Fede Álvarez And His Impact On American Horror [Horror En Español]
For the majority of my column, I’ve focused on the stories coming out of Latin America. But, I have yet to really discuss the stories surrounding immigrant families in the United States and their struggles. There are quite a few, such as American Carnage directed by Mexican director Diego Hallivis, which I’ll discuss at length in a future column. But in this edition of Horror En Español, I’ll be looking at the wider history of Latine directors working in the Hollywood system, and the specific importance of Fede Álvarez in contemporary genre filmmaking.
Before Álvarez, some major franchises were born from a Latin American director. Arguably the most famous is Eduardo Sánchez with The Blair Witch Project. The film does receive valid criticism due to not living up to modern standards. Yet, it’s impossible to disregard the attention this film brought to the public eye. Sánchez could even be credited for bringing the found footage genre into the mainstream. This alone is a major achievement on its own. As we entered the early aughts, Guillermo del Toro took the horror genre by storm with both his foreign and American productions of horror films.
The 1990s and 2000s
Del Toro released two films in the 90s. His directorial debut was a split Mexican and American production vampire film called Cronos (1993). The film seemingly weaves English and Spanish dialogue between his characters. Combining this with a meditative and fresh look into vampire lore, Cronos is an impressive directorial debut. He followed this with his American creature feature film Mimic (1997) in the second half of the decade. These two films showed del Toro was ready to make a name for himself with his visionary stories and eerie monster designs.
This is exactly what he accomplished with his next five features. Throughout the 2000s del Toro shifted between Spanish and American horror films with The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Blade 2 (2002), and both Hellboy (2004 & 2008) entries. While the Hellboy films are not horror per se, many genre fans accept the franchise as it delves into cosmic horror and incredible creature design.
As we look at the rest of the decade, not much stands out in terms of American films with Latine talent behind the screens. The two films that do come to mind are helmed by American directors who set their horror films in Mexico: The Ruins (2008) by Carter Smith and Borderland (2007) by Zev Berman. They follow your typical setup of American tourists trapped in Mexico.
By the time the 2010s came, horror was in full throttle with its mixture of international, remakes and original films. In 2013 there was an American remake of the Mexican film We Are What We Are. Unfortunately, this isn’t a film normally talked about regardless of its decent online ratings. This is, however, the same year the horror genre was introduced to Fede Álvarez.
Fede Álvarez Has Entered The Chat
The Uruguayan film director’s debut feature film was the 2013 Evil Dead remake, which is one helluva way to make your entrance onto the horror scene. I can still vividly remember watching the film on opening night with a packed house. The audience was lively but silent when needed. To this day it still remains one of my favorite theater experiences. Even when stepping away from the nostalgia, The Evil Dead is a mighty fine remake. It does exactly what a remake should do. It introduces an old story to a new audience by changing just enough to cater to modern viewers but still keeping the spirit of the original.
Fede Álvarez made his iteration just as bloody and brutal as Sam Raimi’s. On top of that, he introduced fresh ideas, especially with that magnificent bloody climax. Álvarez continued his strong directorial view with his original film Don’t Breathe (2016) and its sequel within the next eight years. By the time the 2020s rolled around, there were more Latine acts both in front and behind the screen sharing their talent with the horror genre.
Continuing Major Horror Franchises
In 2021 and 2022, the horror genre was fortunate to get films from some of their most popular franchises such as Scream, The Purge, Halloween, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Two of these had Latine actress front and center. The first came with The Forever Purge (2021) starring Tenoch Huerta and Ana de la Reguera. The film focuses on their struggles once the United States officially breaks into chaos. The Purge franchise has always been overt about its politics and surrounded its films around POC characters. But The Forever Purge marked the first time we see one of these films on people of Latin descent.
The following year, the reboot of the Scream franchise brought new characters such as Sam (Melissa Barerra) and Tara (Jenna Ortega) as the lead women. Their inclusion into this popular franchise led to the representation many Latines have been looking for in a major horror blockbuster. The rest of the year continued to give but this time it was behind the camera.
David Blue Garcia and Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre‘s sequel was one of my most anticipated films of 2022. As a massive fan of the original film, I couldn’t wait for another installment in the franchise, despite it having more downs than ups. Outside of the story, there were two main reasons why I awaited this film with so much eagerness: director David Blue Garcia and producer Fede Álvarez. David Blue Garcia wrote, directed, and produced his debut feature film Tejano, which is a clear example of his notable filmmaking abilities.
Tejano follows Javi (Patrick Mackie), a man in desperate need of money who decides to smuggle drugs across the border. What Tejano accomplishes is capturing the tone of Blue Ruin and adding a Mexican American twist to it. This, all mixed in with some captivating and unique camerawork, illustrated that Garcia was more than capable of handling bigger budgets.
While reactions to the 2023 Texas Chainsaw Massacre were mixed, to say the least, there’s no arguing that it looks gorgeous. The cinematography deserves all the praise thanks to scenes such as the sunflower field murders. This is thanks to the cinematographer Ricardo Diaz. He added his keen eye to creating such a suffocating and claustrophobic environment through his framing.
Fede Álvarez continues to show his unrelenting love for the genre, as he’s set to helm the newest entry in the Alien franchise Alien: Romulus. If there’s one thing that I learned from looking at the horror genre through the lens of Latine directors is that Fede Álvarez has proved his worth. He showed us he can carry the torch of past horror franchises and create original stories of his own. I eagerly await his perspective and lens on tackling another entry in a major horror franchise.
Categorized:Editorials Horror En Espanol
