2023-10-05 22:17:57
Paco Plaza managed to create a recent classic of horror cinema to the rhythm of Héroes del Silencio and with the smell of the neighborhood in Verónica. Plaza demonstrated that few like him in Spanish cinema manage the codes of the genre. It was already known, it was he, together with Jaume Balagueró, who made the best-known horror saga, REC. That “Pablo, record everything for your fucking mother!” which became one of the phrases that remain to be remembered.
I didn’t think when that film based on found footage was released in 2007 (a genre that uses false found material pretending to be real to generate fear) that it would be the first in a franchise. He didn’t think about it with Verónica either and, however, now he opens the Sitges Festival with Hermana Muerte, a prequel that recovers the mysterious character from the previous film – the mysterious nun from the protagonist’s school – to tell her origins.
It places the action in the post-war period and bathes everything in white in a commitment to luminous terror that has references to Who can kill a child? or Midsommar and that encloses his proposal in a convent. The protagonist will arrive there before being that Sister Death in the first paranormal event that she will face in a convent that keeps secrets, spirits and where the entire Catholic imagination becomes a tool to generate terror and bad vibes in the hands of Paco Plaza in a film that will arrive on Netflix on October 27.
Sister Death was a character that Verónica already liked a lot, was there always a movie in your head or at what point was she born?
It’s not that there always was, but what is true is that I was left wanting, because it seemed to me that he was a character whose name alone suggested many stories to me. In Verónica it didn’t make sense to develop that character, so things had been left in the pipeline. Everything happened a bit in a natural way, in conversations with Enrique López Lavigne (producer of the film) where they talked about the possibility of revealing a little bit of the history of that character and being able to take a trip back in time. I think there is something very cool and that it is a fairly classic thing in horror sagas, which is changing time. Having the opportunity to make a horror film in the post-war period, in an environment like a convent, was something very appealing and very suggestive.
It is a film almost completely independent of Veronica, except for a few winks. Normally, in these sagas she is very careful to leave clues and connections.
There are winks and this is the presence of the eclipse, which was at a decisive moment in Verónica. Now, watching the two movies together, it does seem like Veronica’s eclipse is reminding Sister Death of something about her own experience, although it has been in a completely involuntary way. I really like it when these films are not excessively burdensome, that you can watch them independently, but at the same time there is some element that is familiar with the other film and takes on added meaning. But don’t compromise the enjoyment of a movie on the knowledge of the previous one.
The film has a historical context such as the post-war period and is important in the plot, although not excessive. How did this context arise and to what extent did you want to integrate it, but also not make it more important than it has?
In my opinion, it is even more sociological than political because of the weight of religion. It is true that in previous versions of the script the fact that Narcisa ends up being a nun was developed more, almost out of a need to save money to feed in her family, which was quite common in the post-war era. Send a girl to become a nun so you don’t have to feed her. The convents have something like a space-time capsule, like a parallel reality in a universe that borders on fantastic cinema due to the circumstances of these women and their way of life. The fact of not interacting with any man, not leaving those walls… In the film it is explained that, previously, this convent had been cloistered, which is the most extreme case of condemning yourself in life: voluntarily secluding yourself to be totally margin of the world. I think that this relates the film to fantasy, in the sense that the interactions and relationships between the characters are superconditioned by a context that is not the usual one and is not normal.
It is an eminently Spanish film on a platform that will release it in 190 countries.
I am increasingly convinced that the more a film delves into the roots of its own culture, the more understandable it is outside its country. In this case, being a Netflix movie, in some way the borders are blurred and they are global products that you know will be seen in many countries and that you are not so conditioned to their own market. But I believe that the more native it is, the more it manages to be attractive and more readable for viewers from other countries. The references we had were Carlos Saura’s photos from the 1950s. We liked that it had a profoundly Spanish and Mediterranean feel; hence the choice of white as the protagonist. In the film the sun shines, the whitewashed walls are there, the habits… We wanted a little bit of that Mediterranean festival.
What is it about religion that is so juicy for terror?
Starting with the fact that religious education predisposes you to the supernatural, to believe in things that science cannot prove. In the resurrection of the dead, the immaculate conception… It is in all religions, but I talk about Catholicism because it is the one in which I was raised. The thing is that in the celebration of the Eucharist they are telling you that that piece of bread is a piece of the flesh of Christ who died 2,000 years ago and that the wine is his blood. In some way, reality is being spoken in a very poetic way and things are being established as dogmas that are totally contrary to the empirical. I think there is a very obvious link between religious faith and belief in the supernatural. And then, speaking strictly about ours, which is part of our cultural heritage, iconographically it is unbeatable. There is no logo more beautiful than a cross. It is simplicity, simplicity and universality. Those at Nike or any advertising creative would like to have created two sticks that intersect and for 2,000 years to be a homogeneous symbol that is everywhere. Then there is the wealth of linked pictorial and architectural works. In fact, until the arrival of the Enlightenment, practically all Western art is religious and, therefore, all of our visual and cultural education, whether we like it or not, is highly mediated by Catholicism.
It also has an iconography with very gory things like relics, which are used very well in the film.
Man, just the idea of having a God who sends his son to be tortured and executed in public seems quite powerful to me, and that that is the foundation of faith is very strong. Theoretically, we must believe in a God who is kind and just, especially in the Old Testament. The Bible is full of very sad stories. You mentioned the thing about relics, which I have always found fascinating, the clotted blood of Christ! I remember that in Paris they showed me a bottle of breast milk from the Virgin Mary. They are wonderful things, it is like a universe that you laugh at Marvel.
Without giving spoilers, but in the end the film is a revenge thriller.
One of my favorite movies is Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and there was something I liked about this woman dressed in white, with touches of red, and taking revenge.
I don’t know if the Verónica universe ends here or if she wants to continue developing it.
I think it’s okay to leave it here for now. I think that with two it was already good, but come on, I never thought that there was going to be a sequel to Verónica, nor did I think that there were going to be four REC movies, so I don’t trust my own perception much either. Maybe in a while we will come up with a fun idea to follow him and hey, let’s go there.
He has presented films in San Sebastián, this one opens Sitges, which is a more enjoyable festival, I don’t know if he thinks there is a certain posturing depending on which festival it is.
Sitges is a very particular festival. It is a convention for horror film lovers and that already determines the attitude a lot. In fact, many times I think I only continue making films to present them in Sitges, because it is a celebration. I have been going to Sitges for 31 years, and I practically know almost everyone. It’s like an annual gathering of friends and it’s much more than a festival. It has nothing to do with any other, in the sense that it is super oriented towards the public and an audience that goes to the movies to enjoy themselves, and that is wonderful.
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