Chosen as one of PvNew’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch 2022, Ximena García Lecuona, the Mexico City-based writer of Billy Porter’s “Anything’s Possible,” has set her directorial debut “No Me Sigas,” a Spanish-language chiller with a shocking final twist.
Also writer of “The Kiss List,” García Lecuona will direct with brother Eduardo Lecuona. The smart genre horror thriller is set up at Mexico City’s Maligno Gorehouse, which co-produced “Huesera,” a double Tribeca winner and XYZ pick-up.
Also written by García Lecuona, “No Me Sigas” turns on Carla, 26, who dreams of becoming a big influencer. To achieve this she decides to fake a haunting in her apartment. However, in playing with these dark forces, she accidentally lets in a real malignant entity.
“Although a horror movie instead of a romantic comedy, ‘No Me Sigas,’ [like ‘Anything’s Possible” and “The Kiss List”] also falls in the Young Adult genre, it has that coming-of-age feel. The three projects are about answering the question, “Who do I want to be?” García Lecuona told PvNew.
“While ‘Anything’s Possible’ and ‘The Kiss List’ try to answer those questions by wrapping them up in a nice little feel-good package, ‘No Me Sigas’ will try to do it by scaring the audience, maybe even posing more questions and showing a darker side to the genre,” she added. “I think coming of age should be approached from both angles; growing up can be beautiful, but also, as we all experienced it, a horrifying and traumatic experience. I think the horror approach to the genre also stems from collaborating with my brother and co-director, Eduardo Lecuona, with whom I grew up watching horror movies.”
Maligno Gorehouse, the genre label of Enfant & Poulet will co-produce with Jonathan Davis of Edge Films.
Founded in 2019 and aiming to release one-to-two horror films a year, Maligno Gorehouse has co-produced “Huesera” and Daniel Castro Zimbrón’s “Tus Dos Muertos,” and is producing Isaac Ezban’s awaited new film, zombi flick “Párvulos,” coming out next year.
Edge Films credits include the superhit “Modo Avião”, Brazil’s first Netflix Original film, as well as the upcoming “El Club Perfecto” directed by Ricardo Castro for ViX.
Maligno founding partners Francisco Sánchez Solís, Javier Sepúlveda and Eduardo Lecuona will produce with Davis.
“No Me Sigas” joins a vibrant Mexican genre scene, seen, for example, with the success of “Huesera.”
“I really love how the horror genre is evolving in Mexico,” said García Lecuona. “‘Huesera’ is the perfect example of a film that is both culturally specific, but also tells a story that can be understood universally. It’s also a film that takes a big risk by taking an unflinching feminist stance.”
She added: “I’m excited to see more genre projects like this, that use Mexican myth and the collective horror unconscious to tell bold and risky stories, all with our penchant for blood, gore, monstrous special effects, and impeccable artistry. Hopefully I can contribute something to Mexico’s growing horror canon.
PvNew talked briefly with García Lecuona and Sánchez Solís just weeks before “No Me Sigas” will be pitched at Ventana Sur’s Blood Window Lab, Latin America’s foremost genre market.
Without giving away the plot, “No Me Sigas” drinks deep at the well of ancient Indigenous myth and legends or popular lore. An increasing number of genre movies are going so, to very varied effect. What is the attraction?
García Lecuona: The main attraction is that these myths are so scary and iconic, there is a reason they are still alive as a storytelling tradition. It’s also something that is widely shared— Latin American culture is so varied and multifaceted, but we are all connected by our fear of these ghosts and monsters that we grew up believing in. I think another reason is that myths change context as we grow up. For example, when you’re a kid, you’re scared of La Llorona because she’ll take you away if you are naughty. But years later, the same myth takes on a new meaning, as La Llorona becomes symbolic of malinchismo, that is, feeling self-hatred towards one’s culture and admiration for another, which holds a lot of horror in itself. I think much of our lore has this characteristic of seeming simple on the surface, but if you dig deep, these legends have years of historical, colonial context that makes them still very relevant in our post-colonial society, and also so fascinating to explore.
Why create Maligno Gorehouse and what are its ambitions, and indeed those of parent company Enfant & Poulet and how does ‘No Me Sigas’ fit into them?
Sánchez Solís: In 2019, my partners Javier Sepúlveda, Eduardo Lecuona, Ximena García Lecuona and myself realized that the enormous appetite of the Mexican audiences for horror films was mostly being satiated with content from abroad and that there was – and still is – a need for telling more horror stories from a local standpoint.Together, we created Maligno Gorehouse to collaborate with the new voices of genre cinema in Mexico and Latin America and to help reshape local horror films in terms of representation, bold storytelling, and marketability. In many ways, ‘No Me Sigas’ is a perfect example of the type of content that both Maligno Gorehouse and Enfant & Poulet strive to make: an entertaining, commercially viable film that also tells a compelling story relevant to our times.
”No Me Sigas” turns in some ways on identity, which I think is a key concern for many younger Latin American writer-directors. But is your focus coincidental?
García Lecuona: “No Me Sigas” is absolutely about identity. I think the story stems from my experience as a trans woman, where who I am and who people see me as do not always match, and this is a source of a lot of anxiety. I wanted to communicate this feeling through a character who is not necessarily trans, because I think this speaks to a universal truth as well: we as human beings want to be seen, but there is also a profound horror in being perceived. Social Media is the perfect stage for this existential battle, so I was interested in telling a story about it. Maybe Latin American creators are concerned with identity because we are increasingly pressured to put ourselves in a box. At the same time, most of us have undefined or shifting identities that transcend countries, borders, races, and even genders. Speaking just for myself, I want to express who I am, even though it might be weird, non-conforming, and even— in the best sense of the word—monstrous.
What do you see as the natural market for “No Me Sigas”?
Sánchez Solís: With plenty of thrilling suspense and scary moments, “No Me Sigas” is one of those projects that horror film buffs will love. But its story also has the potential to resonate with a broader audience as it addresses the universal, pervasive influence that social media has in our lives. Unsurprisingly, our natural audience is the younger, digitally-oriented generations, particularly those in Mexico, Latin America and within the Latino community in the U.S. While “No Me Sigas” is distinctively rooted in a Mexican context, the obsession with social media and influencer culture is a global phenomenon, so I’m optimistic the film will also resonate with audiences beyond the Spanish-speaking world.
