![]() I feel that that was really a responsibility to take, and not be afraid to really go for it, and Culture Shock still today is really praised for its honesty, for being able to express such an important social commentary. “And making Culture Shock, again about the border crisis, I felt–not just as a filmmaker, but I felt as a Latina, Mexican storyteller-this was my opportunity to be able to talk about it with an audience, to bring awareness to what was happening in 2019-and still is, today. So I made a second short film called El Gigante, ‘The Giant’, that also involved border crossing, and that exploded internationally and got me my first job in Hollywood for Culture Shock, my feature debut. I think it’s something that hasn’t gone away, and it’s only gotten, unfortunately, worse. ![]() I think what we see in the news is already so tragic that I wouldn’t want people to suffer the same during my stories, but it’s such a universal subject, border crossing, that it just continues to be talked about. “I noticed just from that very first short film how very intense subject matters can really be told through the lens of horror,” she says, “how you can give people that entertainment value and that escapism from the real horrors of the world by having fun with a film. Her very first short film, Dead Crossing-which she made when she was just 19-was about zombie border guards eating Mexicans crossing into the States. While Guerrero’s migration to Vancouver did not involve any illicit crossing of the U.S./Mexico border, that topic has provided fodder for three of her horror projects so far. She embarked on a career in horror filmmaking that has led to her directing feature-length works such as the new Amazon Prime offering Bingo Hell and 2019’s Culture Shock, part of the Hulu series Into the Dark, which has garnered a %100 Fresh rating after 16 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.īefore that she made numerous short films, including “Mistress of Bones”, which will be shown as part of the Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival tonight (October 26) at the Scotiabank Theatre, and then again online on October 30. Guerrero’s mother made her return the lifted videotape to Blockbuster, but five or six years later, when the family moved to Vancouver, the youngster brought her obsession with scary movies with her. As a filmmaker I always love sharing that, because if you can make someone watch your film and it follows them home-whether it’s through conversation or because there’s a scare or something so funny that they continue to laugh-you’ve done your job.” And that inspired in me a love of how films in general-and especially horror movies-can follow you home. I was convinced that Chucky was in the closet. “But when I watched Child’s Play 2, I couldn’t understand this sensation that the movie somehow felt present in the room, with me. I think I only watched maybe 40 minutes of the movie because I got too scared. I thought, ‘There’s something really wrong with this one,’ so I took it, and that was the first thing I ever saw that was scary. But it was definitely that one cover, for Child’s Play 2, which was to me at that age the scariest cover-a doll with big scissors cutting another doll’s head. “It was my most favourite thing to do, because I would imagine what the movies were about just because of the covers. “I loved walking down the horror aisles of Blockbuster,” recalls Guerrero from her Vancouver home. But during one particular trip to Blockbuster when she was eight years old Guerrero stole a VHS copy of Child’s Play 2, and things were never the same after that. ![]() ![]() She grew up in Mexico City in a very religious family, and was never allowed to watch scary movies-her strict Catholic mom banned them from the house. Gigi Saul Guerrero remembers well the day she truly embraced her love of horror.
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