Alejandro Brugués Director
The Cuban-Argentine director and writer, Alejandro Brugués – one of the five Latino directors of the horror anthology Satanic Hispanics that debuted in US theaters on the 14th – highlighted that Latinos are the largest community watching horror movies. “We represent 40% of this audience. All the directors working on the film are lifelong fans of the genre, yet we realized that none of the films we grew up with had Latino characters, not a single one. We do not exist in this genre. So we decided to change that, tell stories about Latinos, made by Latinos, retaking control of our narrative.”
Brugués is known for directing and writing the film Juan of the Dead, which won a Goya for Best Foreign Film in Spanish; since then, he stood out in the horror space. He was the director of the Florida episode of Sam Raimi’s Quibi series, 50 States of Fear, and directed ¡Pooka Lives! of the Hulu and Blumhouse series Into the Dark. His film The Inheritance will debut later this year on Netflix.
Regarding the Latin content industry and its positioning, he said it has progressed. “But it is not enough. I don’t think we are where we want to be yet. But we are moving forward. And I also believe that, as an audience, our responsibility is to support our stories. It is the only way we will continue telling them.”
He highlighted there are changes, and although they may seem small, they are “monumental.” He mentioned the case of Latino characters in horror films, such as in Scream with Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega or The Horror of Dolores Roach. “And we are in other genres. We finally have a Latin superhero with Blue Beetle! This year, there have been many others, such as Flaming Hot, Miguel Wants to Fight, Aristotle, and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. But still, I feel we are very far from having the place we should. Making a film with Latin content continues to be hard and complicated. I’m not going to get into the details, but in each project, questions such as how much there will be in Spanish and how many subtitles still arise.”
Regarding trends, he believes that Latin stereotypes are disappearing on the screen. “I think that in some places, there is still a certain tendency to make a type of content that traditionally worked in Latin America, and it seems to me that the world has changed, and we can do more interesting things. And I’m not saying that is wrong, but we can have more variety in the type of story we offer our audience. Our trends should not be dictated by an algorithm.”
