The APPS horror and fantasy anthology, made by the chilean filmmakers José Miguel Zúñiga, Sandra Arriagada, Camilo León and Lucio A. Rojas, was selected in the Coming Soon section of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival , which celebrates its 53rd edition, as the main and most influential fantasy film event in the world.
The festival, to be developed from October 8 to 18, transforms this small town in Catalonia (Spain) into the hub of genre cinema, where the greatest exponents of world fantasy meet. And within this important event, our country will be represented by this independent production, whose starting point is mobile applications that will lead its characters to their worst nightmares.
José Miguel Zúñiga, creator of the project, says: “After the premiere and the good reception of my last horror movie´Contra el Demonio´ in Mexico, Perú and Chile, I was very enthusiastic about the genre and with a tremendous anxiety to shoot, but I did not have the budget to produce a complete film , so i came up with the idea to make a horror anthology, with four stories, four directors and four independent productions and with a contemporary theme, that's how mobile Apps was born and the first thing I did was call Lucio, whom I met at festivals and invited him to participate, then we add Sandra Arriagada and Camilo León. The creative exercise was very free, the standpoint: the story had to have an application as a trigger. "
Lucio A. Rojas (“Trauma”) along with Zúñiga, executive producer of “APPS”, comments: “There is a lot of material about the fears or myths of the internet. Rather than focus on that, the idea was to have an ordinary App as a starting point, which will lead us to terror. In my case, I relied on a lot of urban legend that exists about improper use of vacation rental apps, traps in resorts, travelers who’re intercepted by criminal gangs or disappeared. In fact, few days ago I read in press about a AIRBNB rental house who has satanic object in the decoration, commonly used in satanic rites. Working from that, combining urban legend with technology, seemed attractive to me "
The presentation in the Coming Soon section of the Sitges festival will allow the film to be screened at the international circuit. After this instance, the movie will tour important international festivals from the first semester 2021, at the same time, the premiere in commercial theaters in various Latin American countries, since its theme, beyond the Chilean territory, is attractive for the continental public. About that, the newcomer in fantastic cinema, Sandra Arriagada, comments: “My segment, called OnFire is a gore black comedy that talks about dating networks and the utilitarian tricks that some men use to sell themselves as good romantic prospects, using their children like baits for naive women. It is a satire of the judicial system, the entire society that forces children to have a father, no matter how toxic he may be, and how rage can be a valid and even supernatural skill. ”, Explains Arriagada, who is also the first Chilean female director to be officially selected with a film in the history of the Sitges festival in its 53 years. This is also an indicator of the unfair percent participation of women in the direction of genre films in the country, Arriagada says: “Unfortunately it´s twice as difficult for us. That is why this first step is important. Currently I am developing a couple of full lenght movies, to be filmed as soon as we return to a normality that allows us to work and with those projects, which are also in fantastic genre, to go on exposing our vision, from a Chilean, Latin american perspective, in the international circuit " .
The film, after the festivals circuit, will have its premiere in LATAM comercial cinemas during 2nd semester of 2021. In this regard, Rojas adds: “The current pandemic context has allowed audiences to grow for festivals. But at some point, it will have to return little by little to normality and we hope, to be part of the local titles that make people return to movie theaters "
The directors, in addition to preparing this premiere, are also developing new Projects. “In my case, a couple of genre films to be filmed during this 2021 in Argentina, which would be the first fantastic co-production between Chile / Argentina ”, Rojas comments.
For her part, Sandra Arriagada will be a judge of the Molins de Rei Horror Film Festival (TerrorMolins) in Spain and the Santiago Horror Film Festival, in Chile. At the same time, she is preparing a paranormal road movie and her first fantasy genre tv series about women's football, where Lucio Rojas is also his general producer.
As starting point in this complicated year for the indie industry, this anthology APPS in a slasher key, black comedy, supernatural and survival / fantasy, aims to re-enchant the national public with the local fantastic cinema, whose latest productions, with the exception of “Contra el Demonio” by Zúñiga, have had meager numbers at the box office and whose Most important titles have not reached local theaters, but directly to streaming platforms. Within this panorama, new and young authors are an important piece for this. About that, Camilo León says: “After my participation with my horror nanometer film, LEAK, in the" Quarantine film festival Chile ".José Miguel Zuñiga, member of the jury, contacted and offer me to be a participant in this great collaborative project with incredible directors who support and trust me, despite this great responsibility. From there, a story is born based on the Onyric Fantastic, of Asian influence, very subtle and where what we do not see is what causes the deepest horror"
The film was made thanks to the co-production between Femtástica Films, Sunrise Films, Pragma and Fascinante Films. It stars Néstor Cantillana, Javiera Contador, Ignacia Uribe, Fernanda Finsterbusch, Tutú Vidaurre, Mariana Derderián, León Arriagada, Jaime Omeñaca, Nicolás Durán and Alejandro Trejo, among others.
