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Your new movie Nahual - in a few words, what's it about?
It's the story of Katia Montero, a social worker who faces a very
challenging situation after being scratched by a mysterious woman. As a
result, her life turns into a nightmare of death and violence. It’s a
variation on the werewolf myth — but with a completely different origin
rooted in South American mythology. With Nahual
being in essence if not mythology being a werewulf movie, is that a genre
at all dear to you, and some of your genre favourites? Yes,
werewolves are definitely one of my favorite characters and myths. I
wanted to make another werewolf movie over 30 years after my first and
only incursion into that mythology — a 1993 film titled Plenilunio.
But this time, I didn’t want to make just another werewolf movie. I wanted
to try something different — something that wouldn’t compete with the
countless werewolf films that already exist and continue to be made. For
that reason, I decided to explore lesser-known legends — or I should say
older legends — from places like South and Latin America. As for some of
my favorite werewolf films, of course I’m a big fan of Lon Chaney jr’s
The Wolfman
(1941) [Lon Chaney jr
bio - click here]. I also love
The Howling and
An American
Werewolf in London, just to name a few. And contrary to
popular opinion, I also really enjoy Benicio del Toro’s The
Wolfman, which I consider one of the best monster movies of the
21st century. So what can you tell us about the actual nahual-mythology, and how
much research went into this aspect of your movie?
I’d be lying if I said I did extensive research. I knew I wanted to
explore something rooted in Mesoamerican or Latin American mythology, and
I had a few options I looked into. The first that came to mind was
La Llorona,
the Weeping Woman. But that’s not a monster movie, and I had already
decided I wanted to make a monster movie. Then I considered the more
modern legend of the Chupacabra.
And finally, I landed on the Nahual — a figure that seems to be common
across Latin America, even though the name and details vary from country
to country. I did some reading, mostly on Mexican and Central American
interpretations of the Nahual myth. While I didn’t find exactly what I was
looking for, I got close enough. In most versions, the Nahual is tied to
witchcraft — a person possessed by the spirit of an animal. And that
animal can vary: wolves, coyotes, birds, even pumas and lions. That last
one is what I decided to focus on — not a traditional werewolf, but a
creature more like a catwoman-type monster.
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(Other) sources of inspiration when wrting
Nahual?
This might surprise some people, but the decision-making process went
something like this: I knew I wanted to make a monster movie. I knew I
didn’t want to make a typical werewolf or
Bigfoot
movie — nothing that would face heavy competition in the market. But I
also wanted a structure that would work for a low budget, independent
film. So I rewatched and studied a 1978 made-for-TV werewolf movie called
Death Moon. Robert Foxworth plays a lawyer (I think?)
who’s stressed out and sent on vacation by the company doctor. He goes to
Hawaii, reconnects with the land of his ancestors, and begins transforming
into a werewolf, attacking people at the resort. This was a very low
budget TV movie, but I used it as structural inspiration — and then filled
that structure with Latin American legends. That’s how
Nahual came to be.
You of course have to talk about the monster design in
Nahual, and how much
creative input did you have in its creation? The design process took nearly a year. I started in June 2023 by sketching
and drawing. I did my own research using online models — sometimes 3D —
blending human and jaguar skeletons into a creature design. We
experimented with different techniques, but nothing was working due to the
budget limitations. The size, mobility, and general feasibility of the
creature were all concerns. Almost as a last resort, I started looking at
companies that build monsters, and I found Midnight Studios FX.
On their website, I came across a full-body costume called "Cat Vamp" or
"Vamp Cat" — I can’t remember exactly — and I saw potential. I downloaded
the image, brought it into Photoshop, made modifications, and sent the
altered image back to the company. They were amazing — they accommodated
my request, and a few months later, I received exactly what I had
envisioned. Same texture, same hair color, same leopard-style spots — even
the original long hair was trimmed to look more like a lion or leopard,
just as I wanted. Finally, we had Alejandro Maidana from Buenos Aires put
some final digital touches that enhanced the motion of the monster where a
regular man-in-a-costume wouldn’t be able to perform. It was a long
process on both ends, but I couldn’t be happier with the final result.
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Do
talk about Nahual's
approach to horror! The approach was inspired by many
horror films from the 1970s — films that combined horror and humor, but
without crossing over into full comedy. I used the same method in my last
movie, Night Hunt,
which was inspired by Dan Curtis’
The Night Stalker.
In that film, Kolchak is funny, some side characters are funny — but the
monster, the vampire, is terrifying.
Nahual follows that
pattern. The main character’s situation is dramatic and frightening, but
the supporting characters — in the hotel and on the farm — bring in humor.
This creates tension relief, which I think is a better storytelling
approach than going full throttle in just one emotional direction. A few words aboiut your overall
directorial approach to your story at hand? This was one of
the most difficult movies I’ve ever shot, mainly due to the clash between
our low budget and the ambition of the script. Even though I wrote the
film with limitations in mind, it's still a monster movie — with extras,
crowd scenes, and action sequences involving the creature. So my approach
was to break things down: dialogue days and action days. We devoted entire
days strictly to action, giving those scenes more attention than you
typically would on an indie set. For dialogue scenes, I used two cameras
to allow the actors freedom to improvise, knowing their performances would
be captured naturally without sticking rigidly to the script. You
also appear in front of the camera in
Nahual - so what can
you tell us about your character, what did you draw upon to bring him to
life, and did you write Renzo Gutiérrez with yourself in mind from the
get-go?
Yes, I wrote Renzo Gutiérrez with myself in mind. I
feel I made a mistake over the past 20 years by stepping away from acting
entirely. Now that I’m older, I believe I can bring some gravitas to these
kinds of films — especially since they often star very young casts. Think
of the old Hammer
films — one of the reasons we still love them is because they featured
older actors who brought credibility to the fantastical stories. I’m in my
50s now, and I like to work with people my own age to help bring back that
seriousness to the genre. Of course, I also work with young actors —
they’re essential for appealing to younger audiences. But for this role, I
knew what I could bring, and I wrote the character accordingly. What can you tell us about the rest of your
cast, and why exactly these people? Again, following in the
tradition of the
Hammer films I admire, I’ve formed long-standing friendships with
actors I've worked with since the late 1990s. Jenny Sanchez, who plays
Katia Montero, is one of them. We’ve grown older together as
collaborators, and now is the right time for them to play these kinds of
roles I write specifically for them. Of course, we also bring in new
talent. We hold a few auditions and find fresh faces. Another important
element of this movie is its setting — a small town in Mexico with an
Indigenous community at the heart of the mythology. From the beginning, I
knew I didn’t want actors portraying Indigenous characters. I wanted
actual Indigenous people playing themselves. That led me to the Zapoteco
community here in Illinois. I saw one of their cultural performances, met
with their leader Juana Santiago, and explained what I wanted — and what I
didn’t want. We hit it off, and now I can call her a friend. Thanks to
that relationship, we had a wonderful, authentic community bringing life
to the film in a natural, respectful way.
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A few words
about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? As I
mentioned earlier, Nahual was one of the
toughest productions I’ve ever worked on: We dealt with all the usual
low-budget obstacles: noise, unpredictable weather, limited resources. We
shot winter scenes here in Illinois and “Mexican” scenes (with greenery)
mostly in Kankakee — about 85 to 90% of it. Then we went to Mexico for a
week to capture exterior shots. That part of the shoot was brutal —
temperatures over 100°F, up in the mountains. This wasn’t a Hollywood
shoot where you step into a trailer between takes. This was as tough as it
gets — but all those hardships added a realism to the movie that I’m very
proud of. Anything you can tell us about audience and critical reception of
Nahual?
We’ve screened the movie in theaters three times so far, and the audience
reactions have been very satisfying. They laugh when they’re supposed to,
they get tense when they should, and if you sit in the back of the
theater, you’ll see them jump during the scare moments. From a numbers
perspective, the film is on Amazon Prime and has surprisingly
done really well — especially in Europe, and particularly in Spain. We’re
talking about millions of minutes streamed, which has been a very pleasant
surprise. So yes, it feels like all the hard work is paying off.
Any future projects you'd like to share?
Not exactly a future project — more like a current one. We're in the
middle of shooting an anthology film titled The Raid.
It’s about an immigration raid at a warehouse, but what the agents find
inside is not what they expect. They discover different objects that lead
into three separate horror stories, again inspired by Latin American
mythology. As I’m doing this interview, I’m preparing to fly to my home
country, Uruguay, in two weeks to shoot the second story. We’ve already
shot one, and after I return, we’ll film the third story and the
wraparound segment. The structure will be similar to the
Amicus
productions of the 1970s — movies like
Asylum
or Tales from
the Crypt [the
Amicus story - click here]. We’re right in the thick of
it. Your/your movie's website social media, whatever else?
Website:
alphastudiosfilms.com
YouTube: NewAlphaStudios
Instagram: @rislasfilms
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten
to ask? Thanks for asking. If you visit our website or my social media, you’ll see
I describe myself — and what we do — as working class filmmakers. It’s
sometimes hard to explain that we’re making movies the same way actors and
directors create community theater. We’re a group of people who’ve known
each other for years. We get together, and even though I finance the
projects, the budgets are very modest. We’re not trying to compete with
Hollywood. We’re trying to tell stories regular people can connect with —
because we are regular people. We’re not part of any elite. We are working
class filmmakers. Thanks for the interview!
Thank you for the interview.
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