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Foxy Brown meets Labyrinth? My inspiration for Devil’s Sanctum
The seed that grew into Devil’s Sanctum was the idea of writing the journey of someone sucked into an underworld. Whether it would be a supernatural or reality-based world, I wasn’t sure. I did think about the movie Labyrinth and how the main character was forced to shed parts of her old life and transform in order to make it out.
But I also thought about my two favorite Pam Grier films, Coffy and Foxy Brown. In both of these gritty blaxploitation movies, Grier plays an upstanding woman who throws herself into a seedy criminal underworld to avenge a loved one’s injury or death.
What I love about these movies (besides Grier herself, who is a goddess beyond compare) is the unusual trials she must go through, a combination of traditional action-movie heroics but also subterfuge and role-playing, much of it sexual.
I started thinking about how it would be even more unusual if a male character were to use such a combination of tactics: white-male-sploitation, I dubbed it. And thus the upstanding, naive but ultimately heroic character Brandon Stewart began to take shape.
Since I was inspired by my idol Pam Grier, though, Devil’s Sanctum also needed a badass woman of color. I hope the character Nasreen Hassan pays adequate homage to Grier’s many amazing roles.
My third main character, Troy Weathers, is more of a typical action hero, but with a twist: I attempted to strip him of the kind of machismo that, to me, often renders this type of protagonist off-putting and not relatable. I wanted him to be confident without being cocky, strong but not overly aggressive.
As I shaped these protagonists and their world, they became some of my favorite characters I’ve ever written. I really hope they’re as likable as I intended them to be, and that readers find them easy to relate to (and root for).
