Horror movies: ‘Dark spirits’ opens in theaters today and this you should know

Featuring outstanding cinematography, dazzling use of sound, a stellar cast, and the introduction of a terrifying creature that threatens a small town, Dark spirits (Antlers), from groundbreaking director Scott Cooper, it has all the makings of a contemporary horror classic.

The story features Julia (Keri Russell), a school teacher in a dilapidated mining town in Oregon, where unemployment and addictions have raged. The once lush and beautiful environment now bears the scars of decades of human abuse. Paul, Julia’s brother, is the sheriff of the place. They both have a dark family history that has hurt both of them, and she recently returned to her roots long after escaping from home as a teenager. Julia begins to worry more and more about the well-being of one of her students, Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas), an introverted and lonely boy who suffers bullying at school. Lucas is hiding a terrifying secret related to the disappearance of his younger brother and his father, a drug dealer, while at the same time, Sheriff Meadows investigates a series of gruesome and inexplicable murders committed in the area.

The actors must have worked together with a mythical creature vividly portrayed by Cooper’s camera. “I haven’t seen the wendigo yet, but I know it’s out there,” Russell says. “I will watch him for three days in a row, when we shoot some scenes, and in part I felt that it would be better and more terrifying to meet him when necessary. It will be more fun. But from what I’ve seen, it looks amazing and completely terrifying, ”he says.

When Cooper took over the project, he began by refining the script, developing the theme of divided families in a town that has had better days, huddled in what was once a beautiful place that was traumatized by mining. The wendigo, in the Native American myth, is nature’s revenge against a cruel humanity that abused it.

Guillermo del Toro, one of the producers, says that the film represents for him the next stage in an artistic life defined by expanding the limits of narrative tropes. “What I tried to do throughout my career, from Cronos going by The Devil’s backbone until The Pan’s LabyrinthIt was taking things that are common to the horror genre and doing them in different ways, ”says Del Toro. I said it many times, but terror and fairy tales are the same trunk with two different branches. For example, the story of «Hansel and Gretel»Is essentially a horror story: Two children are abandoned in the forest and are found by a witch who wants to eat them? It’s not exactly a comforting story. I think Scott went to great lengths to hit Spirits the same kind of atmosphere. We did the shoot in the northwestern region of Canada, with the fog and the trees. He did not want to compromise. He said, ‘I want that atmosphere. I want the real places. The reality is irreplaceable. And that’s the beauty of the movie. It’s a mythical horror story”.

The cast is made up of Keri Russell (The Americans, Star Wars: El ascenso de Skywalker), Jesse Plemons (the Irish), Graham Greene (Wind River), Scott Haze (Venom), Rory Cochrane (Black Mass: Estrictamente criminal), Amy Madigan (Goodbye little one, goodbye), featuring Jeremy T. Thomas as Sawyer Jones.

Now is the time to know 8 things you should know before going to see this new horror film released in Ecuador.

Oscar-winning producer

• It is the result of Cooper’s vision, in alliance with an undisputed benchmark in horror movies. Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, winner of the Oscar for The shape of water, is the producer of the film. “Nobody knows this genre, and of course the creatures, better than Guillermo. He has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the world of monsters and knows how we can make something truly unique. I wouldn’t have made the movie without him because he knows a lot more about this world than I do, ”Cooper confesses.

Strong social criticism

• Like the best horror movies, the plot is the vehicle to reveal social problems and family fractures. “How can I talk about what is happening in the United States today and somehow drive those issues to terror? For me, the best horror films contain elements of social criticism, as well as exploring the fears and weaknesses that plague so many of us, ”says Cooper. In this sense, the actress Keri Russell assures that there are many peoples of the United States who live the reality that is shown in the film. In this regard, he adds: “For me, the monster of Dark spirits it is an analogy of the destruction of families, whether due to drug use, alcoholism or job loss ”.

The wendigo, a milestone in engineering

• The wendigo is a creature similar to a deer, originating from the mythology of the Alonquino peoples, native to the eastern coast of Canada. It is considered a destructive and cannibalistic creature associated with winter, cold, and hunger, and is present in the traditional belief system of many Algonquian language peoples, such as the Ojibwa, the Saulteaux, the Cri, the Naspapi, and the Innu. In the movie, the wendigo is 2.5 meters tall and is a true milestone in engineering combining animatronics, robotics and design. 35 people worked in the pre-production stage to bring the monster to life, using CGI sculpting techniques and clay versions. The end result is a striking creature, a mixture of elk, elk and deer, in shades of iron ore.

Great mythological imprint

• In the movie, an ancient creature known as a wendigo takes center stage, and the traditions of America’s Native peoples they are, therefore, an essential part of the plot. To ensure that the content on this topic was respectful of these traditions, the team worked closely with experts in the field. On the one hand, Cooper had the support of director Chris Eye, whose knowledge of native mythology is extensive. Eye advised him on the impact that the mythology of a native monster has on a culture that lives on soil that is valuable to the natives. The production, in turn, worked with indigenous peoples advisor Grace L. Dillon.

Inspiration from two iconic photographers

• Karin Nosella, costume designer for the film, says that as soon as she read the script, images of the American West by renowned photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Richard Avedon came to mind. “I brought those books to my interview with Scott Cooper and he said, ‘This is exactly what we want, because even though the film is not a period film, the characters are all distressed ‘. The movie is about forgotten people, children forgotten by parents who have problems with drugs. That’s what I wanted to show through the costumes ”, Nosella explains.

900 children for the casting

• In the process of selecting the cast, the production team did an extensive search for the young actor who would play Lucas Weaver, the enigmatic student who hides dark secrets. When Cooper saw 12-year-old Jeremy T. Thomas, he immediately knew he was the one. “I think I saw about 900 children. I wanted someone who looked like an outcast from their social group, but that he had a very rich and deep inner life, and someone with a unique physical character, who could express and convey a lot without dialogue, what the best actors do, and that means that you can connect with them on an emotional level and not just through technical level ”, comments the director.

Really scary locations

• From the outset, Cooper knew that shooting the film in real locations was of the utmost importance. Production designer Tim Grimes says he and the director were on the same page in that regard. “He and I were operating from the same place, in the sense that we both wanted the sets and locations to feel real and grounded, so that when we introduced the mythical Wendigo, he would make a lot more impact,” says Grimes. Filming took place in northwestern Canada, amid the fog and trees. Adds del Toro: “Scott said, ‘I want real places. The reality is irreplaceable. ‘ And that’s the beauty of the tape. It is a mythical horror story “.

Powerful final message

• Cooper and del Toro do not hesitate to assure that, ultimately, Dark spirits it’s a story of vindication. In this regard, Cooper concludes: “The wendigo represents the historical trauma native peoples faced, cultural cannibalism, if you will, which took place in the form of ‘capitalism’, unfortunately, since the English, the French and others arrived on the shores of North America. This is why it is such an important part of their mythology. The environmental degradation that we Americans and people around the world have caused. In a way, the movie is, in essence, the supreme claim of nature”.