Mexican horror cinema leaves the ghosts behind

The pandemic, social media, and even Artificial Intelligence (AI) have ousted spirits and all kinds of supernatural characters in recent national films.

A number of young filmmakers, mostly independently, are tackling stories based on legends and personal experiences that plague society, in order to refresh the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.

In the 2024 national top ten alone, two genre films took places four and six: "Jugaremos en el bosque" and "Turno nocturno" (Night Shift) (over 600,000 theatergoers each). The latter remained in first place on the HBO Max platform for several weeks.

The effect is that Mexican creatives have also reached out to other countries. Michelle Garza Cervera, director of "Huesera," raised her hand after being invited by the US industry to shoot a remake of "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle."

“A generation is finding its own voice,” says Edna Campos, director of Macabro, a gender-themed competition that kicked off its programming yesterday in Mexico City and, after concluding on August 31, will travel to the State of Mexico, Puebla, Guanajuato, and Oaxaca.

The festival features a handful of national filmmakers with titles, some already signed to a distributor for release, and others with another film in post-production.

“It happens that we don't see terror as so far away,” says Carlos Trujano, who will present “#Rats,” a film supported by Cinema Universidad that explores the violence and consequences that social media can generate.

Her film is set in Puebla, which has a high rate of lynchings and whose disappearances have increased 60% this year compared to the first six months of 2024 (more than 370 disappearances), according to the National Registry of Missing Persons.

“Suddenly, we can talk about a spirit that appears in a house, but also about terror that is more tangible, that is more familiar, like revenge, murder,” explains the director.

Other proposals are “Muertamorfosis”, by Lex Ortega , an animated film made by himself with Artificial Intelligence, in which humanity is destroyed, and “El diablo en el camino”, by Carlos Armella , set during the first half of the 20th century.

“It’s the drama of a man and his wife trying to bury their son,” says Carlos Armella, director of “The Devil on the Road.”

The Universal

Quality, not quantity

The number of genre feature films produced in Mexico each year varies.

The Mexican Film Statistical Yearbook reveals that at least three titles were completed during 2024: “Game Over,” “The Blood That Unites Us,” and “Nobody Will Hear You Scream.”

And at the Feratum festival , “Poseída” and the already released “A Fisherman's Tale” were screened.

The independent format is the trend for these productions. Such is the case of Mauricio Chernovetzky , who was "inspired" by the consequences of Covid-19.

“In a world of algorithms, it's about thinking about how to do something different. During the pandemic, few people went to Chihuahua to live in isolation for six months like I did,” says the director of “The Dark,” a film about a man fleeing to a mysterious mountain and meeting a war veteran.

Alejandro G. Alegre managed to raise half a million pesos, both in cash and in kind, to film “Eran brujas,” about a radio host who finds herself in a strange hotel with some kids in it.

The crew? Barely nine people, including the cast, with only two weeks to film.

"We're bringing stories outside of clichés, and that's consequently helping us find a voice. Here, the seemingly innocent encounter between the characters isn't so," notes the director, whose distributor is in talks to release the film in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia.

CT