Another Fine Review of Sirwiñakuy! (And some notes on cameras, and creativity)

The DVD front cover

Yesterday, a positive review was published of my first film, Sirwiñakuy, in The Beverly Hills Outlook (link here).

Here's an excerpt below:

"What is most significant about this remarkable film from 2010 is how completely director Amy Hesketh absorbs and makes cinematic conventions her own, breaking them at will, such as her insertion of sped up footage though back streets to bridge scenes, as opposed to standard editing practices. Though her approach is an exercise in masterful storytelling, she boldly turns to documentary techniques when her fiction leads to an open Andean market, where whips are sold as common merchandise. Despite her employment of cinematic narrative traditions, her approach is also symbolic, with the Andes, whose culture she drew upon for her basic premise, hovering over the landscape in the background, and in red high heels that represent Woman’s sexual nature."

I love going back, now that I'm directing my fourth feature film, Olalla, and looking at what I accomplished in the beginning. It's been an amazing outpouring of creativity since then. I've had the luxury of writing scripts, and see them made into films, things of beauty. I'm very proud of the work I've done so far.

Often, a director can be forced to make certain choices in the cinematography, and the way a story is told, based on the camera that is used. This can be especially true with low-budget independent cinema. When Sirwiñakuy was in the planning stages, Jac and I discussed cameras. He had a professional Canon camera that had a great sensor on it, but only shot in SD. I really wanted to shoot Sirwiñakuy in HD. And the only HD cameras our company owned at the time were two Canon prosumers. But, they had CCD sensors and a great look. I convinced Jac that the film could be made with them. We had shot test footage with them, and it gave the film the voyeuristic, hazy look I was going for.

What those cameras also did for the film was make it easier to experiment with shots, especially in the taxi, and in the market in El Alto. When you can take a camera off of a tripod and do handheld without the necessity of a huge crew, you can achieve different shots. You don't call attention to yourself, your crew, it's more on the fly, and you'll be surprised with what you get.

I've been thinking about a new camera, something that can be taken off the tripod, held in the hand and go out into the street, the jungle, anywhere, and how that will change the way a story is told. It's time to loosen up a little.

You can find this film on VermeerWorks.com and Amazon.com

Olalla: The IndieGoGo Campaign

Just a few days ago, we began shooting the contemporary scenes for Olalla, my fourth feature film as director. I also am the protagonist in this film. Cool beans! You can read more about the shooting of the film on the Olalla Facebook Page.

So, last week we launched the IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for the scenes set in the late 1800's. In particular a huge blow-out AWESOME scene in which Olalla is dragged out of her home by a mob of angry villagers, chained to a cross, whipped, and burned at the stake. Intense, I know. And that scene involves a ton of extras in period costume, a great location, and a lot of production. So, we're trying to raise funds to make it the most awesome, intense scene ever!

We've kept the cost low for the contemporary scenes by working with a small crew, sourcing a great location from a friend, and cutting corners where we could. Even as such, those scenes still look big-budget! Because we're that good. See for yourself in this production still, below. Awesome, right?!

Notice the nice lighting here. And this is raw, without post-production.

We really want to make the huge cross/whipping/burning-at-the-stake scene the best ever to be seen on the big screen, so please consider helping us do that by taking a look at the campaign! We have tons of perks for your contribution, like a pre-sale of the Download/DVD (at a discount), autographed photos, the book (by Robert Louis Stevenson) signed by Amy Hesketh (me), t-shirts, copies of the script signed by Amy Hesketh (me) and other cast members, an Associate Producer credit, an opportunity to have Amy Hesketh (me) shoot an interview just for you (answering your questions), the chance to be an extra in the big "burning at the stake" scene, an Executive Producer credit, and much more! It's all really good stuff. Seriously, there's something for everyone, for every budget.

So far we've reached over 10% of our goal. You can help us reach 100%!!!

Here's a link to the campaign right here!

And here's the pitch video below, telling you more about what we're trying to do. 

It's also funny, so I urge you to watch it.

An Inspired Review of Barbazul!

(Veronica) "portrays death throes with disturbingly believable authenticity"

Yesterday a very positive and insightful review was published in The Beverly Hills Outlook by editor Charles Lonberger. To say the least, it was well received by yours truly. The reviews says many complimentary things about the film and the acting of Veronica Paintoux, Mila, Joya, Jac Avila. Well, everyone in the cast. And this is what it says about me:

"The most interesting role, an otherwise minor part, of Jane, is assumed by director Hesketh, slyly referencing an inside joke by assigning the role to herself. It is a self-portrait of the Artist as masochist, handcuffed and whipped. In this role, as a fictional author of S&M novels, Hesketh wants to be hit “harder,” and ends up buried beneath, and thereby literally lower, than dirt. The assignment of this role to herself is transparent. Her interpretation of this very dark role is as girlish as it is disarmingly and deceptively casual. Most importantly, it voices the central dialectic of Hesketh's creative self: as filmmaker, she is very much in control, yet the fiction she imagines, as in a dream, celebrates control being forcibly taken from her, here in the form of her own death, which she eroticizes, due to the manner in which it is realized.

Extremely dark, ultimately introverted and intelligent entertainment, Barbazul is distributed by Vermeerworks."

You can read the whole review at this link right here!

Me, celebrating my loss of control.

My First Video Blog Post: Location Scouting for Dead But Dreaming

Cliffs outside of La Paz

I had a great time yesterday location scouting for the remaining scene for Dead But Dreaming. The fresh air was wonderful.

Over the past few months, Jac was editing Dead But Dreaming, made his first cut, and decided that something was missing. Yesterday we made the first step in filling in that fantastic puzzle piece.

The scene will be somewhat elaborate, it's the story of how Mila Joya's character, a slave who is falsely accused of theft, whipped and crucified for the enjoyment of her mistress's guests, becomes a vampire.

The location we found is about an hour outside of La Paz, in a beautiful valley. You can watch the video below, right here:

Review of Barbazul by Dean Andersson on IMDB

What joy to wake up this morning and find a great review of Barbazul (Bluebeard) by the renowned horror writer Dean Andersson on IMDB!

Here's the link to the original or you can read it here below:

Amy Hesketh's BARBAZUL is an effective horror film of great style and insight that would give Hannibal Lecter the creeps!, 12 February 2013

Author: C Dean Andersson

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

One of the love scenes in Barbazul

Based upon the classic serial killer horror of Bluebeard, BARBAZUL presents a new and chillingly effective original version of the tale. Jac Avila skillfully plays Barbazul/Bluebeard with a charming sophistication that seduces innocent and worldly victims alike. As the advertising promo for the film says, he loves women, he just can't stop killing them. And some of those murders in the film are written, staged, and directed by Hesketh in such a way that they crawled under my horror movie radar and jumped me from the inside. I have seen so many scary movies, but the kind that play it easy, using gore and jump-out-at-you scenes, fade as soon as the film is through. Others, like the suspense classics of Hitchcock or the shadowy mood pieces produced by Val Lewton, slip up on you and instead of making you react by looking away, keep you watching, even when it begins to feel like you are intruding on something very private that you would really rather not see. But then it's too late. You saw. It's in your mind. And it keeps coming back to you at odd moments the next day, and afterward. It is obvious Hesketh impressed me, again.

Amy Hesketh's character getting the treatment in Barbazul

Each of her films thus far, Le Marquis de la Croix and Sirwiñakuy, have been a unique and strong example of how entertaining artistic films that break the mold and defy convention can be. Being a writer myself, of course I credit the way Hesketh creates the underlying story with how effective the work becomes. And her character in BARBAZUL is a writer whose demise is every writer's nightmare! "Come on, just give me another minute to finish this, I'm almost done, just a moment more, don't interrupt me right now, come back later, let me finish!" It is a diabolical scene for a writer to watch. But at least, all of us who have been interrupted while trying to write do not, hopefully, have happen to us what Hesketh has happen to her character! And then, of course, it gets worse.

Beto Lopez as the sinister butler, Walter

All of the actors turn in excellent performances. Jac Avila's stylish interpretation of Bluebeard was aristocratic and cultured even as the sociopath within him does cold-blooded Evil, reminding me of Vincent Price's best performances. Roberto Lopez's Walter is one of the creepiest butlers on film, sinister without being overt, very subtle and effective, one of those "there's something wrong here but nothing I can put my finger on so it's probably just my imagination, but--" kind of things...if there were an anti-Batman, this is the anti-Alfred,or even more, "Klove" in the second Christopher Lee Dracula film Hammer Films made, Dracula Prince of Darkness. Come tothink of it, this could almost have been Bluebeard Prince of Darkness!

The very long journey

Mila Joya as Soledad

The ride to get to Barbazul's plantation (castle) over the twisting, turning road (like the one leading to Castle Dracula) emphasizes how far from any kind of help the women he takes there are. And the countryside through which the road passed reminded me of the beautiful, vast emptiness of the high desert of Northern Arizona where I once lived. Mila Joya's innocent and noble character totally sells her growing unease and alarm as she becomes more and more aware that she has been trapped by a monster (like Jonathan Harker in Castle Dracula!--and it just occurred to me that Hesketh's Dracula, if she ever chooses to do one, might finally nail Stoker's classic better than anyone ever has...). Another "victim," convincingly portrayed by Veronica Paintoux as an aggressive and worldly counterpart to Joya's character's helpless innocence, makes you believe she can damn-well take care of herself, which makes it even worse, for her, when she suddenly discovers that, no, not really, she can't handle Barbazul, either.

Veronica Paintoux as Annabelle

Original music by Brad Cantor and La Negra Figueroa added just the right touch to the film, reminding me, somewhat, in the best way of a Goblin score for an Argento classic. Finally, "Superb" does not really do this film justice. "Eros and Thanatos" writ large might be a better description, "Sex and Death," "Beauty and Horror," like the face of the great Barbara Steele's "Muriel" at the end of NIGHTMARE CASTLE, or the visage of the Norse Goddess Hel, half beautiful and seductively alive, half dead and nightmarishly decayed. In BARBAZUL, you can't have one without the other, see? As if you'd want to, right? And one extra bonus--if you happen to have seen Richard Burton's portrayal of Bluebeard in that famous old film, Jac Avila will finally make Burton's face stop flashing into your mind at the mention of the name, "Bluebeard." So, in addition to this great new film, thank you, Amy and Jac, for that!

Jac Avila as Barbazul, effectively erasing Burton's face from your memory

1st Review of Barbazul

From http://www.searchmytrash.com/movies/barbazul(2012).shtml

Barbazul

Bolivia 2012
produced by
Amy Hesketh, Roberto Lopez L., Jac Avila for Pachamama Films, Decadent Cinema
directed by Amy Hesketh
starring Jac Avila, Veronica Paintoux, Mila Joya, Paola Terán, Erika Saavedra, Amy Hesketh, Mariela Salaverry, Roberto Lopez L., Erik Antoine
written by Amy Hesketh, loosely based on La Barbe Bleue by Charles Perrault, music by Brad Cantor, Andrea Figueroa (La Negra)

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Barbazul (Jac Avila) sits in on a photoshoot with young model Soledad (Mila Joya), and while the photographer (Erik Antoine) proves to be a perfect arsehole, Barbazul befriends the young woman, soon takes her on dates, proposes to her - and promises to take care of her student sister Ana's (Mariela Salaverry) tuition and stuff.
Soon, Soledad moves in with Barbazul in his remote wine plantation, and he gives her all the keys of his vast farmhouse, but warns her to never use the key to his study ... but of course, at the first opportunity - when he's gone to fetch Ana for a visit, actually - Soledad enters the study ... a rather uninteresting room actually, if it wasn't for Barbazul's diary, which Soledad soon starts to read ...
The diary starts with the story of Barbazul's first wife Annabelle (Veronica Paintoux), a still very pretty model at about the end of her career. Just like Soledad, Barbazul had met Annabelle at a photoshoot, befriended her, datedher, proposed to her, married her, and taken her to his plantation. However, she soon felt like a prisoner in his remote farmhouse and because of his refusal to take her anywhere, so she wanted to seperate ... and he strangled her.
Not too long after that, Barbazul met singer Maga (Paola Terán) at a concert. The two soon fell in love, and he took her to his farmhouse to keep her - but she didn't want to give up her music career, so he knifed and strangled her.
Art lover Agatha (Erika Saavedra) was just a bossy bitch who wanted to take over too much of Barbazul's life ... but she found it rather sexy of him to tie her to a bed in the nude - her bad judgement and her demise!
Erotic novelist Jane (Amy Hesketh) was really creative when it came to their sex life, and the handcuffs and whips were actually her idea ... and also her end.
Soledad has just finished reading the diary when Barbazul returns with Ana, as promised, and of course knowing all this she's scared shitless. And of course Barbazul finds out she has been to his study and read his diary, and ...

Based on a fairytale, this starts like a rather typical (if impressively shot) romance, and only the murder (of Amy Hesketh) at the beginning of the movie suggests there is something wrong - which of course creates just the right atmosphere of unease for the film to never lose its edge. Add to this a directorial effort that's subtle enough and lets the film flow at a fittingly moderate pace, but doesn't shy away from more extreme images when needed (like in most of Amy Hesketh's own scenes of the rather shocking finale), a uniformly very competent cast, and wonderful locations, and you've got yourself a pretty impressive film.
Recommended, actually!

Oh, and if my review at all got you interested, you may want to get the movie from here:http://movies.vermeerworks.com or http://vermeerworks.com/store/dvds/

review © by Mike Haberfelner

The Release of Barbazul

I am very happy to announce the release to Download and DVD of my film Barbazul!

Below is the Official Trailer, the naughty bits are blurred out so your eyes don't bleed from shock...

You can see the uncensored version on vermeerworks.com.

Download the Movie Here or Get the DVD Here!

Le Marquis de la Croix, a review by Dean Andersson

Dean has been so very wonderful in his reviews of Maleficarum and Sirwiñakuy, and now he has turned his literary hand to a review of Le Marquis de la Croix. It's simply marvelous, and you can see it on IMDB right here or read it below!

Dean has been so encouraging with these reviews, and I'm really glad we connected. In an abundance of reciprocity he has sent me several of his amazing books, which I am reading now and will comment on in different posts here on my blog, so stay tuned!

You can Download Le Marquis or Buy the DVD at VermeerWorks!

Amy Hesketh creates pull-no-punches art undared by ordinary filmmakers., 15 December 2012

Author: C Dean Andersson

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Amy Hesketh's Le Marquis de la Croix impressed me on many levels. Her extraordinary, pull no punches approach to filmmaking creates stories the timid would never dare and the ordinary could never conceive.

Le Marquis de la Croix captures a pure essence of the Marquis DeSade's defiant, revolutionary writings. Its challenging subtexts worked subconscious magic to remind me both of a personal experience of death and the disturbingly innocent opening scene in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch where "innocent" children gleefully torture a scorpion.

Hesketh gives the reality of a single death more potent impact than a hundred slash and burn action film deaths shown in forget-'em quick video cuts, sudden, violent, and gone. Yes, prolonged violence in the form of torture causes death in Le Marquis de la Croix, but that death is shown to be defiantly slow in coming. It forces viewers to realize that, given the chance, Life makes Death work hard for its victory, the way I remember death coming to a friend at whose bedside I once waited.

Jac Avila's chilling performance as the Marquis makes clear the imprisoned aristocrat's clinical detachment as he scientifically records his observations of the young woman's suffering. But in contrast, Avila also drives home the intimate involvement of a torturer with his victim.

Mila Joya's Zinga is poignantly believable as the helpless victim whose initial hope that she can escape public execution by surviving the Marquis' private depredations slowly fades, forcing her to reluctantly accept that death alone awaits her, an end to all her hopes and dreams, an outcome not unlike that of the doomed protagonist at the end of DeSade's Justine.

Another nice touch is Hesketh's selection of background music, including the ironic choice of an historical chant-song voiced by revolutionary French peasant-citizens while they executed aristocrats—as the sadistic aristocrat in her film executes his peasant-victim.

But wait! There's more! Hesketh adds a wonderful and unexpected Twilight Zone ending that would make Rod Serling proud. In an IMDb review of Hesketh's film, Sirwiñakuy, I compared her direction to Hitchcock's, who famously appeared in cameos in his films. Hesketh does more than a mere cameo in Le Marquis de la Croix. Her performance in the framing sequences at the beginning, middle, and end makes dear Uncle Alfred's cameos pale by comparison and zaps viewers with a viewpoint revelation, casting the entire cinematic narration into an unexpected context.

Then, too, there is a commentary track by Hesketh and Avila that you can activate, containing fascinating, informative, and entertaining information.

I have no idea what Amy Hesketh is going to create next, but folks, if you've got any sense left at all, you'll fight me for first place in line to see!

A Review by C. Dean Andersson of Sirwinakuy

You can read the review published on IMDB right here! I've syndicated it below for your viewing pleasure with a few photos. This made my month! Maybe my entire year!

In a previous review I was compared to Lars von Trier and Susanne Biers, now Alfred Hitchcock and Truffault. Very nice.

You can download Sirwiñakuy here or buy the DVD with its pretty cover here!

Is Amy Hesketh the next Hitchcock? Truffaut? Bigelow? No! Better than that!, 8 November 2012

Author: C Dean Andersson

I'm on the left...

Amy Hesketh and Alfred Hitchcock have the same initials. Coincidence? Yes, of course, and yet… The great French Director, François Truffaut, was a great admirer of Hitchcock, and there is a bit of Truffaut in Hesketh's work as well, but… her Sirwiñakuy is a beautiful film that neither Hitchcock nor Truffaut (nor even Kathryn Bigelow) could have made, because it is pure Hesketh. 

I kept asking myself as I watched it, how could this be her first film as a director? It seemed to be the work of a seasoned veteran. It took mundane scenes that should have bored me and somehow made me want to watch and find out where it was going next, because it was obviously, from the first, oddly turned, just enough, to keep me off balance and unsure of what was going to happen next.

Dracula (1931)

 A car ride begins to remind me, for no obvious reason, of Jonathan Harker's ride to Castle Dracula, leaving a known world for the possibly dangerous unknown. 

The journey to the unkown

A walk up a simple staircase turns into, without any obvious visual signals or threatening musical hints, the walk up the determinedly sinister stairs in the Psycho house where Norman Bates might wait at the top… or is Norman the man walking up the stairs, or even the woman with him? Or none of the above? See what I mean? It kept me guessing, and in the end, all of the trite stereotypes I'd imagined were blown away by what really happened. 

So, while I don't want to give anything specific away by describing particulars, I will say that if you like suspense mixed with unusual, non-sentimental romance, featuring expert performances by Jac Avila and Veronica Paintoux (and Chuqui the Cat), and a plot that should keep you guessing up to the very last moment, give Amy Hesketh's Sirwiñakuy a look, and then follow it with Hesketh's subsequent work. I can guarantee with almost 100 percent certainty that she will not ever pull her punches on you, won't leave you feeling cheated. And in the best showbiz tradition, I suspect her films, now and in the future, are always going to leave you wanting more!

A scene from Sirwiñakuy

Maleficarum - Dean Andersson's View

As requested, here's horror writer *Dean Andersson's take on Maleficarum! (Contains Spoilers!)

 "Amy—I downloaded Maleficarum and just finished watching it. That fan I talked to at the convention—he did not praise the film enough. It was so much more than even I had expected. I’m not a filmmaker, so I’m not sure just how Jac pulled it off, but one thing I do know is that you and Mila totally sold it. Incredible. Look, I’m sitting here with tears drying on my face. That is impossible. I’ve watched so many films. They almost never strike that deeply. You two and Jac’s direction made the women’s plight so horribly believable, so real, and yet heroic. 

Several scenes are going to keep replaying in my head. The moment when Mila’s character was looking up at you, and she almost said okay to the confession, then turned and spit at the Inquisitor instead, I felt like cheering, even though I, and she, knew it was going to mean even more horror. And the scene where your character was over the fire while Mila’s character kept begging, “Enough!” with her face twisted by anguish for you, but the men, like statues, ignoring her, painted a perfect picture of impersonal authority that unfortunately doesn’t stop in our world with the historical Inquisition. And the scene where they allow her to sit and you crawl to her and she strokes your hair, there was such love in that scene, how could it help but tear at a viewer?

 And then your agonizing crawl to her after your rape, you made each movement seem so hard, so painful, but your wounded character was so heroically determined, I felt like shouting “Somebody HELP her, damnit!” I guess you could say that by then I felt very “involved.” And your character’s prolonged burning—have you seen Oliver Reed’s death by burning scene in Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS? I always loved Reed’s work, but I swear you could have taught him some new tricks. Really. I kept hoping someone would rescue you in time. But it went on and on as the flames slowly grew—then the surprise ending, very satisfying, and even though your character was scarred and crippled, the two women survived! And triumphed. Excellent.  

You mentioned that the director’s cut had uninterrupted torture scenes, but I think having the torture scenes interrupted by the “reality show” testimonies and flashbacks kept the viewer from becoming numb to the brutality of what was happening. Still, yes, I’d like to see Jac’s director’s cut sometime to compare them.  

But if he feels as I do about the insanity of the Inquisition, and I’d guess from the film he just might, you can tell him that in my opinion he drove that message clear through the wall and out the other side. Obviously, everything about the film (even that incredible choice for music during the tortures…sweet piano chords? Brilliant contrast! And their repetition became a little like Chinese water torture to the ears) left me very impressed! Thanks so much!"

When you get this kind of feedback for a movie it's fabulous. I am so very pleased that this movie affected Dean in this way. Films should be like mirrors to our souls, so each person will see and feel something which is deep inside of them. They will react and respond, and I love every minute of that. Each time someone sees something unique in a movie in which I have participated, I feel that the great cultural dialogue becomes more and bigger than all of us.

*Dean Andersson, also known as C. Dean Andersson, is a prolific horror writer of such novels as I Am Dracula, and Torture Tomb. You can find out more about him and his books RIGHT HERE! And here on Amazon.com.

Maleficarum and the Magic of the Internet

It's amazing, the chain of events that lead more people to discover a film even a year after its release. I was very pleased when Dean Andersson, horror writer, contacted me on Facebook. Here are his own words about why:

"I do occasional writer-guest appearances at Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror conventions... On a panel discussion about horror films, an audience member asked if any of the panelists had seen MALEFICARUM. Sadly, forgive us, none of us so-called “experts” had. So, he gave an enthusiastic description. I knew, from other conventions, that this particular horror film fan had a low B.S. quotient, so I paid attention and took his MALEFICARUM enthusiasm seriously. I mean, he likes my horror, Dracula, and Norse woman warrior Heroic Fantasy novels, so he obviously has good taste, right? Right.

I ran into him again later at a convention party, and we discussed MALEFICARUM. It was soon evident the film had gotten through his horror-jaded, been there, seen that, thick outer crust, dragged him inside, and turned him inside-out, in a good way. He said he had not been expecting much. He figured it would be just another boring SAW or HOSTEL clone. But he claimed the quality of the acting, writing, cinematography, direction, the works, in MALEFICARUM had combined to make him care about the 'victims' and 'feel the horror from their viewpoint.' That aspect, plus the unflinching theme of religion-sponsored violence and explicit depictions of torture and its effects, especially against strong women, had reminded him of my 1987 novel, TORTURE TOMB, although TT is not historical—well, it wasn’t when it was written, anyway—and of the way it had affected at least one reader (and the way I suspect MALEFICARUM is affecting some viewers). 

Anyway, after the convention I looked up MALEFICARUM on the Internet. The first thing that struck me was the riveting poster, no news to you, the lighting, the potent textural contrast of unyielding stone versus human flesh, that whole aura of “Inquisition Mystique,” but it is the way the strong image all leads to the focus of the two manacled hands touching—defiant love in the midst of hopeless horror—that signals the film is very special, or at least so it seems to me.
I watched the MALEFICARUM trailers (no, I have not yet seen the whole film) and saw immediately the fan at the con had not been exaggerating. Then I watched most of your video interviews and became even more impressed with the dedication to authenticity and theme. I also found the interview Mike Haberfelner conducted with you in 2010. After which I discovered you on facebook, you quickly confirmed the friend request, and I decided to share my MALEFICARUN experience from that convention with you.  

It’s been 25 years since TT was published. It was popular with a number of readers but generally condemned for various reasons, some obvious, some not, by members of the “respectable” horror community. But with my editor’s support, bless him (he died a few years ago), those two books did what I had intended, said what I wanted said, and I moved on with other books. Then, in 1999 I attended a World Horror con in Atlanta and discovered to my surprise that TT and RPM had become sought after “cult classics.” But from the enthusiasm of that hard to please horror film fan with whom I talked at the convention, I think, perhaps, where the term cult classic is concerned, and I doubt this comes as a surprise to you, MALEFICARUM already, deservedly, is."

It's always the goal of an artist to put one's work out there and connect with like-minded individuals as a result. Sometimes it happens through osmosis, and other times by mere chance. But it's so great when it happens, so Jac and I have to thank this Horror Fan, wherever you are, for the introduction!

I must mention that I read Dean's book I Am Dracula when I was a kid and it was a prize in my collection* of vampire novels. I can't wait to read more of his books and rediscover those I already read.

*now lost to the sands of time... another story for another day...

The release of Le Marquis de la Croix

So the day is fast approaching for the release of Le Marguis de la Croix. But... you ask... when will that be?  October 31st. Yes, Halloween, one calender year to the date of the release of Maleficarum!

And since everyone has been so patient, I have a trailer for you. It's on youtube, so we had to conform to their strict policies. No worries,  there will be an uncensored trailer up on VermeerWorks very soon!

More Press for Barbazul

We just got back from another interview on Bolivian television, this time at channel ATB. So, here it is below! I'm going to go take a nap now, getting up before 7:30AM is not in my nature...

Barbazul Debuts in Bolivian Cinemas October 11th

Pachamama Films prepares the debut of Barbazul, a new Bolivian film, for the 11th of October.

Barbazul is Amy Hesketh’s second film, the American filmmaker residing in Bolivia, director of the controversial film Sirwiñakuy. This new production made in Bolivia debuts October 11th in the Multicinein La Paz and the Cine Centers of La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba.

Barbazul is based on the classic fairytale  ”La barbe bleue” (Bluebeard, 1697) by Charles Perrault, author of Cinderella, which tells the story of a wealthy and feared aristocrat with a blue beard who has the bad habit of killing his wives. In the original story the sinister aristocrat, with many wives already under his belt and whose fates are a mystery, convinces a neighbor to give Bluebeard his youngest daughter’s hand in marriage. The bearded villain takes his new young and terrified wife to his castle, gives her the keys to all of the rooms and the liberty to open each one, with the exception of one room.

Read the whole article at Pachamama Films...

Obscure Video and DVD Blog: INTERVIEW WITH AMY HESKETH

After a really nice review of Maleficarum appeared in Obscure Video and DVD Blog back in July, he was nice enough to ask me to do an interview as well. You can read it on his blog or right here below!

INTERVIEW WITH AMY HESKETH

Amy Hesketh, not many know the name that read this blog, but she is a very talented and beautiful young woman who starred in a film I reviewed here called Maleficarum, about the Peruvian Inquisition and it has developed into my most read review and has made traffic to this site triple.
My blog deals with older movies, cult films,a few newer low budget gems and the like, but Maleficarum struck me as a cross between Jess Franco films and the witch finder films of the 60's and 70's.
I consider Amy a very "Jess Franco" type director with a similar vision (I hope she doesn't mind me saying that).
Amy was very kind to link the review to other sites and I decided to see if I could do a small interview about her and her other projects.
Here, below are the results of that request and some interesting pics of her upcoming projects.
WARNING: THE PICS CONTAIN NUDITY....


I know you were shown the movie Fright Night with Roddy McDowell when
you were six,
but are there other films of that genre that you like and got you
interested in movies?


Four films that I saw when I was younger are Return to Oz (1985), Warlock (1989), Tale of a Vampire (1992), and Boxing Helena (1993). I realize that it's a bit strange that three of these films feature Julian Sands... I also realize that some of these are not movies for young people. My dad was great about not censoring my viewing, he let me watch what I wanted. These movies made a big impact on me. I realized very young that horror, violence, obsession, sex, art, and perversion were the "good stuff" in movies. I think my work features a healthy dose of the "good stuff".

What kind of film would you ultimately like to direct?


I'm so happy to have the freedom to write and direct almost any movie that tickles my fancy, I have several scripts and ideas on the burner for the next few years. Eventually I would like to be able to obtain the film rights to a rather famous book that was slated to go into the public domain last year and didn't.




Can you give us a little info on the movie you are now directing
called Le Marquis de la Croix, such as when it will be released?


Le Marquis de la Croix and Barbazul I directed in 2011and they'll both be released this year, Le Marquis will be direct to DVD/VOD in the Fall, and Barbazul will debut in Bolivian theaters October 11th.

Le Marquis de la Croix is inspired by the writings of the Marquis de Sade. The film features a man who is writing in prison, played by Jac Avila.. It's implied that le Marquis was locked up for obscenity. He pays for a young woman, a gypsy, Zinga, played by Mila Joya, to be brought to his cell. He writes about and commits all kinds of atrocities to her. It's intense. I really tried to bring the writings of de Sade to life in this movie in a very graphic way. At the same time, I wanted to keep it a bit fun, a bit campy, old-timey exploitation, done in a post-modern way, with a sprinkling of social commentary. I think I succeeded in doing all of that.

Barbazul (Bluebeard), is based on the children's story by Charles Perrault about a man (with a blue beard) who kills his wives. He's a serial killer. This, again, is a very graphic movie in terms of violence and nudity. It seemed as though other movies made about Bluebeard skimmed over the more intense elements of the story. There was a hole in the cinematic trajectory of Bluebeard. I'm not one to squander an opportunity so I made Barbazul much in the fashion of the 1960's/70's Italian exploitation horror flicks of yesteryear but, like I do, went farther with the "good stuff". It's a tense and terrifying movie, but has enough (very) dark humor to appeal to a wider audience.






 

Have you always wanted to both act and direct or does one interest you
more than the other?


I started taking acting classes when I was 6 years old and I've wanted to direct since I was about 10 or 11 years old . Both have their value and interest to me. Being on both sides of the camera makes it easier for me to ask for more from my actors and to understand what they're going through. I've acted in difficult roles and done extraordinary things, so when I tell them to do something that may sound a bit crazy I'm pretty sure my actors think "Well, at least I don't have to sit on a wooden horse for 5 hours like you did!". One actress told me straight out that it's amazing that I think up these crazy ideas for movies and everyone just goes along with me like what we're doing is normal. Like the Pied Piper of Crazy Art Movies. I doubt anyone who works with me would want to continue to do so if I made "normal" movies, they would think I had completely lost my mind.


What are your five favorite movies of all time and why?


Well, if I can only choose five...there are so many more that are not on the list below.

Pretty much all of the movies I love have one thing in common, a depiction of the point when the personality is stripped away and something is revealed beneath: the animal, instinctual, something sick or undefined. It's what I explore in my own movies. Call it an obsession.

1)The Night Porter (1974). Dirk Bogard and Charlotte Rampling, two amazing actors in a very sexy film. It's audacious, crazy, wonderful. I would love a role like Charlotte's. Dirk Bogard in a Nazi uniform gives me a frisson.
2)Le Mepris (1963) Brigitte Bardot in what I perceive to be her most revealing role. I have a thing for the miserable, lost and existential.
3)Jules et Jim (1962) Weird threesome, dark, existential, what's not to like?
4)Weekend (1967) In my opinion, Godard's most important film. It also embodies the spirit of film-making for me.
5)Antichrist (2009) When I saw this in the theater in NYC, half of the audience walked out. I was leaning forward in ecstasy, hoping it would be 8 hours long.
 
 


My blog is usually about off the wall and older films yet Maleficarum
seems, at least to the people who read it to fit right in. How do you
feel about that and account for it?

I'm very glad that Maleficarum fits into your blog as we admire the movies you write about here. Maleficarum, as well as the other films that we make, is made in the style of the older audacious exploitation films of yesteryear. Those films were shocking in their day, and our films are shocking now. We take those older films as inspiration and build upon that, going farther with the "good stuff". Essentially we make the movies we, ourselves, would like to see, but can't find because they don't otherwise exist.

Maleficarum is interesting to viewers in many different ways, historically because we use actual transcripts of testimonies from the Peruvian Inquisition (it's amazing to think that people really said these things), in terms of how we graphically show the tortures as realistically as possible, no holds barred, and the story arc of the victims, the sad tale that it is.


Where eventually do you want your acting career to go?

I plan to keep pushing myself until I burn out... joking! I want to get to a point in which I've acted in every role imaginable, a point in which I can say, "you did good, kid". It could be a long time from now.





Is a sequel to Maleficarum planned?

We haven't planned a sequel to Maleficarum, however we may touch upon the theme of the Inquisition in a film again. We've had so many emails and messages requesting just that, it would be hard to let people down. ;)






I know from very personal experience that I get a rush from making a
movie. Do you have the same feelings when acting and directing?

It's the best! I get more of a rush from writing and directing a film than acting. Standing behind the camera when the actors do something really good, when the scene comes to life right there in front of you, pretty much exactly how you imagined it, is thrilling. Acting is more complicated for me. The characters I tend to play, having to enter into the soul of another and leave myself behind is draining. When I watch the dailies and see I did a good job, that's when I get a good feeling from acting.

An exception might be some scenes in Maleficarum. There was adrenalin involved when we shot the roasting scene. A lot of adrenalin. I was scared out of my mind. That's a kind of rush I guess.

My recent role in Diego Torres' experimental film La Montaña Interior was an exception as well. To have to hike up to about 5000 meters (16,000 feet), shoot some scenes, then take my shirt off in front of a glacier (a glacier!), shoot that scene before the clouds came in, and then go back down. That was a rush. More from the extreme cold than anything else...  

I gave myself a lead role (which I normally don't do) in my new film Olalla, inspired by the story by Robert Louis Stevenson. That could be a rush, and an opportunity for catharsis.



I hope you enjoyed this small little interview with someone whom I think will go BIG places.
Maybe I should have Amy in my next project? A huge thanks to Amy for the pictures in the interview.
 

Barbazul (Bluebeard) Trailer 1

I haven't been posting lately as I've had a lot of not so pleasant family issues to deal with. Good news is, I think I'm coming to the end of it, just in time to release some movies and shoot another one!

In celebration, here's the first trailer (YouTube friendly) for my movie Barbazul!

Great review of Maleficarum

Another great review came in from an interesting blog, which you can check out RIGHT HERE!

You can download the movie here or get the DVD here!

MALEFICARUM 2011

I get a bucket of water in my face.

Well, this is highly unusual for my blog to feature a film like this. Why do I say that? Well this film is very hard to catagorize. It is not a "torture porn" film like the recent crap being made, nor does it fit into any other genre of films I usually review.
I guess I would put it in the group of films like Inquisition, El Inquisador and Bloody Judge, but it isn't a witch hunting film either. It is a story that is at once horrific and will make you sit up and take notice.

It was not pleasant.

It involves two young women who are brought to the Inquisiton by the church, who really only wants the money and possessions of one of the women. They are accused of every stupid and silly things that people say about them and they are stripped and tortured in many various and painful ways by the church.
Both are whipped, burned, stretched on the rack and many other atrocities. This is not a pleasant film and the ending with burning at the stake for one of the women is not at all easy to watch.
Both women are beautiful and they are naked thru 99% of the film. The torture isn't presented in an exploitative way, but in a way that makes you understand the horrors of the acts against these women.
Lovely Amy Hesketh is Mariana de castro and Mila Joya is Francisca de la Cruz, the two women who are brought before the inquisition. Both women do a fine job and Amy REALLY suffers for her art here folks.

In fact, I liked it about as much as a kitten likes a bath.

Director Jac Avila knows how to make a damn good story and not make it too exploitative.
If you get the chance, you will want to see this film, but please know it has ample violence and both women are nude throughtout the entire film, except the very beginning and the end.

Highly Recommended!!

I answer some questions from fans

It took me long enough, but I finally got around to answering the questions my kind fans sent me about Maleficarum. Here they are below in five clips. Enjoy!

The movie Maleficarum is available on DVD Here and Download Here!