The New Master of Horror
written by: Joseph Treviño
MOVIE DIRECTOR LUIS IGA WANTS TO SHOWCASE LATINOS AND THEIR UNIQUENESS WITH A COOL, FUNNY SLASHER FLICK.
Luis Iga, 41, creator and director of Murder in the Woods, had a surprise theatrical screening across the country in August. Iga, who is from Mexico but has spent half of his life studying and working in the U.S and later in the Hollywood film industry, believes his movie, an unabashed slasher, complete with all the trappings of classics like Friday the 13th and Scream but mixed with a comedic charm, is the perfect flick to enjoy during and after COVID-19’s dark, gloomy onslaught on society.
“People need to have fun. Especially for our current times, I think it's the perfect time for these movies, everybody’s so stressed about what’s going on with COVID,” Iga says. “It’s a nice movie to get your mind off of things, fun, try to solve the mystery and get scared while you are at it while also laughing. That’s what drew me to the genre. Because growing up that’s what I liked. You know, when I didn’t want to think. I love social justice movies as well and movies that teach you something. But again, there’s a time and a place.”
And the place and time for Latinos to go beyond drug dealers, gang members and other stereotypical characters is now, Iga says. Despite its seemingly plain plot of a vintage slasher, Murder in the Woods is different, he adds.
For starters, the indie film, which had a theatrical release in August despite the pandemic, has an entire cast made up of Latino actors. Danny Trejo, known for the Machete movies, plays a sheriff. In addition, Iga, who was born and raised in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, directed it.
Beyond the barrio
Latinos, Iga says, are the top consumers of cinema. He adds that more than 50 per cent of the ticket sales of horror movies come from Latinos, so it makes sense that the new generations of Hispanics see themselves on the big screen.
“Because African-Americans and Latinos, we kill it at the box office when it comes to horror. We love going to the movies. Sunday when you go to church then you go watch a movie. We need to show Hollywood that we need to be represented. We have more stories to tell. They don’t have to be about struggles, about cartels, they don’t have to be about the hood: it can be about many other things,” he says. “When we see all these young Latinos and they see themselves represented on the screen, their eyes open up.”
But in Hollywood, old stereotypes die hard, Iga says. He adds that Latinos are mostly cast as cartel thugs, street hustlers or neighborhood ruffians.
With Murder in the Woods, Iga wanted to get rid of the stereotypes by having an all-Latino cast who would mostly be comprised of teenagers who navigate between the English-speaking world of Los Angeles and their Hispanic heritage. Still, when it came time for auditions, the actors who are used to working in Hollywood, initially portrayed their characters as gang members, Iga says.
“I never give directions to actors when they come and read the first time because I want to see how they read the material, what they bring in. And all of them when they started auditioning, they would give the “Cholo,” hood attitude. That’s what’s expected of them when they are auditioning,” Iga says. “ I said, “no, no no! You are in high school, you are in college, you’re friends, you are having a good time. You are not in a gang, you are not in a cartel. Right? So that’s what this movie is about.”
Never say die...in the woods
It was in 2015, after graduating from USC that he got investers to put down money for Murder in the Woods. Shot in 2015 and written by Chicago native Yelyna de León, Murder in the Woods has a pre-COVID vibe that has garnered the film rave reviews all over the world. Unpretentious, the flick shows the story of six teenagers (albeit, none of them gangsters, cartel fiends or barrio denizens but very, very Southern California English-speaking Latinos) who drive out to some woods in the outskirts of Los Angeles for a birthday party, where the prerequisite teen celebration takes place.
For five years, Murder in the Woods awaited a theatrical premiere, being screened in many movie festivals but feistily avoiding a direct to digital release. But last August, right in the middle of the COVID pandemic, the flick which proved too tough to die, miraculously made it to dozens of theaters and especially to movie Drive-ins from California to Delaware to Texas.
For Iga, the success of Murder in the Woods has pumped him up for his future projects. “I will keep in the fight.”