Introduction
In the terrifying horror thriller The Sound, a world-class group of climbers is granted access to the Forbidden Wall, a mysterious rock face that has been closed for decades. Among the climbers is Sean (Marc Hills), whose grandfather made an ill-fated attempt sixty-three years earlier. During the group’s ascent, they come face-to-face with a malevolent force that quickly turns their expedition into a harrowing battle for survival, hundreds of feet above the ground.
Interview
Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower recently interviewed writer and director Brendan Devane about his new horror/thriller, The Sound, starring William Fichtner and Jocelyn Hudon. The film is slated for limited release across the United States on June 27, 2025.
Lightly edited for content and clarity.
Glen Dower:
Mr. Devane. How are you, Sir?
Brendan Devane:
I’m good, Glen, how are you?
Glen Dower:
I’m really good, thanks. We are talking about The Sound, ‘Evil Dead Meets Cliffhanger’, what do you think?
Brendan Devane:
Yeah, there are a bunch of comparisons you can make. In my mind, I am a really big The Thing fan, you know, Carpenter’s great film from the early 80s? I was trying to play a little bit along with those kinds of themes of unseen alien jumps into people’s heads for that kind of psychological thriller, horror feeling that Carpenter had going on there.
Glen Dower:
Growing up, you spent a lot of time in Colorado after you finished college. And how did your experience there, plus Native American culture, come together for the story of The Sound?
Brendan Devane:
I moved to Colorado right after college. I made my parents extra happy to be a ski bum after that, and just learned how to operate in the mountains and got really into ice climbing and rock climbing, and all the other stuff that happens out there. And never really was thinking about filmmaking, I was just into live music production after that in Colorado, and started working my way into production.
And so it’s always been in the back of my mind to have something kind of exciting that I’d liked in the past, like Cliffhanger or Vertical Limit, which I think are entertaining films, but are not very authentic as far as the climbing and how it portrays the climbing. I mean, who doesn’t love Cliffhanger? But the climbing community doesn’t like it as far as what they did. Of course, they got sued by Black Diamond big time for what they did in that opening sequence. So that’s always been part of my, not plan per se, but to make something that is a little bit more authentic to the climbing community.
As far as Native American goes, as you can tell, I’m a big white Irish guy from upstate New York. But I did grow up in a town that is named after Iroquois words. And growing up in the 80s, we did a lot of studying about the Native American aspects of where I grew up in upstate New York, from a town called Saratoga Springs, which is Iroquois for land of the running water.
Brendan Devane (cont):
So I’ve always had an interest in Native Americans. And I played lacrosse, which is their sport, since I was a little kid, and played in a lot of leagues with the Iroquois Nationals and stuff like that, and got to know them. When you’re like me, i.e,. Not Native American, you have to tread carefully, as it’s not my story to tell. So I brought the Native Americans in to bolster that storyline.
Glen Dower:
You mentioned Cliffhanger you mentioned Vertical Limit, which are the two films I noted. How did you maintain a level of authenticity that perhaps those filmed lacked in favor of entertainment?
Brendan Devane:
It’s the reality of big wall rock climbing. That’s kind of boring! It takes hours and hours, right? Even Free Solo, one of the most exciting documentaries I’ve ever seen, took him five hours or something to do that climb. They show what 10 minutes of it, maybe, right? So you have to look for little moments in this, trying to make it authentic, because an authentic climbing movie is kind of boring, except for little spots where they may be exposed to a fall or something like that.
It was a challenge to keep it authentic, while still providing scares or tension, or thrills like that, by involving little things where the lead characters are off rope, and he slips and he might, and he might fall or something like that, which is in the realm of possibility.
When Chris O’Donnell jumps from one peak to the other in Vertical Limit with his two ice axes, it’s fun and exciting, but it’s not real, right? What happens is he falls to his death, right? That’s what’s going to happen in real life. So it takes a balance to try to make things exciting, as far as a Hollywood movie can, while still also trying to be authentic to rock climbing. And that’s why I decided, you know, pretty early on in the process that I couldn’t film this with, like, necessarily a regular production crew, or with actors.
Turns out SAG doesn’t want you to put people a thousand feet in the air! So we made two separate movies. One was a straight rock climbing film with professional rock climbers and a professional rock climbing shoot team, and the other with actors and a professional production crew, and then kind of tried to meld them in post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfnNnuZQUs4
Glen Dower:
We see during the credits at the very end of the movie, we see scenes with the actors. So was that to imply these guys are legit, they work hard, as opposed to just name scrolling, to actually show them in action?
Brendan Devane:
I’m always thinking of doing cool things for credits that make it a little bit interesting than just a scroll. And those were all pictures of their personal lives. It wasn’t even having to do with the film. Most of the people who were cast in this as rock climbers are rock climbers in their personal lives, maybe not professional, but Mark, the lead, who plays Sean, is an accomplished rock climber. All of them are. And so I wanted to kind of like, add a little bit to the authenticity of showing them, you know, doing this sport where typically, you know, it’s an actor who doesn’t, that’s one of my favorite parts of the Truman Show where they tell the bus driver can’t drive away in the bus because he’s an actor, right?
And this particular movie, I wanted to make sure the actors were a part of the skills, like the original Point Break when Catherine cast those surfers, she looked for surfers with SAG cards, instead of teaching actors how to surf, those background ones, obviously not Swayze or Keanu, but so I approached it the same way. I was looking for rock climbers who were also actors.
Glen Dower:
Let’s talk about some of the supporting actors as well. You’ve got William Fichtner, who is one of those actors who just brings the gravitas with the undercurrent of menace or mystery, and Kyle Gass as well! How did those two guys come to be involved?
Brendan Devane:
Well, when you’re talking about a film like this, you’re always looking for angles to be able to promote and market the film, right? If you’re not building a film in pre-production that you can market later, you’re probably doing something wrong as a filmmaker because, without the business, there’s no show, right, as the old saying goes. So that role was always earmarked for maybe a more ‘visible’ actor. And it turned out that the actor Gabe Greenspan, who’s Jason Alexander’s son, did an amazing job, was represented by the same agent who represents Bill.
And after I booked Gabe, I’m a big fan of ‘What’s the worst that can happen. They can say no,’ right? It’s like, ‘hey, I see you represent Bill. Would Bill be interested in this part?’ And he read the script and was in it. And so we got him into the film. And what an amazing actor and person to work with, and just an all-around great guy outside of the business.
Really, it was an absolute pleasure to work with Bill, and I feel very fortunate that he joined the project. As far as Kyle, I’ve always been a big Tenacious D fan. I worked with them when I was a roadie 25 years ago, back when they were first starting. And who doesn’t love Elf and Kyle’s turn as Eugene Dupree? So that was another serendipitous thing where I was working with Kyle’s agent, who at the time represented David Clennon, and Jocelyn Hudon, who also makes an appearance in the film.
Brendan Devane (cont):
And so I kind of bundled those three actors, like a disc, ‘hey, if I cast these two people, I get a discount on Kyle?’ So, a lot of times that’s how this casting goes when you’re not necessarily looking for auditions and your normal casting director is going through all the tapes and stuff, and I’m just looking to fill roles. You know, a lot of it just kind of comes together. And it’s about working relationships with people in the business, the agents who are getting these people to work. So that was very helpful to be able to kind of one-stop shop those casting decisions.
Glen Dower:
I’m also a big fan of what’s the worst they can say, apart from ‘no’. And we just have to talk about David Clennon. I’m so glad you brought up John Carpenter’s The Thing at the very start. I saw his name in press release, and if people are reading, if I just say, “You gotta be fucking kidding…” Yes, Palmer is in this movie! I like to think this is Palmer had he not died in The Thing. So it must have been a thrill for you. Because for me, The Thing is up there in my top two favorite, perfect movies, along with Predator.
Brendan Devane:
Absolutely. When I saw The Thing, I think I was 10, and it scared the shit out of me! It just stuck. It’s one of those films that just sticks with you. I don’t throw around words like ‘invent’, but Carpenter kind of started the ‘contained horror’ before that was a thing. Nobody was talking about contained horror, but there it is. 12 people are stuck in a base in Antarctica. And that’s where, for me, the tension is derived from. They can’t escape each other. And they don’t know who’s infected.
There’s a lot of gore and blood and disgusting stuff in The Thing that we don’t necessarily get into. But I tried to bring a little bit of that tension of the unknown. It’s difficult when you’re on a big wall rock climb because the people are in proximity to each other, like they are in The Thing. When you’ve got five people sitting around a little room, and they’re testing the blood, one of my favorite scenes of all time, when they’re testing the blood to see who’s infected. I tried to do a little throwback to that, where they’re testing on the radio to see what it is.
I combined The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and that standoff there at the end between Angel Eyes, Blondie, and Tuco with that test. Hopefully, people catch it when Dave says, ‘It’s not like Antarctica down there’, because I did want to give him a little bit of a throwback to Palmer there. I can’t say enough great things about Dave. He became a good friend, and we still text. He’s coming to the premiere in Vegas. He’s an all-around stand-up person and a tremendous actor who I’m extremely grateful to for joining the project.
Glen Dower:
I just want to ask about that line. Was that line in the script before he was on board, or written for him?
Brendan Devane:
That was written for him. I had to sneak that one in for him. The character’s name is Kurt Carpenter. Now, that never really comes out, he’s called Kurt. And I combined Kurt Russell with John Carpenter there to give him a little thing. I think he’s called Kurt once in the film. But yeah, that’s just one of those little details, right, that make me chuckle that no one else will hear.
Glen Dower:
There we go, that’s the exclusive. I love that. Now, we don’t want to give too much away, but there are possibilities for a follow-up? Do we have plans for More of The Sound?
Brendan Devane:
Well, you always like to think so, right? But a lot of times this is determined on, you know, like somebody gives you a bag of money to go film a sequel, right? We’ll see how people respond to this and whether I do have a script written and an idea that just basically picks up from the ending of this. It goes a little bit bigger, filming in Norway and Italy and around the world as a higher kind of a higher budget thing. Part of this doing the sound is that we had to learn how to shoot a rock climbing feature horror, which I’m sure someone out there has done something.
I firmly believe that every movie has ever made in the 1950s was made by some French person, right? We’ve all got recycled ideas here. So, we had to learn how to do this at our budget level. It’s a little bit different from a hundred million dollars. Then you can use digi-doubles, you can green screen everything, right?
You can make it look like Mission Impossible, but on our budget, you know, it takes a little bit more ingenuity to pull some of this off. Hopefully, we can continue the story. You never know. I’m a big fan who isn’t of Christopher Nolan and the way that he kind of likes to leaves some of his films that little up in the air of like, is the top still spinning, or is he still in the dream, or is he not in the dream? I kind of like to leave things a little open-ended at the end so that people can imagine if there’s no more, if there isn’t a sequel, people can at least imagine that the story continues in whatever way that they think that it might go.
Glen Dower:
Perfect. The Sound is in theaters and on digital on the 27th of June. Brendan, thank you very much for your time. It’s been a pleasure.
Brendan Devane:
Thanks so much, Glen.
The Sound is in theaters and on VOD from June 27, from Blue Harbor Entertainment.
Read more Cinema Scholar interviews!
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