‘Game over’ bets on 80s horror movies

With a story with ‘burning’ undertones reminiscent of 1980s horror films featuring an analogue monster, director Carlos Marín is shooting ‘Game Over’, his first feature film, in the Mexican state of Jalisco. which will end within a week.

“That’s the story supernatural and I don’t want to say it’s ‘worse’, but you’ll see that we’ve played a bit with blood and stuff, it’s not a strawberry (pretentious) horror film, I’ve always wanted to make a horror film, but I never thought I’d do one thing with animatronics and all that,” he told EFE during the filming.

Marín explained that the film is based on video game cursed from which emerges a monster called Goggi, designed with makeup and analog animatronics to resemble the films of four decades ago.

Special effects and costume the monster was made by Mexican Gabriel Solana, who worked on the makeup design for films like ‘Bardo’, by Alejandro González Iñárritu; ‘Big Fish’, by Tim Burton, and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’, by James Gunn.

“In a practical effects movie, more than anything, I’m a big fan of these retro movies with prosthetics, mechanical things, monsters, blood and everything that’s real on the screen that isn’t done on the computer later,” he said.

Marín wrote the screenplay for the film with Katia Sofia Narro and cooperates with the production company Pulsar Films through federal funds such as the Fiscal Incentive for Investment Projects in the Production and Distribution of National Film (Eficina), with state and private funds.

Since February, the film has been shot in different locations in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, and in the next few days it will move to the forest of La Primavera, to then shoot a few frames on the road to Amacueca, in the south of the state.

Horror with a background

The story has a protagonist Rebeca, played by Carla Adellwho investigates the death of his sister Emma, ​​who disappeared after playing a video game.

The actress shares credits with Constanza Andrade, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Samantha Acuña, Jatkze Fainsod, Kerry Ardra and Efréno Ruiz, who gives life to the monster.

Juan Pablo de Santiago, an actor known for his work in the award-winning film ‘A Dream in Another Language’, told EFE that the film relies on nostalgia and the sensations caused by special effects made without computers, which are considered the basis of the horror genre.

“It has a lot to do with the temporality of the story and the effects we use, the proposal of the film goes back to the foundations of this genre, also taking advantage of modernity, I don’t know if it’s something that gives it’s true, but it certainly suits us to touch nostalgia in some way,” he expressed.

The story presents situations that raise adrenaline, but also has fundamental themes such as sadness, loss and acceptance of loneliness, actor Jatkze Fainsod, who plays Caesar in the film, told EFE.

“Besides the horror story and the fact that it was very impressive to play with a monster, the approach in the film also has to do with another terror of how to face a duel or how to face loneliness and that’s why I said: this is not “It remains only on the surface, but it speaks of something much more human,” he declared.

Production design is by Alexandra Berruezo, photography by Carlos Hidalgo, and art direction by Damián de Anda.