Interview: ROSARIO Director Felipe Vargas Returns Home For His Feature Debut

Felipe Vargas roams free with Rosario. Although the lean, 88-minute horror movie is set largely in one location, the camera moves with the sort of calculated recklessness and relentlessness akin to an early Sam Raimi picture. It’s no surprise The Evil Dead, both the original and remake, were an influence for Vargas.

In the years leading up to Rosario, which is about a Wall Street player (played by Emeraude Toubia) visiting her deceased grandmother’s apartment and uncovering rituals and family secrets, Vargas sharpened his teeth on a long list of short films. The excellent Milky Teeth was a major breakout for the filmmaker now attached to the Leprechaun remake. Recently, Vargas spoke with Daily Dead about his feature directorial debut and why it means so much to him.

This is a mostly one-location horror movie that actually isn't all darkness and shadows. How important was it for you to have these bold greens, reds, and vibrant colors in the decay?

Felipe Vargas: That was baked in from the get-go. The movies I love are Italian giallo like Argento and Mario Bava – bloody, colorful movies – or more recently, Del Toro, the way he creates romanticized horror. We split the sequences into colors. There was the yellow scene in the beginning when all the lights are on and there are some candles. There’s a green scene when the lights are off and it's this sickly green look. There’s a red scene when she closes the red curtains and it's all red. There’s a Japanese movie called House that was also a big inspiration for the way that we brought a little color and life in the movie.

When you’re in prep or even in production, were you revisiting any of those films for inspiration?

Felipe Vargas: In soft prep, I'll be watching one or two horror movies a day if I can and just see what works. What I’ll also do is watch movies that are not so great, that are kind of similar, and I’m like, That didn’t work. I’m going to avoid that. You get more out of those movies sometimes. 

Also, I find inspiration outside of movies. With this one, I looked a ton at the culture itself – Palo. What are the textures, what are the rituals, what are the items, what’s the aesthetic, the visual language that we can create around this religion?

What spoke to you about that cultural visual language?

Felipe Vargas: I grew up around mediums and a grandma who dabbled in brujería, so I loved it. I was scared of it, but I was also fascinated by this communication with the spirits and the ancestors. Aesthetically, to me, that meant capturing the earths and the organic textures – the grass, the chains. Everything that was a part of that world, we tried to put in there. Also, move the camera in a way that feels right for it, where we’re arching around and working around these items.

As much fun as you have with these items, there’s the underlying message of respect. If you don’t respect it, see what happens.

Felipe Vargas: Yeah, man. We did a deep dive going to the botánicas in New York and in Colombia, seeing those items, and speaking with people. They were a little afraid to share sometimes because it’s something that hasn’t been done the right way, or it’s been passed through words, or it’s a little secretive.

We had folks who offered real cauldrons with real animal remains as props – which we didn’t use in the movie. But there’s also a beautiful side to it too, and I think you touched on that a little bit, the respect for these items and the way these rituals connect you with your roots and with your ancestors.

What else did you gain from your research there?

Felipe Vargas: It informed the ritual scenes when it came to including the rum, the tobacco, the candles, the blood, and the hair. We threw back and forth those ideas with some of these advisors and with the art team doing their own research. 

Anything in particular you were advised against? 

Felipe Vargas: When we were on set, there were definitely things where we felt like, Oh, we should actually avoid this. Emeraude would be reading these rituals word for word and it would start pouring rain, or the candles would go out. One time the camera fell – literally – during a ritual scene. Then the moment we would cut, it would all go back to normal. We changed some of the words and avoided it being too, too real, but as real as we could be on camera.

You made around 30 short films before making Rosario. All kinds of genres, too, but what really speaks to you about horror as a storyteller?

Felipe Vargas: I’ve loved horror since I was a kid. I grew up with folk tales and legends, and I would draw them and make little sculptures of them. I would tie prosthetics to my dog, like it was the movie monster, when I was 10 or 11, and film with my mom’s camcorder.

I do think doing other genres allowed me to bring some heart to this movie as well and go beyond the horror – to tell a story that hopefully resonates with anybody. With folks who are discovering things about their parents and their grandparents and have kind of a complicated relationship with their ancestors and heritage, hopefully, this horror film taps into something human and raw.

A relationship with a deceased family member deepening after their death – any inspiration there? 

Felipe Vargas: That’s true, man. I remember my dad telling me a story. When one of his parents passed away, he was in this tiny town in Colombia and stuck with the casket. He had to sleep in the same room as the body, essentially. In that experience, my dad also met all the neighbors that knew his parent in ways he didn’t – and the secrets they might’ve had. I think that’s something folks connect with: discovering maybe what your parents or grandparents didn’t tell you, or what they went through to help you get to where you are today.

How fulfilling was shooting your first movie in Bogotá, Colombia?

Felipe Vargas: It was full circle to do my first movie where I was born, where I was able to put my parents in as extras. I was able to raid my grandma’s home, too. I took all her things and put them in the movie. When she was going through the set, she’s like, “This isn’t scary, I got that here.” It was a fun, homely experience. It's also a New York story, so we had to shoot a couple days in New York to really capture the New York grit and texture in both worlds, both Rosario's World of Wall Street and Griselda’s (Constanza Gutierrez) home in Brooklyn. 

I went to Bogotá once and the folk tales and legends were incredible. It was especially great seeing them celebrated at museums.

Felipe Vargas: It’s also the heart of magical realism, where Márquez wrote his novels that are renowned. There’s the fantastical, the supernatural macabeness. Of course, it’s a developed country, but there’s also this mysticism. Especially in families, a lot of superstitions. Even though this film is not a Colombian film, it is a Latino film, and I think all of that is reflected in the film.

Involving a lot of great crew members, like editor Claudia Castello (Creed, Prey). How did you two see eye to eye about how to best tell the story of Rosario?

Felipe Vargas: I haven’t talked about Claudia enough. What she does so well is flexibility. She understood Rosario. She came from a similar world that Rosario did, so she understood her journey and how to get the audience behind her journey in the propulsive editing.

An interesting story, she was based in El Salvador at the time, so I went there and we edited the movie together. It was the middle of storm season, so it would start pouring and all the power would go out. We’d be holding these hard drives, hoping that it preserved the movie. 

Hopefully the producers don’t listen in on this, because it was a crazy time. It was pouring so much that the house started flooding, with all the computers and the hard drives. We had to put them on boxes so the water wouldn’t reach them. Quite an adventure [Laughs]. 

[Laughs] Not many filmmakers face that challenge. You two went lean and mean with the pace. How’d you both want the flow of the movie to scare audiences?

Felipe Vargas: The whole team talked about getting ahead of the audience. The horror audience today sees things coming from a mile away, so how do you subvert? How do you misdirect? Also, for this movie, not being afraid of the jump scare. I love a good, well-crafted scare if it feels bold and in your face. We wanted it Raimi-esque, so we weren’t afraid to make a movie that was genuinely in your face – fun, scary, and not holding back or a slow burn, like a lot of contemporary horrors.

Fantastic practical effects are in the movie. What did you and the VFX team hope to achieve? 

Felipe Vargas: We had an amazing special effects team. It gives the actress something to interact with, and it’s on the screen. It’s there. When you’re creating these worm prosthetics that crawl under the skin or the claws bursting out of the mouths and the nose, all of that was done for real.

It’s the magic of movies to me, when you blend special effects, makeup, creature effects, and see all of that coming together. And then with sound and post – it forms a real, tangible, handcrafted feel to the movie.

What was the best way to light the creature effects?

Felipe Vargas: Shoutout to our incredible DP, Carmen Cabana – Colombia/Venezuela – who’s super talented. I think usually the key is having it be backlit, underlit, lit from below in creative ways. Also, using a ton of practicals in-camera, like the flashlights on the phones or the candles.

When you look at Rosario now, how does it fulfill any hopes you had – creatively or personally – for a feature directorial debut?

Felipe Vargas: What's so special about this movie is working with a Latino crew, working back home and highlighting this culture. To me, that was always important. With the cast and crew, we have the Rosario family, so that was a real pleasant surprise – how close you grow to the people you're working with. It was a marathon, but I'm really proud of this first movie. There's more to come with the second and third that I'm developing, so I hope to get them out there soon. 

[Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]