Manuel Carballo, director of the new demonic possession flick Exorcismus was kind enough to sit down and chat with us about his new film. Check out the question and answer session below and make sure to read our review...but most of all make sure you get out and see Exorcismus! The film is available nationwide On Demand from IFC Midnight, via Comcast, Cox, Cablevision, Time Warner, and Bright House, or check your local theater listings to see if it's playing by you!
PDC- The possession sub-genre of film is an interesting one. It is the only genre to be introduced, defined, and dominated by the same film, The Exorcist. With this in mind did you find it an intimidating task to make your film different? Is there a drive to change how people see this type of film, to give them what they don’t expect?
MC- No, not at all. There was no kind of pressure because we were never competing with Friedkin’s film, nor were we trying to emulate or better it in any way. We mustn’t forget that The Exorcist was shot with all the means that the industry had to offer, which was not our case. When making Exorcismus not only were we aware of our limitations but we tried to take advantage of them. We simply wanted to make a film that as well as being scary, would interest and excite the viewer without giving them a sense of déjà vu, and I think we achieved this aim.
PDC- In the early stages of this films production it was said to have been a film based on a secretly recorded exorcism, similar to the “reality” based aspect of films like [REC], or The Blair Witch Project, is there any truth to this? If so why the change?
MC- During the scriptwriting process, different narrative decisions are made which are then not always reflected in the following press releases. We did consider something similar to what you mentioned, but in the end we decided to opt for a different kind of realism that wouldn’t involve a “first person” camera.
PDC- In what ways did you research the subject matter of the film?
MC- Right from the start we had several meetings with expert demonologists and with a real exorcist belonging to the church. The idea of both David Muñoz, the scriptwriter, and Sandra Fernández, the producer, was to recreate, in so far as possible, the characteristics and conditions of these types of rituals in the most real and plausible way and I think that this increases the intensity and strength of the film enormously.
PDC- Building on the last question, what is more important as a filmmaker, presenting something that realistically portrays possession and the rite of Exorcism or presenting something that will give the audience a good scare and a good time?
MC- Both are important, but as we were making a film rather than a documentary, what it boiled down to in the end was to provoke the viewer’s interest and excitement.
PDC- Your previous feature, El Ultimo Justo was also based in religion, . Does this come from your personal background? Personally, I’m Catholic, and have always found that “mythos” of the religion would make for great cinema.
MC- I went to a Jesuit school and religion, in all its forms, has always interested me, although it is something of a coincidence that the subject appears in my first two films. Religion interests me for the myths and images it generates and for its extreme and contradictory behavior, but I don’t think it’s anything new; religion has been the subject of art throughout history.
PDC- Will you continue your work in the horror genre? Are there any other types of films that you are especially interested in making? If so, what are they?
MC- Although I really like this genre and I feel comfortable working in it, what interests me most is cinema and good stories in general, whether they be fantasy, horror or anything else. And yes, there are lots of genres I would like to tackle as a director, from westerns to adventure, thriller or comedy. As I’ve already said, whenever there’s a good story involved, the genre doesn’t matter.
PDC- What’s next for you, what are you working on at the moment?
MC-Well, at the moment we are working on an exciting and original script that puts a different spin on the typical deadly virus stories. It will be a film that, we hope, will give people a lot to talk about. It’s called The Returned.
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