Director Carlo Ledesma harnesses Negros Island’s sights in Netflix zombie thriller ‘Outside’

In his first post-apocalyptic thriller Outside, now streaming globally on Netflix, Filipino-Australian director Carlo Ledesma steers a world suffused with trauma and desolation following a zombie outbreak that compels a family, led by Sid Lucero and Beauty Gonzalez as the central couple, to take refuge in a remote farm and drives them further into psychological decay.

Shot in the cities of La Carlota and Kabankalan in Negros Island through the help of locals and a crew based in Bacolod, where the director was born, Ledesma says the setting for the movie immediately enfleshed memories of his childhood.

“I still remember the very first day of shooting,” he says. “We were getting some aerial shots of our car driving through vast sugarcane fields and I suddenly remembered that I used to do the same thing in the very same fields many, many years ago as a teenager, running around with my classmates filming a slasher film using an old camcorder.”

Ledesma adds, “There was something so wonderfully cyclical about the moment, which was made even more special by the fact that my dad was with us on that very first Outside shooting day, the very person who trusted me with his camcorder. It felt quite nice to show him that I was now filming with bigger cameras.”

Past this, the sweeping appeal of Negros Island, in all its deserted sites and sugarcane fields, in the story serves as the emotional terrain, sharpened by the camerawork and production design, through which the domestic horror is examined and heightened. The sheer history of the region, particularly the exploitation endured by peasant workers who had tilled and were killed in the land (“This is my land,” declares the walking dead at one point), also informs the violence depicted in the movie and expands its possible reading.

Ledesma’s breakthrough came in 2011, with the found-footage feature debut The Tunnel, for which he won Best Australian Director at the 2011 Night of Horror Film Festival. It was a year before his return to the Philippines, after migrating to Australia in 2004 for a masteral degree in film and even won an award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for his thesis project, The Haircut.

At the time, while leading another life in Sydney, an idea about a survival horror film centered on a disintegrating family already loomed large in his thinking, but it would take Ledesma over a decade, a global pandemic, and a few more titles under his belt to finally work on the material and relocate the story from Australia to the Philippines.

Ahead of the movie premiere, I spoke with Ledesma via email about how he ended up making Netflix Philippines’ first zombie film with his dream leads, formative films, and his optimism about local talents. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

You’ve directed many horror films in the past, but this is your first attempt at a post-apocalyptic thriller, right? Can you share the seed idea for Outside, and how long did you have to work on the material?

I remember going to the movies with my dad before and seeing The Day After (1983), which both terrified and intrigued me as a young boy. And then thankfully my parents were cool enough to let me watch the Mad Max films even at a young age and I really remember my imagination being so triggered by post-apocalyptic worlds because there was just something so fascinating about our sense of normalcy being shattered by something catastrophic and us having to deal with the repercussions of that. And that’s what draws me to zombie films, it’s not so much the zombies as it is the humans in that world that are trying to adapt and survive.

I always knew I wanted to make a survival film set in a zombie-infested world, but to make the focus of that film ultimately about a family dealing with their own internal monsters. I actually wrote Outside as an Australian film when I was still living in Sydney. That script never did get made, but when I moved back to the Philippines I realized that the story could easily be transposed into a Philippine setting simply because the themes I wanted to share are universal.

So really when I think about it now, the story of Outside took more than a decade to bring to life! But things happen for a reason, and I like to hope that after we’ve all been through over the past four years, more people will be able to relate to this film even more.

I learned that you grew up in Bacolod, Negros Island. How did it shape your proclivity for the supernatural?

Growing up in Bacolod in the good old analog 80s meant I was exposed to all sorts of myths and monster tales via people! We didn’t have Youtube or TikTok back then so all the stories we would hear would be from our elders, which kind of added some form of gravitas to the proceedings. When you’re hearing a story about a White Lady being told by an 80-year old farm hand, you tend to believe him! Those old ways of storytelling are still the best for me, and that “gather round the fireplace” essence of it is something I’m trying to achieve in my filmmaking.

You moved to Australia in 2004 to complete your master’s degree in film and spent quite some time there, eventually making your feature debut The Tunnel in 2011, before returning to the Philippines a year later. What can you share about that adjustment period, and how did it inform your craft?

Living in Sydney for many years was pivotal for me because it allowed me to grow as a filmmaker. I was able to work with people from all walks of life, and learn the “Australian” way of making films, which was, roll up your sleeves, do the dirty work, and make some bloody magic happen! Doing my first film The Tunnel in Australia taught me so much and I have lessons from that film which I still carry to this day.

And then when I moved back to Manila 12 years ago, I pleasantly discovered that I was suddenly seeing my home country again from a fresh “foreigner” perspective. My time away from the Philippines gave me so much appreciation for all the beauty that we have here. We truly have the most beautiful landscapes, locations, people, and stories. It really is true that sometimes you need to leave a place to be able to appreciate it all over again.

How was it having Sid Lucero and Beauty Gonzalez as your leads?

Three words: Dream come true. They were my first choices for the roles of Francis and Iris, and I am very grateful that they not only said yes, but they also put their trust in me to help shape their character’s journeys, which, if you ask them, they’ll say was incredibly hard, but that’s only testament to their talent and professionalism that they were able to take Francis and Iris to levels that I didn’t even expect.

I learned as well that Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later had a pivotal impact on you as a horror director and fan of the genre. Were you conscious of that influence while steering your vision for Outside? Were there any other films you considered for the overall look?

28 Days Later was certainly a major inspiration, but funnily enough, for Outside, my team and I looked more at families-in-crisis films like Ordinary People, Revolutionary Road, Kramer Vs Kramer, and American Beauty. While Outside is a zombie film on the surface, to me its core is really about all the revelations that go on with the Abel family whenever they are seated at their dining table. That’s where the true horror and heartbreak lies for me. And so I really looked at films that delved into imperfect families trying their best to mend themselves.

In a previous interview, you spoke about how you prefer practical effects over computer-generated imagery. Can you talk more about this, and is this the same treatment you employed in making Outside?

I was adamant that all our zombie effects be done practically using prosthetics. I didn’t want to resort to CGI zombies running in the background because to me, they just wouldn’t have that tactile “weight” to them. 

Having said that, there are a lot of CG visual effects that are used in the film, the audience just won’t see most of them. I credit the post-production team The Post Office for crafting their visual effects to be as invisible as possible and to enhance the film’s naturalism, rather than call unnecessary attention to it. 

When did Netflix enter the picture?

Netflix showed their support from the very start. They responded very positively to our script, and have continued to champion us not just in their local market, but also making a strong push for us overseas. We’re very honored to have Outside as a Netflix Original, and so excited that people all over the world will have a chance to watch our Filipino story and hopefully relate to its universal themes. 

What would be necessary for Pinoy horror to gain more international exposure?

I think first and foremost, we Filipino filmmakers need to be supportive of each other. We need to champion each other’s stories and prop each other up rather than succumb to the most dreaded monster of all — The Filipino Crab Mentality Monster.  

The more stories we can share to the world can only mean great things for all of us. My wish is really for the Filipino film industry to reach the same level of South Korea’s. Call me an optimist, but I’m such a believer of our own local talent, that I think we can collectively make it happen. – Rappler.com