It impressed, it schocked, it made many people feel uncomfortable or rave about it and regardless the reactions it had, this movie put the director and his team in the vanguard of modern horror cinema, since they dare to provoke, against the spirit of apathy we usually see today. We were lucky that the director Lucio A.Rojas and the main actress Ximena Del Solar replied positively to my request for an interview for Shock, therefore we present their work here, in a special that includes two reviews of TRAUMA and their interviews. Many thanks to both of them for their support and also providing extra photo material and we will always support them, whatever they do in the future.
TRAUMA (Lucio A.Rojas - Chile / 2018)
FIRST REVIEW :
Written and directed by Lucio A.Rojas (ZOMBIE DAWN, SENDERO). From the mediocre German edition of the movie on DVD and Blu-Ray there are 12 minutes of extreme material missing. The real events that inspired the movie regard mostly the way in which the villain of the movie was nurtured and not the story itself. We are in 2011. Four women go to a rich uncle's countryside house to enjoy a weekend of drinking and lesbian experimentation. The twist comes right away to the most extreme
Written and directed by Lucio A.Rojas (ZOMBIE DAWN, SENDERO). From the mediocre German edition of the movie on DVD and Blu-Ray there are 12 minutes of extreme material missing. The real events that inspired the movie regard mostly the way in which the villain of the movie was nurtured and not the story itself. We are in 2011. Four women go to a rich uncle's countryside house to enjoy a weekend of drinking and lesbian experimentation. The twist comes right away to the most extreme
and sick directions a modern horror movie can take, without its filmmakers being in danger of ending up in prison, when the local bully Juan invades the house, accompanied by his son, who is also his nephew and lover... Juan's psychopathology should be monitored by experts, as when the movie starts we are moved back to 1978 and watch the -then underage Juanito- to rape under gunpoint his almost disemboweled mother (from the sadistic tortures of a follower of Pinochet-more in the historical annex below), with the act continuing after the shooting of the woman in the head and the boy vomiting on her wounds... Little Juan's sexuality is directly related to the use of lethal force and the passing years don't manage to appease the troubled paths of his sick mind. Keeping his sister imprisoned and using their offspring as his accomplice and lover, Juan kidnaps young girls, to carry out the torturing taught to him by his mother's sadistic executioner, while at the same time his actions have a perception of honour about his nationalist past. Apart from the sexual torment, he also cuts the victims' bodies, to fully nourish his endless passion (this is where the 'based on true events' of the opening credits comes to mind).
Historical annex:
“Boys love their uniforms'. Augusto Pinochet (Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte) was a military and political dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990, with the blessings of the United States. The assisted coup d'état threw the elected president of the country (and the first Marxist to take over the presidential post in a Latin American country), Salvador Allende (when a coordinated attack was made at the Presidential Palace, the president's AK-47 jammed and he ran à la Speedy Gonzales, before the humiliation). The victims of Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile are 9,800 more than were believed at first, thus exceeding a total of 40,000, according to the inquiry committee created for these events in the capital, Santiago. The figures relate to the imprisoned and tortured victims of the 17-year-old Chilean junta, while the official number of dead and missing persons is only 3,065. D.I.NA. (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional) was the Secret Intelligence service of Chile, whose members came from the 'caravans of death' and specialized in the torture of detainees. Apart from the construction of special sites and tools for torture, they also loved to throw people from flying airplanes or helicopters. At least twelve engineers admitted to making more than forty flights over the Pacific, with corpses or living people confined to sacks. To make sure they stayed at the bottom of the sea and no one would ever find them, they tied them with iron bars. It is estimated that some five hundred dissidents ended up in the sea, after being tortured by DINA officers. Their tactics in some cases were as follows: they were in a neighborhood and they were pulling a dissident out of his house or backyard. They wouldn't say anything to the family. Not even what their identity was. They would take the dissident with them, and from then on, his tracks disappeared. It was like he didn't exist, and that isn't an exaggeration, since they usually killed them and threw them out of the helicopters. The torturers also preferred trucks. In the infamous three-hectare Grimaldi villa, which was the "Mecca" of torture, they put the prisoners to lie in the parking lot and had trucks pass over them, crushing their feet. Their repertoire also included kidnappings, disappearances, killings and rapes of women and men. Another favorite place of detainment and Marquis De Sade evening poetry was the Venda Sexy,
The relatives were forced in sexual intercourse with each other, men were humiliated by their prison guards, usually during anal contact, while there was also the use of animals in erotic acts. Spiders and living rats were placed inside women's genitals for extra compliance. When you see human nature in the face, you can't award it with an Oscar-it doesn't have the right names as producers to hit them like a charm on the back. Here, just talking to each other... Latin America has always had excessive brutality (long before the conquistadors arrived there), with blood being the main currency among people, but these are a matter for another discussion..
[by Kostas Stogiantzikis aka Uncle Spider]
SECOND REVIEW :
Here's a surprise from Chile, a country that doesn't have a concrete tradition in horror cinema, with the exception of a few independent movies (BLACK ANGEL, VISCERAL, BABY SHOWER, ETERNAL BLOOD) and some short films from 2000 onwards, that are played at times at
Here's a surprise from Chile, a country that doesn't have a concrete tradition in horror cinema, with the exception of a few independent movies (BLACK ANGEL, VISCERAL, BABY SHOWER, ETERNAL BLOOD) and some short films from 2000 onwards, that are played at times at
international fantastic cinema festivals and are not particularly famous. The opening credits mention that the movie is based on true events and has a powerful start in 1978 (at a time when the dictator Pinochet was causing bloodshed in the country), with military men torturing a boy, forcing him to rape his mother before and after her murder. After this initial shock, we flash-forward to 2011 and a group of four women (two of them are a lesbian couple) drive to a countryside house, in order to have fun, but they soon become victims of a maniac, who is basically the traumatized boy of the opening credits, now grown-up and with severe psychotic, cannibalistic, sadistic and fetishistic tendencies. He keeps his sister/lover and other victims imprisoned in a complex of abandoned buildings and he also involves his son/nephew/lover in his sadistic games, in a way that would make both schools of Freud and Jung psychology to surrender in amazement. The villains submit the girls to rape and abuse, but the girls finally decide to fight back and -with the help of two local policemen and the relatives of an underage girl who was also kidnaped by the maniac - they go to his lair. There unfolds the final showdown, in a cathartic bloodbath of violence and retribution.
For this movie, Chilean director Rojas clearly uses the standards of the so-called 'savage cinema of the 70's', which was established by Wes Craven with the LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and Tobe Hooper with the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (which Rojas has actually declared to be the favorite film). However, he grafts his material with so much extremity, sickness, blood and gore, that the result reaches a shocking level compared to notorious and daring movies such as A SERBIAN FILM, NAKED BLOOD, AFTERMATH, SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY and NEKROMANTIK. The director has experience in horror movies (he directed the movie ZOMBIE DAWN in 2011, the thriller PERDIFY in 2014 and the survival thriller PATH in 2015) and here he handles his extreme material with talent and mastery and he also gives smart messages about the recent pollical history of Chile and about fascism, while not being a political advocate or activist. He also makes sure to give us a really evil villain, as the protagonist at some point calls the girls "lesbianas de mierda" (=shitty lesbians), while he likes to sing the Chilean national anthem when he tortures his victims. In terms of violence, blood and gore, the film is is extremely satisfying, while the combination of violence with some sick ideas (we have infant abuse analogous to A SERBIAN FILM, plus other morbid ideas) makes the result even more disturbing. The special effects are from a female artist (Isabella Marchesse - she also participated in the effects of the Chilean/Canadian horror co-production DOWNHILL) and are mostly practical and of very high quality. We see a head exploding after a gunshot to the mouth, a shocking à la mundonarcos beheading, a jaw being ripped off, a head melting from acid and other gory moments, so the blood-thirsty cinephiles will have a really great time. There is also a lot of nudity and sex, with plenty of scenes including full nudity, rape etc., while I should note that all the women of the cast look fabulous and they have amazing figures. Actress, model
and recently more active working partner of the director, Ximena Del Solar is perfect in her demanding role and experienced actor Daniel Antivilo is amazing in the role of the villain.
TRAUMA was screened in several international fantasy film festivals in 2017 and in 2018 (including the 2018 Horrororant Festival in Athens) and it was an unforgettable experience to even the most seasoned horror fans, while it is has been released on American DVD and Blu-Ray (from Artsploitation company, which has also released a previous film of Rojas, PERDIFY aka THE WICKED WOODS, plus the Argentinean LUCIFERINA, the German anthology GERMAN ANGST and many more) subtitled in English. It can also be found on torrent format, so that those who didn't see it at the festivals or can't buy the DVD (the German release is heavily cut and I am sure the film will never be released in the UK), can experience it for themselves. I should warn, however, that it is a film only for seasoned extreme cinema fans, while any unprepared viewers will probably encounter a very strong shock. The 40-year-old director (we have the same age- both born in 1978), has several projects he is working on at the moment and I hope he will materialize them and not disappear, like it happened with the director of A SERBIAN FILM. As a final note, I've found Rojas' PERDIFY and a few more recent Chilean horror films as well, so we'll deal again with Chilean horror in future issues of Shock.
[by Aris Pull]
THE VANGUARD OF CHILEAN HORROR – LUCIO A.ROJAS INTERVIEW
Can you tell us how you got interested in cinema - and horror cinema in particular - and what movies made a big impression on you as a young horror fan?
I became interested in cinema as a child and as a spectator. My parents took me to watch movies when I very small and we were going on vacation in Santiago. In my childhood, I lived in a town far to the south, in Chilean Patagonia, where there were no other forms of entertainment. Over time and with the curiosity of one as a child, I began to become interested in horror films and thus started my love for the genre, as well as a lot of fantasy reading in my adolescence, which included the most terrifying book of all, the Bible! I think that between 10 and 20 years old was when I consumed the most horror in my life and all the interest in this wonderful genre was created.
Are there any horror film festivals, magazines and fanzines in Chile?
There are some festivals. The oldest, the Terror Festival of Valdivia already has 15 editions. And in 2018, two more festivals were held, the Fanges and Santiago Horror Fest. There have been attempts by magazines, but they have not been maintained over time. The Chilean public consumes and is very fond of foreign horror films, but we have little and almost no local production and few exhibition channels for our works. They always look abroad.
Your started directing with two short films, DE CONTEMPTUM MUNDI and FASCINUM in 2010. Do you think that short films are a good chance for horror directors to learn the job and make a start in movie making?
Totally. It is a very difficult language, but very attractive and without doubts it is the best school to learn cinema. There you face the problems and all the difficulties in telling a story and taking it forward, despite all the hardships you may have. In the case of countries like mine, Chile, because of economic reasons, production and finding teams with experience in genre films, we do very little and what little has been done, has not been a really good addition.
In 2011 you directed the zombie movie ZOMBIE DAWN. Were you influenced by the zombie film classics or Romero or Fulci regarding your movie or did you try to give a different approach to the zombie movie genre?
When we worked on "Zombie Dawn" with my friend Cristian Toledo, although we took classic references, the main influence was always the western. We wanted to develop a zombie film, but with the spirit of the western and from there we drew many references. In any case, "Zombie Dawn" is a very amateur movie, a student gambit, as irresponsible as it is passionate, and did not have much ambition. But ,surprisingly, it brought us many beautiful things, despite its ultra low budget (US $ 2,000) and the technical deficiencies I had. It was a great learning experience.
You followed with two more horror films in 2015, PERFIDIA (aka PERDIFY/THE WICKED WOODS) and SENDERO (aka PATH). Can you give us some information about them?
"Perfidia" was my thesis from Film School. It is a minor film, of which I am very fond, because it symbolizes many things in my life. Being a student thesis, it was very low budget (US4,000) but despite that, it was very experimental and it was in many festivals and had good distribution.
"Sendero" premiered at the 2015 Sitges festival and is a more mainstream survival thriller, a new reading of my favorite film, "The Texas Massacre", but adapting it to the reality of Chile. We did very well in international festivals and it was the first Chilean horror movie to be acquired worldwide by Netflix. It was also the movie that finally allowed "Trauma" to be made.
In 2017 you directed TRAUMA, which was shown in many international horror festivals and it got a very positive response. Did you travel to some of those festivals to promote the movie and what are your impressions from there?
We were lucky to travel to several festivals where the film was screened, together with the actresses of the film. And it was a wonderful experience, not only because of the trips, but because we could see that in all the festivals where "Trauma" was presented, it became a must for the attendees, the organizers and even other filmmakers. All this filled us with pride and happiness, because we realized that you may like or not like "Trauma", but you can never forget it.
In the program of the festival it mentions that you also came to Greece, to present TRAUMA in Horrorant Festival in Athens, in May 2018.
I could not go to Greece! I was very close to doing it, but due to date problems I could not attend. I would have loved it, because my friends at the festival told me how much they liked "Trauma" and I would have loved to be with them. But next time will come with some of the new projects.
The opening credits of TRAUMA mention that it is based on true events. Are these the events that took place in Chile during the Pinochet regime and the tortures by D.I.N.A., in places like Venda Sexy (aka La Discotheque)?
It is that way. The most painful aspect of "Trauma" is that nothing that was exhibited was fiction. Everything happened in Chile and we must also add that even much worse things than what is seen on the screen. So the pain that can be seen in the film is nothing, compared to what thousands of compatriots lived in the years of the ultra-right and violent Pinochet dictatorship. The saddest thing of all is that some of these political groups are coming back and people without memory do not do much to stop them.
TRAUMA is a very extreme film, even for the standards of horror cinema and although many other films have the same title (for example Dario Argento’s TRAUMA from 1993), your film is worth of this title. But I know that directors like Jorg Buttgereit (NEKROMANTIK), Nacho Cerda (AFTERMATH) and Srdjan Spasojevic (A SERBIAN FILM) faced many kinds of problems with censorship, distribution etc when they pushed the boundaries of the genre too far. Did you face any difficulties with TRAUMA, in Chile or other countries?
Yes, we have had them. The truth is, from the moment we started writing the script for "Trauma", we knew that we would find ourselves with a film that could have problems with distribution, sales and selection at festivals. In recent times, to make a film with these characteristics is politically incorrect, but it was maybe a coincidence that nothing else happened. It was not intentional. But while we wrote the script together with Rodrigo Fernández, the producer of the film, far from being scared by what could happen we often talked about the risks, but we continued without fear, because we believe fiercely in a concept: cinema and all works of art do not necessarily have to be done to please the spectator. It is a function of art, to inconvenience itself, to push itself to the limit and to cause unpleasant sensations. "Trauma" is assumed as a difficult film, but with enough courage to appear in 2018.
I know TRAUMA has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in USA, Japan and Germany. Was the film shown in cinemas in Chile and was it released on DVD there?
And then more countries come. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Hong Kong among others and more will be announced soon. In Chile, it was shown in a couple of festivals and then it was screened for three weeks in an important screening hall in Santiago. It had a very good reception and sincerely, we think that given the content of the film, it would have never be shown in Chile. So we were very happy with that. For now, it is not discussed whether it will come out on Blu-Ray or DVD in Chile.
Was it difficult for the actors in the movie (especially Ximena Del Solar, who has worked with you before and she had the most difficult scenes in TRAUMA) to play some scenes that had nudity, sex and extreme violence?
It was a very difficult movie in many aspects. The first reason is that it was technically very ambitious and at the same time a very low budget movie. Also, it was very difficult for the cast, given the violent and extreme content of the footage, as it is a fairly extensive film (107 minutes), where almost all the running time is very intense. But the group of actors that worked on "Trauma", was of first level and most of all, they worked with great dedication, joy and passion and understood this project. They confronted it with respect and a lot of affection and for that reason, although everything was very difficult, we worked with months of anticipation and talking even about the simplest scene, so that everyone understood the final meaning of this project. Therefore it happened and that is something that makes us very happy.
Actor Daniel Antivilo does an excellent job as the psychopath anti-hero in TRAUMA and he is a very experienced actor, with many movies in his career. How did you persuade him to work with you and how did he respond to this difficult role in your film?
Antivilo is tremendous. He built one of the best villains of the year as far as horror movies are concerned. For our team, he is one of the best actors in Latin America. He has participated in three of my films, TRAUMA, in my film school thesis "Perfidia" and in my previous film "Sendero". But they had been small roles and in "Trauma" we decided that it was time to make a character that was up to the impossible and take the villain to another level. And Daniel did it excellently.
TRAUMA shows some very strong gore scenes, that were done with some amazing practical special effects. Who did the effects and why did you choose practical effects and not the easier option of CGI effects?
A mixture between practical effects and CGI was chosen. The main effects were handcrafted and practical and these were designed and made by Isabella Marchesse, a great Chilean artist. And the VFX were done in a fabulous company called Jump Cats vfx. It was a work designed before filming and also took many months in post-production. From the beginning, we knew that we would not be worried about the censorship of the film and that's why we made this extreme gore and also made it very realistic, in order to make the film much more plausible.
Do you prefer to work with a standard team in all your movies, like working with some cinematographer, music composer or actors that you like and trust?
That's true. It is the most comfortable way of working in industries as small as those in Chile. In addition, they are always very low budget projects and the artists who work in them must understand well the problems generated by a genre film project in Chile.
How about the money for making TRAUMA and your other films? Did you have any help from any film institute in Chile or it was just the producers and yourself?
Only the producers Rodrigo Fernández and Vicente de la Cruz participated. And cinematographer Sebastian Ballek, who also worked as executive producer. It is impossible to access some type of film support fund for a film of this type in Chile, that's why we can only do it with private contributions.
From what I know, Chilean cinema only has a few horror movies after 2000 (for example EN LAS AFUERAS DE LA CIUDAD aka HIDDEN IN THE WOODS, directed by Patricio Valladares in 2012) and there wasn't really a horror film industry before that. So is there a new generation of horror directors who dare to make horror movies in Chile in the last few years? Any other Chilean horror directors or movies you like and could recommend to us?
The panorama of Chilean horror cinema is recent. The first horror films are only 20 years old and very few have been made since then. In addition, it is very difficult to produce them and they are always of low budget. Only a couple of movies have had a good budget in Chile, but they have not been projects that have stood out very much. Therefore, there are few names that exist today. We are the only 100% Chilean horror film that played in festivals in 2018 and apparently, we are the only ones that will be there next year with a project that will be filmed in 2019. This is very sad, because there is talent for sure in the country, but lack of resources has prevented these people from having opportunities. But we will make our best efforts to develop new projects and we hope that in 2020 we will be in festivals again with a new film and expecting it to be at the same level as "Trauma". So keep trusting our team and believe that we will bring more powerful projects and take them to unique sensations!
Some horror directors from other Latin American countries have moved to the USA and make movies for big producers or studios there. Does this idea sound attractive to you or do you prefer to make independent movies in Chile, despite the difficulties?
The truth is, making horror films in Chile is so difficult, that one must think about looking for new horizons. But there is another issue, that the creative freedom which one enjoys here, will probably not be given in the USA. Making a movie like "Trauma" would be simply impossible. Creative freedom is something we value a lot and money can't win in this area. But if some day an interesting Project appears in the USA, we will be happy to take an adventure like that.
Along with my thanks for this interview, can you tell us about your future plans and what films are you working on at the moment?
Currently we are working on several projects. The biological horror anthology ILL, for which we will make one of the short films. Here, the creation of the screenplay of the Chilean section was made with Ximena del Solar, actress of "Trauma", who will also star in it. Then we are developing the feature film "Fascinare", which follows the line of controversial topics such as "Trauma", but without violence. But in this film, we enter the world of pedophilia and the struggle of one of characters not to become a pedophile. It will cause controversy for sure, because these are subjects that continue being very taboo in cinema. The other project in development is a trilogy of fantastic horror to be produced as a co-production of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico. The first film is called "Malebolgia" and as a first read, it has to do with the world of Dante, but in the context of an apocalyptic film. The other two are called "Fury" and "Lamiae". The three of them will be filmed between the end of 2019 and 2021 in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Their unifying theme is the magic, witches and demons that haunted Latin America in different time periods. Let's hope that all these projects will be fulfilled and be shown in the world as imaginary, fresh and personal works.
Photo credits (in order of appearance) : Lucio A.Rojas/Zombie Dawn poster/Sendero poster/Lucio with Ximena&friend festival photo/Trauma US DVD poster/Trauma making of (Ximena Del Solar&Macarena Carrere)/Ill anthology poster
I became interested in cinema as a child and as a spectator. My parents took me to watch movies when I very small and we were going on vacation in Santiago. In my childhood, I lived in a town far to the south, in Chilean Patagonia, where there were no other forms of entertainment. Over time and with the curiosity of one as a child, I began to become interested in horror films and thus started my love for the genre, as well as a lot of fantasy reading in my adolescence, which included the most terrifying book of all, the Bible! I think that between 10 and 20 years old was when I consumed the most horror in my life and all the interest in this wonderful genre was created.
There are some festivals. The oldest, the Terror Festival of Valdivia already has 15 editions. And in 2018, two more festivals were held, the Fanges and Santiago Horror Fest. There have been attempts by magazines, but they have not been maintained over time. The Chilean public consumes and is very fond of foreign horror films, but we have little and almost no local production and few exhibition channels for our works. They always look abroad.
Your started directing with two short films, DE CONTEMPTUM MUNDI and FASCINUM in 2010. Do you think that short films are a good chance for horror directors to learn the job and make a start in movie making?
Totally. It is a very difficult language, but very attractive and without doubts it is the best school to learn cinema. There you face the problems and all the difficulties in telling a story and taking it forward, despite all the hardships you may have. In the case of countries like mine, Chile, because of economic reasons, production and finding teams with experience in genre films, we do very little and what little has been done, has not been a really good addition.
When we worked on "Zombie Dawn" with my friend Cristian Toledo, although we took classic references, the main influence was always the western. We wanted to develop a zombie film, but with the spirit of the western and from there we drew many references. In any case, "Zombie Dawn" is a very amateur movie, a student gambit, as irresponsible as it is passionate, and did not have much ambition. But ,surprisingly, it brought us many beautiful things, despite its ultra low budget (US $ 2,000) and the technical deficiencies I had. It was a great learning experience.
"Perfidia" was my thesis from Film School. It is a minor film, of which I am very fond, because it symbolizes many things in my life. Being a student thesis, it was very low budget (US4,000) but despite that, it was very experimental and it was in many festivals and had good distribution.
"Sendero" premiered at the 2015 Sitges festival and is a more mainstream survival thriller, a new reading of my favorite film, "The Texas Massacre", but adapting it to the reality of Chile. We did very well in international festivals and it was the first Chilean horror movie to be acquired worldwide by Netflix. It was also the movie that finally allowed "Trauma" to be made.
In 2017 you directed TRAUMA, which was shown in many international horror festivals and it got a very positive response. Did you travel to some of those festivals to promote the movie and what are your impressions from there?
We were lucky to travel to several festivals where the film was screened, together with the actresses of the film. And it was a wonderful experience, not only because of the trips, but because we could see that in all the festivals where "Trauma" was presented, it became a must for the attendees, the organizers and even other filmmakers. All this filled us with pride and happiness, because we realized that you may like or not like "Trauma", but you can never forget it.
I could not go to Greece! I was very close to doing it, but due to date problems I could not attend. I would have loved it, because my friends at the festival told me how much they liked "Trauma" and I would have loved to be with them. But next time will come with some of the new projects.
The opening credits of TRAUMA mention that it is based on true events. Are these the events that took place in Chile during the Pinochet regime and the tortures by D.I.N.A., in places like Venda Sexy (aka La Discotheque)?
It is that way. The most painful aspect of "Trauma" is that nothing that was exhibited was fiction. Everything happened in Chile and we must also add that even much worse things than what is seen on the screen. So the pain that can be seen in the film is nothing, compared to what thousands of compatriots lived in the years of the ultra-right and violent Pinochet dictatorship. The saddest thing of all is that some of these political groups are coming back and people without memory do not do much to stop them.
TRAUMA is a very extreme film, even for the standards of horror cinema and although many other films have the same title (for example Dario Argento’s TRAUMA from 1993), your film is worth of this title. But I know that directors like Jorg Buttgereit (NEKROMANTIK), Nacho Cerda (AFTERMATH) and Srdjan Spasojevic (A SERBIAN FILM) faced many kinds of problems with censorship, distribution etc when they pushed the boundaries of the genre too far. Did you face any difficulties with TRAUMA, in Chile or other countries?
Yes, we have had them. The truth is, from the moment we started writing the script for "Trauma", we knew that we would find ourselves with a film that could have problems with distribution, sales and selection at festivals. In recent times, to make a film with these characteristics is politically incorrect, but it was maybe a coincidence that nothing else happened. It was not intentional. But while we wrote the script together with Rodrigo Fernández, the producer of the film, far from being scared by what could happen we often talked about the risks, but we continued without fear, because we believe fiercely in a concept: cinema and all works of art do not necessarily have to be done to please the spectator. It is a function of art, to inconvenience itself, to push itself to the limit and to cause unpleasant sensations. "Trauma" is assumed as a difficult film, but with enough courage to appear in 2018.
I know TRAUMA has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in USA, Japan and Germany. Was the film shown in cinemas in Chile and was it released on DVD there?
And then more countries come. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Hong Kong among others and more will be announced soon. In Chile, it was shown in a couple of festivals and then it was screened for three weeks in an important screening hall in Santiago. It had a very good reception and sincerely, we think that given the content of the film, it would have never be shown in Chile. So we were very happy with that. For now, it is not discussed whether it will come out on Blu-Ray or DVD in Chile.
It was a very difficult movie in many aspects. The first reason is that it was technically very ambitious and at the same time a very low budget movie. Also, it was very difficult for the cast, given the violent and extreme content of the footage, as it is a fairly extensive film (107 minutes), where almost all the running time is very intense. But the group of actors that worked on "Trauma", was of first level and most of all, they worked with great dedication, joy and passion and understood this project. They confronted it with respect and a lot of affection and for that reason, although everything was very difficult, we worked with months of anticipation and talking even about the simplest scene, so that everyone understood the final meaning of this project. Therefore it happened and that is something that makes us very happy.
Actor Daniel Antivilo does an excellent job as the psychopath anti-hero in TRAUMA and he is a very experienced actor, with many movies in his career. How did you persuade him to work with you and how did he respond to this difficult role in your film?
Antivilo is tremendous. He built one of the best villains of the year as far as horror movies are concerned. For our team, he is one of the best actors in Latin America. He has participated in three of my films, TRAUMA, in my film school thesis "Perfidia" and in my previous film "Sendero". But they had been small roles and in "Trauma" we decided that it was time to make a character that was up to the impossible and take the villain to another level. And Daniel did it excellently.
TRAUMA shows some very strong gore scenes, that were done with some amazing practical special effects. Who did the effects and why did you choose practical effects and not the easier option of CGI effects?
A mixture between practical effects and CGI was chosen. The main effects were handcrafted and practical and these were designed and made by Isabella Marchesse, a great Chilean artist. And the VFX were done in a fabulous company called Jump Cats vfx. It was a work designed before filming and also took many months in post-production. From the beginning, we knew that we would not be worried about the censorship of the film and that's why we made this extreme gore and also made it very realistic, in order to make the film much more plausible.
Do you prefer to work with a standard team in all your movies, like working with some cinematographer, music composer or actors that you like and trust?
That's true. It is the most comfortable way of working in industries as small as those in Chile. In addition, they are always very low budget projects and the artists who work in them must understand well the problems generated by a genre film project in Chile.
Only the producers Rodrigo Fernández and Vicente de la Cruz participated. And cinematographer Sebastian Ballek, who also worked as executive producer. It is impossible to access some type of film support fund for a film of this type in Chile, that's why we can only do it with private contributions.
From what I know, Chilean cinema only has a few horror movies after 2000 (for example EN LAS AFUERAS DE LA CIUDAD aka HIDDEN IN THE WOODS, directed by Patricio Valladares in 2012) and there wasn't really a horror film industry before that. So is there a new generation of horror directors who dare to make horror movies in Chile in the last few years? Any other Chilean horror directors or movies you like and could recommend to us?
The panorama of Chilean horror cinema is recent. The first horror films are only 20 years old and very few have been made since then. In addition, it is very difficult to produce them and they are always of low budget. Only a couple of movies have had a good budget in Chile, but they have not been projects that have stood out very much. Therefore, there are few names that exist today. We are the only 100% Chilean horror film that played in festivals in 2018 and apparently, we are the only ones that will be there next year with a project that will be filmed in 2019. This is very sad, because there is talent for sure in the country, but lack of resources has prevented these people from having opportunities. But we will make our best efforts to develop new projects and we hope that in 2020 we will be in festivals again with a new film and expecting it to be at the same level as "Trauma". So keep trusting our team and believe that we will bring more powerful projects and take them to unique sensations!
Some horror directors from other Latin American countries have moved to the USA and make movies for big producers or studios there. Does this idea sound attractive to you or do you prefer to make independent movies in Chile, despite the difficulties?
The truth is, making horror films in Chile is so difficult, that one must think about looking for new horizons. But there is another issue, that the creative freedom which one enjoys here, will probably not be given in the USA. Making a movie like "Trauma" would be simply impossible. Creative freedom is something we value a lot and money can't win in this area. But if some day an interesting Project appears in the USA, we will be happy to take an adventure like that.
Along with my thanks for this interview, can you tell us about your future plans and what films are you working on at the moment?
Currently we are working on several projects. The biological horror anthology ILL, for which we will make one of the short films. Here, the creation of the screenplay of the Chilean section was made with Ximena del Solar, actress of "Trauma", who will also star in it. Then we are developing the feature film "Fascinare", which follows the line of controversial topics such as "Trauma", but without violence. But in this film, we enter the world of pedophilia and the struggle of one of characters not to become a pedophile. It will cause controversy for sure, because these are subjects that continue being very taboo in cinema. The other project in development is a trilogy of fantastic horror to be produced as a co-production of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico. The first film is called "Malebolgia" and as a first read, it has to do with the world of Dante, but in the context of an apocalyptic film. The other two are called "Fury" and "Lamiae". The three of them will be filmed between the end of 2019 and 2021 in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Their unifying theme is the magic, witches and demons that haunted Latin America in different time periods. Let's hope that all these projects will be fulfilled and be shown in the world as imaginary, fresh and personal works.
THE LEADING LADY OF CHILEAN HORROR-INTERVIEW WITH XIMENA DEL SOLAR
You have worked with director Lucio A.Rojas in many of his films, starting from his short film FASCINUM in 2010 and later in PERFIDIA, SENDERO and TRAUMA. How did you meet him and how did you decide to act in his films?
Lucio and I met many years ago (2001), while studying at the University. I must to point out I was studying Linguistics, while he studied Politic Science. Well, one day I got the information that there was a horror film season to which I attended alone to watch an exhibition of Vampyros Lesbos (Jesus Franco). The organizer of the season was Lucio. That's how we met each other. We became friends very soon since we had many tastes in common. We both dreamed of making films, but none of us though about this as something really close to our reality. Just a fantasy. During the next 5 years we shared movies and experiences. Then I moved to Spain, where I lived for 5 years. During that period Lucio was a great friend and support from a distance. In the meantime I began to venture into alternative modeling and develop interpretative skills, while Lucio finally decided to dedicate himself to film and went to study at a film school. When I returned to Chile we had both polished skills that were related to our dreams and that is how this alliance began.
Is it difficult for you as an actress to play in horror films and especially those that have scenes with extreme violence, gore and nudity?
Regarding the nudies, I must admit that I fully trust the quality of Lucio's proposals and the respect that my work teams provide (Photography, Make-up, camera operators, etc.). We create a very respectful environment when materializing scenes that require so much dedication. I do not know if I could do it with any other director, unless he/she already has a filmography that ensures the quality of their approach. Same happens with photographers. Nowadays, I never do a nude in a first session and review the portfolios before making a decision about who to work with and who not. At this point I have already had to pass a few labor disappointments.
About extreme violence and gore ... well, my opinion is still a bit similar. I am very concerned about the quality of the approach that a proposal may have. I must confess that, as a spectator, I am not particularly close to physical violence, but I have learned to develop more symbolic readings over the years. I like more to delve into the mental processes of the characters than in the pure and hard violence. I try to make sure that both things have a place in the narrative, but I find it extremely attractive to be able to represent such extreme situations on the screen. Somehow, a part of me lives them very intensely and that is incredible. There is a cathartic value on that.
In TRAUMA, your role is very demanding. How did you prepare yourself psychologically for this role and how did you feel after the film was completed? Did Lucio or someone else help you to prepare for the role?
I think that's exactly what I like about Julia. The character crosses a huge variety of emotional arcs and it was a challenge to achieve coherence despite all those changes. As an actress, it was exciting to add so many experiences in one shoot. Julia lives the ecstasy of sex with her girlfriend, the hedonism and joy of enjoying her own body and sensuality and then the drama of seeing the world break to pieces and never be what she knew. She goes from being a somewhat capricious woman to knowing how to commit herself to the team fight.
About the preparation: we made group script readings with Lucio. He met with each team separately (the women/victims and the villains). We never mix until we meet on the set to film the attack (with the exception of an encounter that we did many weeks before to make a physical recognition of the location where that scene would take place).
During those script readings we read reports of real victims of rape during the dictatorship and other contexts of isolated character, without political connection. We also shared some personal experiences related to abuse that we had suffered or known in our real life. We all had something to tell ... that is the harsh reality. We use all this information to give consistency and credibility to the situation that we were going to recreate in the movie.
In my personal case I also consulted my sister Javiera, who is a psychologist, about some victim reactions and behavior.
The first time I saw the full movie was at the world premiere, which took place at Morbido Film Fest (Mexico City). At the end of the screening I experienced a feeling of sadness and I realized that the audience around us shared that same emotion. There are moments when the movie makes you experience a very terrible sense of helplessness. Then we talked with other colleagues about that. The impression left by the film is very strong.
In TRAUMA, the character you play dies in a very gruesome way. How long did it take for this scene to be prepared with make up and special effects to be directed?
Oh, yeah ... Julia's death is pretty terrible and one of the most amazing fx of the movie. During the preproduction a prosthetic was made of my head. It was the first crazy and weird experience for me. Keep my head covered with latex and keep it that way, mouth open, eyes closed and immobile for one hour until drying. It was like a kind of catalepsy. The one in charge of doing all that work is Isabella Marchesse, a woman whom I admire deeply, both humanly and professionally. On the set I performed all the torture sequence with Daniel Antivilo, and I also have a device that immobilizes the head keeping the mouth open with hooks. My head is replaced by the prop only to show the dislocation of the jaw. Then, digitally, both things came together. The truth is that it was not so complicated to work the aspect of that fx in the location. Although there was only one head and it was necessary to break it in a proper way at the first attempt. There was a nervous expectation for that. But it turned out well.
Prior to that, the rest was to develop Daniel's intimidation work. His character sings the national anthem of Chile while torturing me (a verse that praises the armed forces that was mandatory to sing every Monday in the schools of Chile during the military dictatorship). The first time I saw the result was very disturbing. It is very strange to see your own face dismember. The result is so realistic !
Apart from an actress, you are also a model, so have you encountered any problems in your modeling work, because of your roles in horror movies?
Not at all. In general I do activities as a model in rather alternative circuits so I think my experience in the cinema is more valuable. I do not have a traditional or perfect beauty, I do not have direct links with advertising or publicity. Mine is more linked to the artistic. In that environment the work I've done in Cinema is rather entertaining and fascinating.
I could tell you even something more. Many photographers are fascinated by the possibility to work with someone who has developed interpretative skills that allows to face more demanding sessions in terms of expressivity and emotion.
TRAUMA was a big success in many international film festivals, so I'd like to ask you if you visited any of these festivals and met with the organizers, other directors and horror movie fans there? How was your experience from there?
Trauma has been a marvel in my life. I feel very grateful for all the experience that it has meant. In fact, I had the opportunity to travel to several countries (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Belgium). I have met incredibly interesting people and colleagues from around the world. All this experience has made me grow even more and develop more skills (social and professional). I would have loved to visit even more places, but it is not possible to travel that much.
In Chile it is very difficult to make movies and the segment dedicated to the genre film is tiny. Many people see you as a weirdo. Suddenly when you travel you find yourself with realities so different and with incredible respect from the audience. It is an almost magical emotion !. Somewhat ironic, considering how violent the film is.
The festivals have allowed me to meet and talk to people I use to read about! Famous and acclaimed names of the industry like Roger Corman, Brian Yuzna, Mick Garris, Paco Plaza, Xavier Gens, Romain Roll, Enrique Lopez Lavigne. As well as new and incredible talents: Issa Lopez, Paul Urkijo Alijo, Caye Casas, Samuel Galli Issa Lopez, Paul Urkijo Alijo, Caye Casas, Samuel Galli and many others. It is really beautiful and exciting.
The fans and the audience are another wonder. People get close to you and very respectfully ask for a picture and ask you things they want to know about your country and your work. Now that Trauma is on the market an internet, available to anyone who wants to watch it, there are people who write to me from all over the world to tell me their impressions about the movie tagging me in their instagram publications (mine is @ximedelsolar).
Do you feel comfortable working with Lucio A.Rojas and are you going to play in more of his movies in the future?
Well, in fact we are working together on a story right now!. It is the Short Film "Contagium", We are both creators and screenwriters on it. It is going to be the first segment of a body horror anthology produced by Domiziano Cristopharo. I am tremendously excited and committed to this challenge. My collaboration in Lucio's films has always exceeded the merely acting (mainly in Trauma) and now I am taking a formal step into the creative field. We communicate and complement each other very well in this process and, until now, the experience has been very positive. I`d like this to be just the first of many more coming for the future.
Recently I saw the trailer for a forthcoming horror movie you are starring in, called LAMIAE, which is currently in pre-production. Can you give us some information about the movie and your role in it? Is it based on the child-eating creature of Lamia from Greek mythology?
“Lamiae” is a very ambitious project that would have to enter fully into the land where horror and fantasy mixes. I will not tell you about the project itself, because I suppose that Lucio will answer it with greater precision, but as far as I'm concerned - and if it could materialize - it would be to me the culmination of a long-cherished dream. Developing a character that moves exclusively in the field of fantasy is one of my goals and, without a doubt, a great challenge for anyone. Actually Lamie is inspired by the Greek mythology that you point out, but transferred to Latin America. The challenges are multiple (photography, production design, character design, makeup, fx, etc.). That's why we have to work with such care.
Along with our thanks for your interview, what are your plans for the future? Would you like to focus more on modeling or acting?
I wanna thank you and Shock Magazine for giving us this space and covering our work. I hope it becomes the first of many more times in your pages.
Regarding your question, the answer is very clear. I prefer to focus on acting work and strengthen my skills in that area. It may seem strange to you, but the truth is that when I was very young I was very shy and didn`t dare to study Interpretation. I preferred to please my family by studying a formal career, which in any case I liked a lot since I have very varied interests, and I graduated in Linguistics. It was during that university period that I discovered in the photographic modeling a means of expression and channeling of interpretative concerns, and finally it ended up approaching me to cinema, which is my dream since I was a child. Anyway, I love modeling so I will continue to do so as interesting proposals and good work teams arise. The love for cinema is a passion that nothing can destroy.
Photo credits (in order of appearance) : bath photo – photographer : Paula Bertrán Salinas (@paulabertrans) / Ximena in Trauma screenshot (death scene) / group photo - photographer : Rodrigo Unda (@rodrigounda) context: promotional picture made for Santiago Horror Film Fest 2018 (Chile), with Lucio A. Rojas and Macarena Carrere / Trauma screenshot
Many thanks to Lucio A.Rojas and Ximena Del Solar for their time, enthusiasm and photo material for this e-mail interview! Muchas Gracias!
NOTE : TRAUMA special and the two interviews were originally published in Greek and included in issue 46 of SHOCK magazine (out in March 2019). The interviews were done in English, but the reviews here were translated from Greek.
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