who wrote Public Access. But at the same time, I knew that it was going to take two years of my life to put this film together. Those would be two years not writing and not directing.

I had a film that I really wanted to write. I was researching the police department and about being a police officer, but I wasn’t getting the information I needed. I just didn’t feel I was getting the real story. So I determined that if I was going to really write this story about being a cop, I should become a cop. So I applied to the police department.

LA Reserve Police Officers

When the money came in to do Usual Suspects and that got a green light, it was the same time that I got a letter from the city saying that my police academy starts on such-and-such date. So I had to make a decision. Was I gonna produce Usual Suspects or was I really going to pursue this path as a writer/director and creating my own, personal material? I gave it a lot of thought, and I weighed the pros and cons, and I knew I had to go on my path. And that’s how I started on this path of writing/directing. I did go to the police academy and graduated and worked as a cop and was a reserve police officer. In fact, I still am a reserve police officer.

So I started writing this script, and it became quite epic. In short, it was getting out of hand. All these people in Hollywood were interested in the project I was writing, but I was like, “Man, this just isn’t ready. I’m not even ready to finish this script.”

For a long time, I had had an idea for a coming-of-age story about gang members in South Central Los Angeles. I figured since my potential film was so low-budget, I could raise the money myself or do it on credit cards like people were doing at the time. So I started to do that because I wanted to write and direct a movie. I didn’t know when I was gonna finish my “cops” script.

So I came up with this idea. I wrote a treatment for it. It was going to be a fake documentary style–a mockumentary–but it was gonna be completely written. I wrote the script and started casting it. I was at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, which is a yearly thing they have every November. I was in the lobby, and I bumped into a guy I had met through festivals. He was the president of Lionsgate Films. He asked, “Adam, what are you up to?” I told him I was writing and directing an independent film. When he asked who was financing it, I told him how I was going to raise the money or finance it on credit cards. He asked what it was about, and I said, “It’s kind of like ‘Blair Witch In the Hood.’ It’s a coming of age story about a thirteen-year-old kid documenting his descent into gang life over the course of a summer.” He asked me what the budget was, and I said, “Oh, it’s around $250,000.” He was like, “Well, why doesn’t Lionsgate do it?” And I was like, “Yeah, why doesn’t Lionsgate do it?” He was like, “I love it. The budget’s low enough, and I believe in you.” So he was in.

Gang Tapes

So the next week, I was meeting with his head of production to go over the logistics and whatnot, and within six months, I was shooting that movie. It became this movie called Gang Tapes. And Gang Tapes is what got me signed by a manager and signed at CAA as a writer/director.  It opened up my career as a filmmaker. And that movie got a lot of acclaim.

So now I was able to make a living as a writer/director. I was doing a lot of TV, and then the writer’s strike came after several years. And I had projects set up all over town–TV shows and movies. But when the writer’s strike hit, everything got shut down. And that’s when I started producing reality TV. I was picketing, but then I was producing reality TV at the same time to make money. And when the writer’s strike ended, the business had totally changed. It became very difficult to set up projects like I was doing before.

I knew I had to find a way to be the guy who was making decisions. I didn’t feel I could rely on anyone else having the power to say “yes” to me. So I had some relationships in Southeast Asia, and I ended up starting my own company. It ended up being this big thing, but I didn’t want to make this about me. In retrospect, maybe I should have said something about me. I didn’t want the company financing and making my films personally. I knew I had to find films that were commercial or at least seemed commercial and hope that makes sense.

The first film I made with this company was Gambit. It was written by the Cohen Brothers. We ended up putting it together rather quickly. We got Cameron Diaz to star and Colin Firth and Alan Rickman and Stanley Tucci. It was a thirty million dollar movie, and I had never done a film before that was that big. So that was incredible. It was a learning experience in the best ways and the worst ways.  So after all that, I put together the financing. I was finding these scripts and developing them. I would also put together the financing packages and the actors and oversee the production as a producer.

The film I did after that was called Everly.  I cast Salma Hayek to star. Gambit was a romantic comedy caper film. Everly was just a straight action, shoot-’em-up with Salma in the lead.

After Everly, I realized I had spent five years putting together these two big-budget films, and I knew I had gotten away from what I love to do. I got into this business to be a writer/director, not just to be a producer. And I was also frustrated by how long it takes to put these movies together. When the budgets are five million and over and when you’re dealing with big-name stars, there’s so many moving parts. It’s so complex financially and business-wise that it takes a very long time to put those movies together.

So I decided I had to get back to doing what I loved which was writing and directing. I had an idea for a film, and that was June of a couple years ago. I sat down with my financiers and told them about my idea for a film. I told them it would be low-budget–under half a million dollars. I pitched it to them, and they loved it, and it was called Devil’s Whisper. And from the day that I pitched the idea to its premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, it was exactly two years. And for movies, that is unprecedented. This means from having a pitch–a very basic idea–then writing the script to casting it to doing the pre-production to shooting it to doing the post-production–that was all a little less than two years.

That is really amazing. So glad you came back to doing what you love; I understand that quite well myself. It’s really easy to get sidetracked. Life happens, and you get caught up in everything, and then you realize you need to return to your passion.

There’s so many things in life that I think are stressful, challenging, and hard. But when I was writing the film and when I was on set and directing the film, it just felt like this was where I was supposed to be. I feel so comfortable with filmmaking and in the editing room working. No matter how challenging and difficult and crazy the impossibility is that we face…sometimes things change, and you quickly have to find a way to compromise without compromising or hurting your vision of the film. You have to find ways to work around it. There are different challenges that you are presented with when you’re in production on the film, but that stuff never stressed me out. To me, that was the fun of the filmmaking process, and so it was great to go back to doing what I’ve always dreamt of doing.

Devil’s Whisper

Isn’t it true that even before the movie premiered that you already had a distribution deal?

Yeah, we did. That was so great. We pitched this idea to Sony Pictures, and we kept them in the loop. We had some great relationships there, so they ended up coming on board to distribute our film through them. And that was just huge for us and our film.

Oh, I’ve talked to enough independent filmmakers to know that distribution can sometimes be a nightmare. 

With Lucas Oriel

That’s why going in, I didn’t have just a basic pitch for my investors. I wanted to tick a bunch of boxes for them and show them that we were putting ourselves in a position to be as valuable and as attractive to distributors as possible. I know a lot of these horror films are super successful, and they often have a basis in Catholicism. There’s a religious aspect to them, so I wanted to make sure that the film had that as parts of its story. There’s a huge Latino Aermican audience that loves horror films, and when you look at the numbers in terms of percentage of the audience that goes and makes the film like The Purge or any of these horror films that are a big success, such a huge percentage of that audience is Latino. But I wasn’t seeing any of these films starring Latinos, so I decided to make the family Latino, and I decided to do a horror film that was steeped in religion in what I hope was always handled in a respectful way. I decided to choose a very diverse cast, and I tried to depict the family in a realistic, respectful way. My goal was that this would hopefully open up the film and give us the best chance at being commercial and the best chance at being a potential value to distributors.

Devil’s Whisper Team

And that is something I was impressed with. Coming from a religious perspective, I felt you did a respectful job. I have sometimes seen films that make a mockery of religion, but as I watched your film, over and over again, I was like, “Man, this is how it is supposed to be.” Whether it was the stuff happening at the church or even the priest giving his remarks at the graveside service… It was right on religiously-speaking, and I greatly appreciated that.

When I was writing the film, I ended up bringing on two writing partners that I’ve known forever. Oliver Robins, whom you may know as the kid who was in the original Poltergeist film and gets eaten by the tree. And then a very close friend of mine, Paul Todisco, who has written a lot of stuff for Brian Singer. And Paul is a great writer and director in his own right. In the writing and crafting of the script, we made it a point to focus on all the aspects of the writing. We also made sure to focus on the characters and relationships, and we had to have strong material so we could attract the best cast. Because of course, as you know, the best way to attract the best actor is to have the best piece of material. We didn’t have a large budget after all. So it was essential that we had the best script.

Rick Ravanello

With the family, we knew they were going to be practicing religion in the home, so it was important to get the family dynamic right. Then the priest was going to need to be someone that everyone could relate to. He needed to be a human being that people could empathize with. He wasn’t going to be a creepy guy and he wasn’t going to be shown in a very negative or unflattering way. That’s been done before, and it would not serve the purpose of our film. I needed our main character, Alex, to have two strong father figures that were very important to him in very different ways. And by making the priest younger, strong, handsome and athletic, but also giving him a deep background and backstory that showed how there was tragedy in his life and it affected him deeply and made him the person he is today, I think we succeeded. He became a multi-dimensional character that everybody could relate to, and all of that was incredibly important. In fact, Rick {Ravanello} said to us from the very beginning, “I get all these crappy horror films sent to me and I’m never interested.” But he ended up loving the script and was really attracted to the character. So even though we didn’t have a big budget, and we didn’t have enough to compensate Rick as his value is as an actor, I felt very lucky that he agreed to be a part of the film. The film would have been less successful and impactful without him. In all the test screenings we did, no joke, Rick was the highest-rated actor of the whole cast. People fall in love with him as the priest.

In the auditions, I told all the actors that I was going to challenge all of them. My thing is that I wanted to make this as real and as honest as possible. I’m was not gonna allow any nonsense in the movie. The emotions had to be real, and the scenes that we were depicting had to be real. We didn’t want it to seem or feel like a movie. And I am honestly very proud of the whole cast. You know, from Lucas {Oriel} who plays Alex, Tessie {Santiago}, who plays the mom and Rick–it’s just like everybody went beyond and they delivered. As much as I challenged them, they were right there with me. And it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t the most ideal conditions, nor the easiest schedule, but they stepped up and delivered.

I agree, they definitely did. I actually looked up the other actors in the film as I often do, and it was neat to see some of the other things they have been in. Alison Fernandez absolutely blew me away in the film, especially in her gripping scene towards the end.  And now this last season of Once Upon a Time, she’s had a big role. And with the others, it looks like maybe this movie will be opening some doors for some of these actors with limited experience, and I just love that. They did such a phenomenal job of acting, and you did such a great job of bringing it out them.

On the set of Devil’s Whisper with Marcos A. Ferraez (Marcos) and Alison Fernandez (Alicia)

Thank you. And I agree, Alison is great. And after Devil’s Whisper, she went in to do the Logan movie. And then she booked Once Upon a Time. And you can’t turn on the television without seeing her in a commercial, whether it’s Target or Universal Studios or whatever. It’s awesome to see the amount of success that she’s having, and it’s solely because of her and how incredibly talented she is.

So do you have anything else upcoming that you can mention?

I have a few projects we’re working on. There’s a couple of scripts in the works. And there’s one script I’m just finishing with a writing partner, Brian Scott Miller. It’s a contemporary political thriller, but it has one foot firmly planted in the style and themes of the 1970s while still being contemporary. It’s a film we started writing a couple of years ago, and we’re just finishing it now. It’s really fascinating how the themes and ideas of the story that we’re telling in this film is really kind of mirroring what’s going on today. It’s a political action thriller like…I really love films from back in the day like Three Days of the Condor, The Conversation, and The Parallax View. I love films like that from the 70s, so that’s kind of how this one is.

If you remember the film I mentioned earlier that I struggled to finish–the cop film–it’s finished, so I’m starting to put it together. It’s got a working title right now called Black and White. It’s about a young African-American kid from Los Angeles and how he defies his friends and family and joins what is perceived to be the enemy which is the Los Angeles police department. It’s interesting because there are similarities to my film Gang Tapes and Devil’s Whisper. These films for me tend to be a coming-of-age story in a way and an exploration of a character that really changes and evolves over the course of the film. But it’s a character-driven film, and it’s a cop film, so you know there’s a lot of great action and drama in it. It’s all based on my personal experiences of being a reserve police officer the past twenty years.

We do have a few new kind of horror films that we’re working on as well and we’re developing, but that’s what’s we’re up to for now.

Lucas Oriel as Alex

Well, it sounds like you’ve got a lot to keep you busy for quite a while. 

Absolutely. Now, I do want to pose a question to those who have seen the film Devil’s Whisper, and I would love for people to tell me their ideas and answer this question if they choose to do so. What did the ending mean to you? The last scene in the movie, we come from church, and the whole family is there. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone, but it looks like the family has overcome something, and the priest has given a speech about the devil being real and evil being in the world. Then there is a rather inconclusive ending, and if you have seen the film, you will know exactly what I mean. I would love for those who have seen the film to tell me, if they would like to, what that last scene in the film meant to you personally. What do you think is the ending of the story? I’m curious to hear everyone’s responses that would like to answer. And let me say that there is no wrong answer, by the way.

Well, Adam, that is quite a way to end things, but I’m glad you asked. And I hope that many people will jump in with their responses even if not everyone agrees.

Well, that’s one of the reasons we left it open-ended. We would love for there to be a healthy discussion about the end. And even if the audience doesn’t agree, and they find themselves arguing, I really hope that there will be a respectful discussion about what the film meant to them personally, and if they would like to share, I’d love to be a part of that discussion.

Adam, thank you so much for taking the time to share today. I wish Devil’s Whisper and all your upcoming films nothing but the best. I am so glad I stepped outside my comfort zone to watch this one.

Ruth, it was a pleasure chatting with you, and thank you and everyone for the support of this film. And if you haven’t had a chance to see it, I hope you will soon!

I think the thing that impresses me most about Adam is the fact that even when he became side-tracked in the business and ceased following his passion, he made the decision, no matter how difficult it may have been, to return to his love of writing and directing. Numerous people in his position may have chosen the more lucrative option of remaining in a position of producing multi-million dollar films with A-list actors. After all, isn’t that the dream that all filmmakers seek? Isn’t celebrity status something that the whole world pursues? Evidently not.

I salute Adam for remaining faithful to his ideals and finding a way to make quality, profitable films while not sacrificing his passions. He took a step of faith when he decided to make Devil’s Whisper, but it seems as though this film was almost “blessed” from the beginning. While I’m sure he and his team encountered multiple redirections, pitfalls, and so much more, the end result was a gripping tale that can appeal to just about anyone. While many will watch the film for the entertainment value alone, I am certain several of us (including Adam, of course) will cheer whenever someone takes the time to delve into the profundity of the film. It may even require more than one viewing.

I would invite all of my readers who are interested to check out the links below and possibly even purchase a copy of this film for their own movie library. I also would remind any of those who have watched the film to consider reviewing it, recommending it, and answering the question Adam posed at the end of the interview. I am grateful to Adam for his kindness, empathy, and patience, and I can only hope that this film will continue to attract new viewers and fans so that Adam can proceed to bring us introspective, action-packed, visually-appealing, well-written films for decades to come!

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