Filmmaker Statement

Being brown and queer in today’s society often means you’re invisible. There is a small amount of representation in media and usually not very pleasant. This project was born one night watching Castle Rock while texting my best friend (Alexander Flores, producer/”Manny”) lamenting the state of the industry for people like us. As a Latinx and bisexual actor and filmmaker, I love genre yet don’t see any opportunities for us within that. So we decided to create our own. In many ways, this is a classic horror cabin in the woods story. A couple on an anniversary getaway go to a cabin in the woods with hopes to mend their relationship but a monster gets to them first. But it changes the game with the story of a realistic queer Latinx relationship centered around bisexual prejudices with a culturally relevant monster that has never been seen on screen. It puts The Witch and Honeymoon through a contemporary lens, focusing on characters and problems you rarely see in this genre. Using classic horror style cinematography with extreme low, high, and dutch angles with a creeping monster POV and a color system moving from warm to cold, the film will easily fit into the horror cannon while popping with its unique content. Horror fans will be excited to be introduced to a new monster from Dominican folklore - the long haired, backward footed, man-eating Ciguapa. Our film is a labor of love with hopes to showcase the breadth of untold stories the horror genre can sustain. Just as the main characters take things for granted and lose the ones they love, without making films with queer Latinx characters we may never know we lost them in the first place. Hopefully, our film will lead to greater representation and open doors to queer Latinx characters in horror, while being a damn good time.