Basement Hostages, Demon Children, Mad Musicians Possess Cannes’ Blood Window Showcase
Blood Window, Ventana Sur’s Latin American horror and fantasy film platform, returns to the Cannes Film Market this year with a selection of works in progress and completed films, including titles from Brazil and Mexico.
This year’s Blood Window Showcase screens Brazilian director Sabrina Greve’s film debut — still a work in progress — “The Basement of Scream Street” (“O porão da rua do grito”). The pic won Blood Window’s best work-in-progress competition at Ventana Sur last year, an honor that also granted it a world premiere at this year’s Sitges Film Festival in Spain.
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“The Basement of Scream Street” centers on siblings Jonas and Rebeca, who, haunted by guilt over their parents’ death, have developed an obsessive dependency on each other as they care for their grandmother and a child trapped in the basement. Coração da Selva is handling sales for the film.
Viniccius Boaventura
Likewise unspooling in the Cannes showcase will be Mexican helmer Ian Martin’s debut feature “Ghosts and the Last Nightmare” (“Fantasmas y la última pesadilla”), which follows a once successful paranormal investigator trying to resolve a mystery in a building haunted by a dreadful creature in an effort to regain his credibility (poster pictured).
The program also presents four other feature film works in progress, including Fabián Forte’s Argentine title “Witch Game” (“Juego de brujas”). The film tells the story of Mara, a witch in training who is seeking to rescue her sister from the clutches of the devil himself. Producers Hernán Findling and Gabriel Lahaye are also overseeing sales.
In celebrated director Daniel de la Vega’s “The Last Heretic” (“El último hereje”), the fervent convictions of a leading spokesman for a new atheism are challenged to the point of madness on a journey of horror and pain. Furia Films and Del Toro Films are overseeing sales.
In fellow Argentine helmer Nicolas Onetti’s “What the Waters Left Behind: Scars” (“Los olvidados: Cicatrices”) – a sequel to 2017’s “What the Waters Left Behind” — a member of an Anglo-American indie rock band loses his mind after beings seduced by a local girl during an ill-fated tour that ultimately leaves the musicians stranded in the ghost town of Epecuén, where hell awaits them. Minerva Pictures and Black Mandala Films are handling sales.
The story of a 19th-century priest who finds a lost child in an Andean town and decides to take care of it only to discover that the little boy feeds on humans is told by Diego Ortuño in the Ecuadorian pic “Red Corn” (“Chuzalongo”). Currently entering pre-production, the project received support last year from Blood Window and the Ibermedia program.
The Blood Window Showcase offers a unique opportunity for buyers, sales agents and festival reps to connect with some of Latin America’s latest horror and genre film productions, according to organizers.
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