Fun things to do in Kirkland tonight, number one: Seeing the Spanish werewolf comedy at the Kirkland Performance Center.
Game of Werewolves makes its third and final SIFF appearance at 9:00 p.m., and it’s shaping up to be one of the liveliest, most fun festival surprises from this corner. It tells the story of Tomas (Gorka Otxoa), a struggling writer who visits his rural hometown of Arga after a twenty-year estrangement. He’s been invited back by the townspeople under the pretense of a celebration in his honor.
But Tomas is the last of a cursed family’s bloodline, and his former neighbors are convinced that his death on the centenary of the village curse is the only way to eradicate the werewolf that’s been plaguing Arga lo, these many years.
It’s lazy to compare it to Shaun of the Dead, but like that horror-comedy classic, Game of Werewolves references classic horror tropes, hurtles its likable characters into a terrifying scenario, and watches them react in often-humorous ways. Fortunately, writer/director Juan Martinez Moreno’s definitely created (pardon the pun) his own animal.
Moreno captures the ambling, knowing humor in his rustic village characters, and his comedy triumvirate–Tomas, wisecracking editor Mario (Secun de la Rosa), and Tomas’ estranged childhood buddy Calisto (Carlos Areces)–couldn’t be more genuinely, naturally hilarious. Best of all, the movie capably balances genuine tension with the titters.
In person, Moreno’s as colorful and funny as the characters he’s put up on the screen–a barrel-chested charmer of a guy with a honeyed-gravel voice that suggests Bob Hoskins as a boisterous Spaniard. He apologizes for his command of English more than once, then unintentionally blows that notion out of the water by speaking with eloquence, humor, and honest-to-God geeky love about his feral cinematic child and the influences that spawned it.
Your first film, Two Tough Guys, was an action comedy. Then you followed it with a very serious drama, A Good Man. What made you decide to follow that up with a horror-comedy?
I really don’t know. From my humble position as a filmmaker, I like to tell stories–any kind of stories. So first, when I sit down and write, first I try to find a story that I think is worth it. Because the writing process is a pain in the ass–It’s very lonely, and it’s very long, and it’s very hot… And then I look for something that I think the audience will be interested in. Third–but the most important–[is finding] something that I think I’ll be able to convince a producer to find the money for. Because that’s the biggest difficulty.
I always loved horror movies. I love comedy–I think comedy’s the best thing in the world. To me, there’s nothing better in the world than something that makes you laugh. That’s brilliant. So I mixed both things.
You say that you’re a horror fan, so I’ll get straight to the point: I am, too. And I’m a fan of a fair amount of Spanish horror films. So I wanted to ask you about…
Paul Naschy [laughs]!
Yes, Paul Naschy! Because I think there are parts of the film that subtly reference Paul Naschy’s output.
I have to say–please don’t get offended–I am not the biggest fan of Paul Naschy’s movies. But once I said that, I have to recognize that I have probably watched every Paul Naschy movie, more than twice! And that’s because when I was growing up, you had Paul Naschy’s movies on television all the time [in Spain]. So probably I watched them 10,000 times! And to me, Paul Naschy was a visionary, to do what he did in Spain in the ’50’s and ’60’s…In Spain, no one was doing that [at the time]. People thought he was crazy.
I tried to use the cliches…Topics like the village stuck in time in the middle of nowhere, and the villagers. Yes, that’s in Paul Naschy’s movies. That’s also in every kind of old tradition of horror movies. So, yes, I think there’s an influence; not very conscious, but subconscious.
Why did you go with, essentially, men in wolf suits and not computer-generated imagery?
Because I don’t buy CGI, I’m sorry. I don’t, except when Peter Jackson uses it. When he does, I buy whatever they do. But when I watch movies like Underworld and Twilight, every time there’s a transformation scene it’s like watching the Coyote and the Road Runner. It’s like the Werewolf’s cartoons. It’s not scary. But I still watch American Werewolf in London‘s transformation, and I still shit in my pants.
I think that’s one of the things that makes the transformation scenes in Game of Werewolves effective. It’s physical effects, not CGI.
Yeah! Because that’s what I wanted, was for the horror to work. From the beginning, the producer and I decided to do it this way. Every press [interview], they’d say, “You did this [physical effects] because it was cheaper, right?” Well, no, it wasn’t cheaper. It is cheap if you have one werewolf, but in this movie, you have thirty. That means, that for four weeks you have 45 make-up artists working on the werewolves. The producer suggested from the beginning that he wanted to kill me. But from the beginning, we decided that this is much more real. If we want people to get scared, it has to be that way. For a moment, I was scared that maybe the younger generation who grew up with CGI…would think this is too old-fashioned. But so far, they’ve enjoyed it.
So younger fans have taken to the movie.
I think so. The movie hasn’t opened in Spain yet. The movie opens [there] July 13. But at the other screenings we’ve made in Spain and at festivals in Sitges and Brussels, I’ve talked to younger horror fans, and they seem to enjoy it very much. They seem to like it, and I hope it will work.
The movie balances horror and humor very well. I can see elements of American Werewolf in London in its tone, and Shaun of the Dead. And I like how the movie starts out subtly, builds, then really becomes a fast-moving roller coaster towards the end. It’s very well-constructed from a pacing standpoint.
Thank you. One of the things that was important to me as a screenwriter, especially when you do these kinds of movies, is surprise. You have to surprise the audience. Especially if you’re making a werewolf movie, which is not the newest thing in the world. They go to expect this, you do that. I have the feeling that it worked well.
The leads are wonderful. The only one I was familiar with was Carlos Areces, who was so great in The Last Circus. What kind of backgrounds do these actors have?
Actually, Carlos is the least experienced one. Gorka, who plays the writer, this is like his third or fourth movie as the maing character. He is a young comedy actor. He came from northern Spain. He was doing some television shows, kind of the Spanish Saturday Night Live. And he’s brilliant. He’s very energetic, he’s very funny, and the great thing about him is that he’s like you and me. You know what I mean? With all my respect, he is not Tom Cruise…I love Tom Cruise, but you know what I mean? He’s like the guy on the street.
The funny thing about Carlos is that Carlos is not an actor. He never went to acting school. He never even passed through an acting school’s door. He’s a comic artist. He’s a very good comic artist, actually, and he was working in a television comedy as a comic artist. But then, because he was so funny, he had this face that they decided to put in front of the camera. And that worked and he started to work, and there he is now. The amazing thing about him is that it’s all about instinct, but he’s brilliant.
With that big mustache of his, he looks like a character from an old Paul Naschy or Amando de Ossorio movie…
[Laughs] That’s great!
Was that intentional?
Yeah, absolutely. And he was very happy with that, because in all the movies he made before, he was always shaved and everything and with the clown make-up in The Last Circus… I told him I wanted him to look like a real villager with…sideburns. He was like, “Yes, yes, I want sideburns and a mustache!”
In addition to horror films, what were some earlier influences on you as a director?
Every good movie I saw. I’ve been crazy for movies since I was ten. I love musicals, I love westerns. Of course, I love horror movies, I love comedies…
I have a theory if, as a director, you have more to learn when you watch a bad movie than when you watch a good one. Because when you watch a good one, you can’t pay attention–you’re just into the movie. When you watch a bad movie, you pay attention to the details.
You also have a background doing TV, I read. Did any of that background help you in your work as a filmmaker?
Not as a film director. Before I directed on television, I was a screenwriter on five or six television series. And that helped.
It’s so different. When you write a movie, you have all the time in the world. You work on your own and take all the time you want. When you write for television, you have a deadline, and you have to work as a team. That, to me, was very helpful at that time–especially about the deadline forcing you to sit down and write. And if it’s scrubbed, it’s scrubbed. You have to throw it. But you have to sit down and write. So as a writer, yes, it was helpful, the television experience. As a director, not a chance–because Spanish television sucks.
I love the character of Vito the dog in the movie. Is he inspired by any real-life source?
Well, my dog is called Vito. Of course, my dog is not the one in the movie, but my dog is called Vito. I have to explain, this was way before I saw The Artist. Everyone said, “Oh, it’s a Jack Russell [terrier], just like in The Artist!” No, it’s nothing to do with The Artist. Alfred Hitchcock, I think, said, “Don’t work with animals or child actors.” But I did [both] with this movie. The kid was amazing and fantastic, and the dog was a jerk [laughs].
I think it’s because I needed some company for Tomas. I didn’t want to introduce him so lonely. His girlfriend left him, so to make him very lonely would make the character look sad. And I didn’t want that to happen.
Have you received any feedback from other horror movie makers about Game of Werewolves? You’ve cited Sam Raimi’s work, and John Landis’s An American Werewolf in London as influences. Have any of them seen the movie?
I did meet Mick Garris. I met him in Brussels at their Fantastic Film Festival, and he was the sweetest guy in the world. He came to me after watching my movie, and he said, “Thank you very much! I had the time of my life. Not only did I enjoy it very much, it brought me back so many memories.” He talked to me about The Howling and everything. I would love John Landis to watch it; I would love Joe Dante to watch it. I would love Edgar Wright to watch it. If you have any connections, please put this out there [laughs]!
What’s next for you as far as projects go?
Right now, there’s nothing really close. I am writing a couple of stories. One of them is a horror movie, the other is a thriller. I am traveling around the world with Game of Werewolves, and I’m trying to get an agent here. Things in Spain are very bad. The film industry in Spain is really bad at this time because of the illegal downloads. It’s a huge thing in Spain. So it’s becoming very difficult to find money to make a movie in Spain, so I’m trying to, here. I think Game of Werewolves is a movie that people here are enjoying very much. I’m having some conversations with people from CAA and UTA… Long story short: Maybe something won’t happen here, maybe it will. Until then, I’ll keep writing and writing.
