When Mikhail Red got the green light to direct another horror movie and a maiden project under Evolve Studios, which he put up alongside production company Viva Films, he was certain of venturing into folklore horror, a subgenre he has yet to explore in his body of work. 

“In every film that I make I try not to box myself in. I always aim to learn something new, whether in [terms of] theme, execution, tone, or treatment,” he says.

Taking cues from horror titles like Ringu and It Follows, the Filipino director wanted to create “a film about a curse that gets passed on” anchored on Filipino folklore and notions of grief.

This fixation led to Nokturno, out October 31 on Amazon Prime Video, his latest team-up with Gawad Urian winner Nadine Lustre, following the success of the techno-horror Deleter at the 2022 Metro Manila Film Festival.

In the story, Lustre takes on the role of Jamie, a migrant worker returning to her hometown following her sister’s demise due to a primal curse brought on by a supernatural creature, the so-called kumakatok, that has seeped into the lives of her family, which she has grown distant from.

“The curse of the kumakatok, an ancient entity from Filipino folklore that represents death,” explains Red, “starts if you hear three knocks at your door in the middle of the night [and then] three figures of death will come for you and your family.”

Adds the director, “I love the idea of a ticking time bomb, of impending doom. It adds constant tension to the narrative [and] a certain momentum to the story as you wait for time to run out and the finale to arrive.”

With this project, Lustre is poised to become one of the most bankable muses of Philippine horror, apart of course from Beauty Gonzalez, the star of the Netflix zombie thriller Outside.

Red, meanwhile, approaches his 11th feature film with Lilim, another in-the-works project under Evolve Studios, set in the 1970s and 1980s Philippines. A teaser for the film, which sees Red’s first collaboration with his father Raymond Red, has been released.

In Nokturno, Red also assembles his frequent collaborators, his cousin Rae Red (co-writer of Birdshot and Eerie) and his brother Nikolas Red (writer-editor of Dead Kids and Deleter) to work on the script and editing, as well as his previous actors, such as Eula Valdez (Neomanila) and Ku Aquino (Birdshot and Dead Kids), cast alongside Bea Binene, Wilbert Ross, and J.J. Quilantang.

Ahead of the movie premiere, I spoke with the director about his eye for horror, collaborating with Lustre, and where he wants to take Evolve Studios. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Let’s backtrack a little bit because I’m curious how your interest in horror or in genre movies at large began, and how you developed your directorial voice through it. What were the movies that became formative for you?

I began making short films in high school using a mini DV camcorder, and I found myself drawn to visual storytelling. It felt natural for me to gravitate towards a film language that emphasized visuals, which I guess is the horror genre. Horror became my way to express my subconscious fears—those haunting thoughts and disturbing emotions that I struggled to articulate as an introverted filmmaker.

Even in my early short films, a common thread emerged: morally ambiguous characters caught in traps, oppressed by systems they couldn’t overcome. For me, horror has always been the perfect outlet for emotions that words failed to convey. I found it very universal; fear is an emotion that can transcend language.

Even in my early years I loved watching foreign horror films like Ringu, The Eye, Pulse, The Descent, Lake Mungo, and many more. When I finally got my big break in mainstream cinema with Star Cinema, I had the opportunity to finally create a horror film titled Eerie.

As a filmmaker, I’ve always believed in the philosophy that genre can serve as a powerful vehicle for delivering messages to a wide audience. I felt that horror, being so universally relatable, was ideal for this purpose. In Eerie, I explored the clash between modern psychological approaches and traditional religious beliefs, centering around a guidance counselor trying to save repressed catholic students.

Fortunately, even with a bleak tone and a R13 rating, the film was a commercial success, allowing me to continue my passion for horror filmmaking with studios that had the distribution system and machinery capable of reaching large local audiences.

With horror, I am not just interested in the artistry of it; it’s also about craftsmanship. I absolutely love the filmmaking process! Horror has so many moving parts, requiring a strong, collaborative team effort beyond just the director’s auteur vision.

I find elements like post-production, sound design, prosthetics, stunts, and especially cinematography deeply fascinating and exciting. These components and departments all work together to create the chilling atmosphere that defines the genre, and it always feels exciting working on every moment of bringing them to life.

Given the commercial success of Deleter, your first project with Nadine Lustre, was this follow-up already a no-brainer, or did it still take the both of you some convincing?

It felt very natural for us to continue working with Nadine Lustre after the awards sweep and box office success of the 2022 MMFF with Deleter. Deleter’s big win was a very rare and special moment and we felt that it would be great to continue our collaboration.

At the same time Evolve Studios, a joint venture company I put up with Viva Films was born, with the sole focus of creating interesting and cinematic genre films for the Filipino audience, in hopes of diversifying the film slate that is available to the local audience. 

It felt right to start the company with another genre film with Nadine Lustre. She is a very dedicated, talented, and professional collaborator, and we get along well in both development and principal photography.

She is also a huge film buff and fan of horror and I find it easier working with technical actors who understand the genre, who understand tone and references, and who have the innate appreciation of the filmmaking process. I look forward to doing more with her in the future.

I’d love to know if you had any movies in mind that served as springboards for Nokturno visually.

I got to collaborate with Ian Guevarra again, my cinematographer in Deleter where he also won the best cinematography award at the 2022 MMFF. I also got Analou Sanchez as a production designer; she did the designs in Eerie. We discussed how we wanted Nokturno to look and feel different from Deleter and Eerie. 

We did a more naturalistic approach, in lighting, look, and camera. I was inspired by horrors like the Persian-language film Under the Shadow or even more popular horror like The Conjuring, where the camera follows the characters over the shoulder in mostly handheld and long shots, drawing out the tension even more before a scare, with very minimal music, and an almost earthy vintage color palette, where the camera follows long and you feel like you are stalking the character.

We shot in actual old houses and decrepit locations to add to the authenticity, avoiding set builds and studios and filming in locations away from the city.

More about the visuals, did you employ computer-generated imagery or practical effects? Also, as a director, when do you consider one technique over the other, or even the combination of both?

Most of it is practical, the ghosts, the kumakatok, the gore, but there are a few VFX shots as well. Since we have long handheld takes, we need to cure or enhance some elements. I am always a fan of “invisible VFX” where we use VFX in the least expected environments in order to enhance the layers of the image but maintain the immersion of a naturalistic approach. 

I do this in a lot of my films, even my serious dramas or crime thrillers. It’s something I enjoy experimenting and learning about as a filmmaker. I always work closely with my post-production team. These are elements that are important in horror, attention to detail is a must since all these things add to the production value and help sell the reality of the world.

I am very meticulous when it comes to VFX, color, design, and sound design, these are things that the audience will subconsciously pick up and it all adds up to build the perfect atmosphere.

After Deleter, you founded Evolve Studios, a new production outfit under Viva Films, which is making its debut with Nokturno. What can you share about the studio’s commitment to producing more genre movies?

With Evolve Studios I want to create a slate of diverse films that are both accessible yet daring in its approach, while pushing the boundaries of local genre cinema. We like to try new things such as casting known actors in genre roles to help find a larger audience for stories that aren’t the safe bets for the usual mainstream fanfare.

I also dream of pushing genre films that can help test and train all departments of production and post-production, where every department can showcase their craft and artistry to a large audience so the projects won’t just rely on auteur direction or celebrity appeal. 

Now that I’m already on my 11th film with Lilim, also an Evolve Studios project, I plan to produce films for other filmmakers—hopefully my experience in genre production and working in both the studio systems and with streamers can help bridge the gap of efficient financing and ambitious ideas. 

Lastly I want to make sure the studio is sustainable, where it can run on the gross of each of its films, hoping to strike the balance of creativity and the economics of it. I feel like the model has to make sense if we ever dream of creating a functioning industry, where everyone is paid right and on time and the budgets of the films are properly allocated and production value is reflected on screen and not just behind the camera.

It helps when the producers are also practitioners and understand each step of the process.

Can you talk about the decision to sell the rights to the movie to Amazon Prime Video and opt out of a theatrical screening?

I can’t discuss specifics but as most people may know, the landscape is constantly shifting. It is now more challenging to release films theatrically. With the moviegoing audience shrinking, the routine or habit of going to the cinema is slowly lost and is now becoming more of an event or an occasion where people plan ahead and save up for, especially with the ticket prices rising. 

Fortunately there are other distribution models available that still fulfills our objectives of having our local stories reach a wide audience, even a global audience. And with Deleter being a hit on Amazon Prime, I feel like there is a good relationship there and a good prominent slot was made for Nokturno, being one of Prime Video’s worldwide halloween releases. It was a good opportunity for us to take at the moment. But for future Evolve films, we will still explore all possibilities. – Rappler.com