ATLRetro

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

 

Kike Narcea’s I’LL CRUSH Y’ALL (2023), was the opening night feature at the 16th annual Buried Alive Film Festival (BAFF), Atlanta’s Premiere Horror Film Festival, which ran Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2023, invading the historic Plaza Theatre once again. Narcea’s action-packed gut punch of a film is crushing the genre film festival circuit across the US with two wins so far under its bare-knuckle belt, winning the Audience Choice Award at Fantastic Fest during its world premiere in Austin TX, and hours after this interview, the film took in another win and was voted Best Feature at Buried Alive. There’s nowhere to go now for this killer film, but up!

ATLRetro sat down with actor Mario Mayo Piedra [“Gabriel”/”Tarado”] and one of the film’s producers Jaime Arnaiz Rebollo of JAR Produccion in the Twin Peaks-inspired room at The Plaza to get down to brass tacks about the film, the inspirations behind the making of I’ll CRUSH Y’ALL and the current state of action/horror film in Spain.

ATLRetro: Are you guys having a good time at Buried Alive Film Festival? Favorite films you’ve seen at the festival?

Jaime Arnaiz Rebollo: Great question. First of all, we’d like to give a big shout out to Josh Gould the Director of the festival. He has treated us great, and we are actually feeling like we’re home over here. The theatre is amazing. The smell, whenever you enter, is like coming back to our youth. I mean, this is a very nice place, the theatre inside is also, and the audience was great. So, yeah, we are having a really good time. And from my point of view, the project that I liked most from what we saw is a short film called “Bookworm” directed by a Spanish guy also, named Javier Yanez. It’s actually very interesting. It’s related to manga, and it has some horror. It’s about a librarian. It’s pretty interesting.

Mario Mayo Piedra: We have seen a lot of short films, and we were very interested in “Bookworm.” I have seen a lot of short films with many good qualities and the features are great, too.

J: We saw this 10th Anniversary screening of THE DEMON’S ROOK, directed by James Sizemore and it was a very interesting movie. It was selected for Sitges and Fantasia and other places. The movie was very interesting, especially since they had such a low budget. They had this props designer that made these awesome devils and monsters.

M: And zombies.

J: It looked very good.

M: Yes, I remember James’ film.

J: Yeah, we were here also with the producer team. He’s from Atlanta and he was actually really excited about screening the movie here. Josh is part of the cast also. The movie is very funny actually.

M: Yes, it was very funny.

How did you get involved with I’LL CRUSH Y’ALL? Any special backstory about getting involved in this film?

J: Yeah, it’s all Mario’s fault. (laughs) I mean, I’m the producer, along with four other producers from Spain who are Kiko and Javie Prada (The Other Side Films), Bruno Martin, and Jesus Loniego, along with our own company, but we all got together because of Mario. He’s the spiritual producer of the movie who has been behind our backs the whole time whipping us and crushing us all in order to motivate us. He’s been the heart of the movie, the project.

M: I have a love for working in movies like this kind because I think in Spain we have a lot of potential for doing these kinds of movies, but I think in this moment, we have a poor production of action movies. I think we can do more and more and more, and a good job of these movies, actions movies. For example, our neighbor France makes a lot of action movies, but in Spain…

J: We don’t do that many over there in Spain, no.

M: Yes. And I think we can do it.

J: Actually, I agree with Mario. One of our main goals is to create this branch of movies of live action. We have many references in Europe, in Asia, and the States about live action, but we don’t have that much content of live action in terms of content in Spain, but we have Mario who has this huge camera presence and a very strong physique-

M: Thank you.

J: -and he is a very good actor also, so we want him and all our cast actually to become new action heroes and new action villains. That would be only if we could go step by step by step by creating new projects and I’LL CRUSH Y’ALL did really well and it’s doing very well. We are now preparing the sequel, I’LL CRUSH Y’ALL 2, where Mario is going to be smashing more heads (laughs).

M: Ha!

The film just won the Audience Choice award at Fantastic Fest. What was it like winning that award at the film’s world premiere?

J: Goosebumps. I mean it’s awesome. I’m an independent producer with this low budget movie and with our own resources. We don’t have any funds from the government from Spain, no funds from a funding company. We did it with our own resources. And getting this award, this Audience Award at Fantastic Fest, which is one of the ten largest genre festivals in the world, it’s an awesome achievement. Last year, this award was won by THE MENU, so last year THE MENU was here and this year I’LL CRUSH Y’ALL is here, so not bad at all. I mean, we are actually living the American dream. This is the land of opportunities, and this is actually a small one getting a great opportunity, so I think that this is actually paying off for the year we invested in this, not only this movie, but, our careers, professionally.

M: It was great! Now I am at the same level as Ralph Fiennes, as an actor. No?

J: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

M: Sorry, Ralph. (laughs)

J: And it’s also been an amazing time because we didn’t know actually how the movie was going to do in the market and as soon as we got the award, the very next day we started getting proposals and opportunities, so right now we are just making decisions for the movie to be screened all around the world.

Clearly this is a very physical film, it being about “crushing” folks. What was the most physically difficult part to film?

M: Maybe all of the filming – we filmed the movie in six weeks and during the filming I lost more than 5 kilos because it was very physical and I sweated a lot, a lot, repeat, repeat, repeat, but I think that is important because you can choose the better frames, the better scenes and I remember all of the filming was very hard.

Were the fight scenes choreographed or were most of them improv?

M: No, they were prepared.

J: They were prepared because Kike Narcea, he’s a great choreographer, he’s the director but he’s a great choreographer because he’s seen a lot of movies (Asian, French, Italian, German, all of the countries) and he loves action movies. And when we were on the set he had very clear ideas.

So, he pretty much had a vision?

Both: Yes, yes.

J: Our director is a geek.

As we all are.

J: Yes. That is why we are here. He’s a geek. He has a great background in action movies and not only action movies, but all types of cinemas and he really had a clear idea of the movie in his mind. So, whenever we were going to shoot any scene he would sit down with the team beforehand and then after that with the cast and he will explain everything to the team first, then he will explain everything to the cast and then they will try to do some testing, but he had everything ready, like “You are launching the punch and halfway I’m cutting so you don’t need to do it all the way.” So, he has perfectly clear in his mind the editing of the movie, so that actually helps us a lot. Although, there is a scene in the movie that was improvised. Only one scene. Can you guess?

Was that the pallet scene?

Both: Yes, yes.

I only know that because I was at your Q&A, and it was mentioned there.

J: Yes, it’s actually a very unique scene for us. A very interesting scene.

The pallet scene is where a lot of the comedy kicked in for me.

J: Yes.

So, what was it like working with the dogs?

M: Wow, marvelous. I love dogs. I am more friends with dogs than with people. I have cats, I have a dog and I love animals.

J: It’s great. It was amazing to me. They were very nice.

Did they take direction well from the Director?

J: Yes, so usually you should never shoot with animals or kids because it’s really hard, but on this occasion we were very lucky because the owner of the dogs is one of the cast members. So, this scene where the dogs are actually eating from a guy, they are killing him, and the truth is that, as he is the owner, we just put some jam on him and the dogs were kissing him, but on the screen it actually seems like they are feasting on him. It’s actually very cute. They didn’t die during the movie, a little spoiler, but everybody was like, “Oh the dogs,” you can see them at the beginning of the movie, and I don’t know if people were thinking, “Oh, they are going to die,” but in the end they don’t die and they have a very important role.

M: And their sounds helped a lot for scenes like this [dog eating the man], the sound-

J: The sound designing, yes, we did a great sound design and all the music of the movie, everything just fits perfectly. The music composer is Daniel Maldonado, who is a Spanish composer, and he did a great job. Also, the final song that we have in the movie, which is like the main track, it was composed by the owner of the dogs – he’s the owner of the dogs, the owner of the house, he did the main theme – we got a lot of great things from Diego Paris, thank you for everything Diego – we love you.

Anything else you’d like our audience to know about the film?

J: For sure. We are very happy and pleased about getting this award at Fantastic Fest and hopefully we may get some awards here at Buried Alive. It’s up to the jury. But we are working really hard in order to get the movie on all platforms and theatres. We’ve already got some offers from American distributors, but we want to keep on working, not to just be on the American market but also the whole world and this is because, as I said before, we are really willing to make a new branch of movies, action movies, with Mario as lead role.

And you said you’re working on a sequel?

J: We are working on the sequel. We actually do have half the script and we have the whole plot idea. Also, we are already gathering the actors to cast and gathering the funds. If everything goes well, maybe next year or in two years we will be done with the sequel.

What is your favorite action film from any time period that’s important to you and epitomizes what you love about the action movie genre?

J: I have two references. I’m not the director, so, for sure this question would be much better answered by Kike, but from my point of view as a producer, I have two references that for me I would like to achieve the quality of entertainment. The first one is a movie called AIRBAG. It’s a Spanish movie directed by Juanma Bajo Ullow. It was a movie shot in the late nineties, early 2000s and is very funny. It’s an action and thrill movie, but it’s all fun and—

M: Manic comedy.

J: Comedy. Everybody is crazy and the characters are unique people. And I think we have similarities in our movie. And another production I really love is HOME ALONE. I mean, actually, we don’t have Macaulay Culkin in our movie, but we have Mario Mayo, which I think he’s going to have a great career.

There’s actually a line in the movie about HOME ALONE, correct?

J: There’s a line that we actually speak about it and it’s just because Kevin McCallister stays in his house—

M: I am Kevin McCallister.

J: Yes, and he has to keep it from these burglars. Mario is like Kevin McCallister. He has to remain in his house, and he has to keep his house safe from all these people that are coming over. So, more or less, there are some similarities, but I would love as a producer the success of those two movies. I mean, for me HOME ALONE is the best reference along with INDIANA JONES and THE GOONIES—the most well-known movies ever and AIRBAG – I’m pretty sure for every Spanish person thinks it’s one of the funniest movies and I invite you to see it because I’m sure you will enjoy it.

M: I think for example, this movie looks like, more or less, FIRST BLOOD, Sylvester Stallone, he doesn’t want to have problems but problems find him and maybe my character is more or less like Rambo. And also, there is a kind of movie or cinema in Spain called cine kinki (cine quinqui)—

J: Not the English “Kinky.” In Spain in the 80s we had a big problem with drugs, heroin, and we have a lot of crime, and we have this urban tribe called kinki people, which were like outsiders, ex-drug dealers, ex-consumers and they were involved in crime, robbery and stealing and so that way of life was called the kinki life—being underground, and being an outlaw. So, during the late 80s and 90s this new branch of cinema called the kinki cinema was about that type of people. It was just resembling what our society had and in our movie we are showing a little bit of the low-income part of society, so it has some reminders of those kinki movies.

M: Yes.

J: It’s not the same kinki as you have here.

M: No. Many years ago in Spain, many directors were filming film kinki.

J: So basically, we did a movie to have fun, we enjoyed the filming and what we liked most is that the audience liked the movie. I mean, it’s very interesting how we showed the movie in Spanish and most of the jokes are internal Spanish jokes.

M: Yeah.

J: But we were shocked that the American audience reacted very well with those jokes. Although they didn’t understand all of them they got many of them and also we were told that our translation is not the best and so we have to keep on working on it, but it’s only been the third screening ever, so we’ve only been showing the movie for one week in only five theatres that have seen the movie. And we are just getting the first feedback.

Nice! What’s next for you guys?

M: Now I am working with Alex de la Iglesia in a serial for Netflix, and it’s a small character, but it’s great. Working with Alex is awesome. He is one of my favorite filmmakers. I expect I will work with him again on another project.

J: Well, I’m studying to become a pharmacist. I’m in my fifth year of school for this career. Because cinema is a little like a roller coaster – it’s tough to survive because of this.

M: He’s a great producer. You are going to be a producer, a great producer. There will be more than what we’re doing now.

So, a legal drug dealer then?

J: I’m actually going to spend all the money I get from drug dealing on cinema. But legal drug dealing (laughs). No actually, I’m studying the career, but at the same time I’m doing all of these productions. We are preparing a new movie we are shooting in February which will be directed by Bruno Martin, and we are going to be co-producing it and also I shot three different short films this year.

M: Yes, I am also in this film.

J: He is also in this new film that we are going to film, but as I said, we shot three different short films this year with different genres. One of them is action – fights between the Spanish mob and Chinese mob. We have a drama about a mother and daughter who get evicted from their house and she tells her daughter that they are going on holiday, so the daughter doesn’t realize what is actually going on. We have this other project called SHAKESPEARE IN SMOKE, directed by Francesco Cocco. It’s like an essay about what it is to be an actor your whole life. Three different actors who are different ages, but they all have the same path, and they share their experiences. And I’m in many other projects but at the moment we would like to enjoy and harvest all that we have already planted.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Millie De Chirico, co-creator and exclusive Programmer for Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) weekly late-night cult movie showcase, “TCM Underground,” returns to Buried Alive Film Festival’s (BAFF) bloody ranks as a hand-picked and well-sought after  juror for BAFF’s Sinema Challenge, a horrorific and spooktacular extra added to this year’s festival! Competitors’ films for the 13-day filmmaking competition will screen Nov. 16 at 7 Stages (7 p.m./ 9 p.m.), kicking off the 11th Annual Buried Alive Film Festival (Thursday, November 17, 7:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.; Friday, November 18, 6:00 p.m. – 2:05 a.m.; Saturday, November 19, 12:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.; Sunday, November 20, 12:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.;  7 Stages; Tickets $12 per screening block / $120 all access pass [includes film blocks and special events]; Schedule for each screening block here; Tickets here)!

De Chirico, a Georgia State University (GSU) film major and cult-classic connoisseur has been a member of TCM’s Programming Department for over a decade. While TCM Underground is her cult-film love-child, she’s also spearheaded several successful TCM initiatives, including TCM’s Summer of Darkness featuring films of the noir persuasion; Condemned, “A festival of films Condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency”; and the TCM Imports Showcase. De Chirico is no fledgling when it comes to independent film, as she’s sat on juries for Austin’s Fantastic Fest and Buried Alive. Recently, she held a week-long programming residency at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. And in 2016, De Chirico was given an enviable opportunity to be involved with programming content for TCM/Criterion Collection’s new streaming service, FilmStruck!

ATLRetro caught up with Millie De Chirico for a quick interview about her cult cinema obsession, especially obscure films showcasing girl gangs and basically ladies who kick ass; being a part of the Buried Alive Film Festival family; and exposing rare and bizarre films to the masses via “TCM Underground”!

ATLRetro: “Queen of the TCM Underground”! What a killer title! Can you tell our readers how you earned such a moniker and how you helped create TCM’s late-night cult movie franchise, “TCM Underground” in 2006, originally hosted by Rob Zombie?

Millie De Chirico: Well, becoming the “Queen” was incredibly easy because I’m the only person who works on it! There was another person involved in the very first year, a guy named Eric Weber who no longer works at TCM. We worked on it together at first. After he moved to another department at Turner, I was the only one left to do it, and that’s how it’s been for the past 10 years.

Stanley Kubrick was sort of your gateway drug into the land of cult film at the tender age of nine, with his 1971 classic, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Besides Kubrick, who influenced you the most in your love of cult cinema? And why?

Russ Meyer‘s FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!  was probably the biggest influence on me. It totally blew my mind when I first saw it. I can’t tell you how amazed I was to see Tura Satana, a half-Asian woman just like me, being such a dynamic badass. I’d never seen anything like that before. After that I really fell into the rabbit hole. John Waters and Herschell Gordon Lewis movies were also my early cult cinema education. They are canon at this point, but will always be influential to me.

Your job is a dream come true for cinephiles the world over. As a kid, did you ever imagine you’d get the opportunity to educate the masses on the wonders of the most obscure films? What’s a day in the life of Millie De Chirico like?

As a kid I had no idea you could even have a job doing something like this. When I was a kid, jobs were like firefighters and whatever you learned in elementary school, and women were always secretaries. Every day I go into work and get to talk about and think about movies, so I’m very fortunate. I see what I do less about educating and more just about sharing movies with people. Anyone that gets paid to share what they love with others is a very lucky person.

Do viewers get to request films to be screened for “TCM Underground”? If so, what is the most bizarre request for programming you’ve received?

I love to hear ideas from viewers. I think everyone in the Programming Department at TCM does. I don’t know if I’ve gotten a single bizarre film request; it’s more that the people making the requests are the interesting thing. For example, I learned recently that TCM Underground has a pretty big following among prisoners. They’ve sent a lot of letters and I have to say, the requests are really interesting and a lot of times actually underground, like DEEP stuff. Also, I sat down with John Carpenter once a few years ago and he mentioned he’d seen Underground, and then rattled off a bunch of movies he wanted to see. My brain pretty much exploded after that.

How exciting to be a part of TCM/Criterion Collection’s new streaming service, FILMSTRUCK. Can you tell us a little about the service what it means to you to have opportunity to help with the programming and content?

I think I’m most glad I get the opportunity to flex a different programming muscle with FilmStruck. A lot of people assume I just like cult movies and that’s it. I’m actually a fan of lots of different types of films. I still program for the network and love classic Hollywood movies. With FilmStruck I get to program foreign, art house, and indie, which are all genres I greatly enjoy. Plus I get to work really closely with the folks at Criterion Collection, a company that I’ve had a crush on since I was in college when they were only making laserdiscs — it’s basically a dream come true.

You’ve been a juror for several film festivals across the country, including Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX and Atlanta’s own home-grown horror film festival, Buried Alive Film Fest (BAFF). I’m going to assume it’s nerve-wracking, but what’s it like getting to judge the creative harvest of filmmakers across the world?

It’s pretty thrilling to get to see really new movies, by people who’ve never made one before a lot of the time. You’re kind of there at the creative gun blast, which is very cool! The year I did Fantastic Fest I was on a jury that got to watch IT FOLLOWS and SPRING and a bunch of other movies that were unknown, but ended up being big hits.

What is your favorite American cult film? Foreign cult film? Favorite cult film genre?

You should know better than to ask film people about a single favorite movie! Admittedly I have about fifty and they change daily. But if I must choose, my favorite American cult film would be the aforementioned FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is a very close second); foreign cult film would be THE ROAD WARRIOR. Favorite cult genre would be anything involving girl gangs, like SWITCHBLADE SISTERS or DARKTOWN STRUTTERS. What can I say; I love ladies who kick ass.

Can you tell us how you got involved with Buried Alive Film Festival and the killer Kool Kats running the show?

I went to film school at GSU with Blake, one of the founders, and I’m friends with most of the people who run it. Atlanta’s film community is fairly tight knit and I’m always happy when we get to work together in any way.

As one of the judges for BAFF’s Sinema Challenge, how does the competition look? Anything horrific and exciting you can tell us at this time without giving anything important away before the BAFF opening screenings on Nov. 16?

I actually haven’t seen them yet. I have no idea what to expect but I know I’m super excited!

What are you looking forward to most at BAFF 2016? Anything fangtastic we should know about?

I think everyone should see the shorts. They are always a blast and the BAFF folks always put together really great shorts programming. I’m also really looking forward to seeing SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, the documentary about the Process Church of the Final Judgment (I will basically watch any documentary about cults or religion). And they’re doing a screening of CARRIE, an all-time favorite of mine, which I’m sure will be super fun.

What exciting and cinematically cultish things do you have planned in the near future?

I’d really love to do screenings in Atlanta. I’m always jealous when I go to cities like L.A. or Austin that have really cool, interesting cult or repertory film scenes, partially due to the fact that they have so many theaters that will do them. I’ve been talking to folks in town about this for a long time, so maybe something will finally happen…

What obscure piece of cult cinematic history can our readers look forward to in upcoming “TCM Underground” programming?

I’m really excited to be playing TERMINAL ISLAND by the great Stephanie Rothman, one of the only women who directed cult films and worked for Roger Corman for many years. I got the chance to meet and hang out with her last year and she is unbelievably nice with amazing stories to tell.

And last but not least, what question do you wish somebody would ask you and what’s the answer?

Question: Who my favorite cult actor or actress? My very quick answer is: Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s and 1970s. She made some really bizarre movies during this period and I’m kind of on a quest to get everyone I know to watch them.

Photos courtesy of Millie De Chirico and used with permission.