Uruguay-based filmmaker Gustavo Hernandez burst onto the horror scene with the $8000, single take movie THE SILENT HOUSE (a.k.a. LA CASA MUDA, pictured above). Although neither myself nor The Arrow were particularly impressed with the film (The Arrow gave it a 6/10 review), it instantly received an American remake, which Eric Walkuski gave a 5/10.
Hernandez followed up THE SILENT HOUSE with LOCAL GOD (pictured below), a film about a rock band encountering supernatural horrors in a cave, which hasn't yet received a wide release. He is now developing his third feature, which may mark his English language debut. A "psychological paranormal thriller" called PERSOMNIA.
Scripted by Juma Fodde Roma, PERSOMNIA will tell the story of
a young actress who joins a radical theater troupe, replacing a member who has disappeared, which is experimenting with days without sleep in order to perform all the better a play first created and put on in the now abandoned psychiatric ward 30 years ago and whose original performers, all inmates, died in a terrible fire, the play's climax. As the days pass, the actors reach new levels of sensitivity, opening up to the spirits in the hospital in order to achieve unique performances, as these spirits drive the play towards the same terrible ending.
Hernandez says that people's perceptions seem to open up to another world after they've been awake for days, an idea his film will be delving into. PERSOMNIA "also talks about madness in art and just how far artists will go to create something which transcends."
Hernandez will produce the film with Ignacio Cucucovich of Mother Superior Films and Sebastian Aloi's Aeroplano Films.
The plot sounds interesting and unique, so even though I wasn't enamored with his debut, I'm open to seeing what Hernandez does with PERSOMNIA. I'm also up for checking out LOCAL GOD whenever it gets released.