The latest from horror virtuoso Caye Casas, “El Show del Gran Luciferio,” is now in development and headed to the Sanfic Int’l Film Festival after being selected for this year’s Morbido Lab tutelage program.
Promising to deliver a titillating and freshly devious narrative steeped in nostalgia, the dark and acerbic horror concept is produced by industry heavyweights Norbert Llaràs at his Barcelona-based Alhena Production (“La Roba Estesa”) and Albert Pons, co-founder of Mexico’s Pulsar Films.
“The script for this project was the first thing I read by Caye, long before the shorts ‘Nada,’ ‘S.A.’ and ‘RIP,’ and feature films’ Killing God’ and ‘The Coffee Table,’ but it’s a script that’s always haunted me. When I read it, I was completely overcome by the brutality and strength of the proposal. It’s written in a totally unorthodox but one hundred percent genuine way,” Llaràs, a longtime Casas producer, told Variety.
“One of the adjectives that best describes Caye, is provocateur. His films provoke reactions, fill you with questions, turn your moral codes upside down and, from what I’ve read by Caye, this script is surely the most provocative,” he added.
“For Pulsar Films, producing the film is incredible since after almost fifteen years reading the script, we’ll be able to materialize this shocking and crazy story,” Pons chimed in.
The plot centers on the eccentric Luciferio, a game show host who pits contestants against each other in over-the-top trials to appease a rapt audience. As the show progresses, the games grow more barbaric as the adulation for the savage host drives increasing fury.
The concept was born “from a question. What are we capable of doing for money? We all have a price according to our personality, our circumstances and our ambitions. We wanted to create a fun, cruel, macabre and spectacular story that played with this concept, with the idea of what our price truly is,” Casas explained.
Caye Casas
Caye Casas
Having swept multiple festival plaudits from Sitges to San Sebastián, with a deserved nod from Stephen King for his last film, the mind-bending and wily “The Coffee Table,” Casas has stirred up a rabid and raptured fan base. Taking notes from his own caustic wit and the ability to turn classic horror tropes on their head, he ensures the latest project will also linger with viewers long after the credits roll.
“This story is different, but it also incorporates my style of making the viewer experience very strong emotions. ‘El Show del Gran Luciferio’ is a very acidic criticism of human misery. The viewer will have fun, laugh with my particular sense of black humor and be disturbed; they’ll view sequences they’ll never forget,” Casas eluded.
“We wanted to ensure that those who saw ‘The Coffee Table’ would never forget it. The same thing will happen with ‘The Show of Luciferio,’ they’ll enjoy it and suffer from it, but they’ll never be able to forget it. I promise you,” he added.
With a decidedly retro game show flair, the aesthetics and plotline present “the most macabre and successful television show in history, ‘Una Caricatura Macabra’ from trash TV,” according to Casas. A camp-addled, televised delirium “that presents Luciferio, an unscrupulous ‘showman’ capable of anything, for an audience.”
In early key art, go-go dancers clad in vivid yellow hot suits and bright lights surround the stage as a shot at riches and infamy await the contestants. The project is set to deliver a sordid and eye-opening critique, viewers of the spectacle witnessing the humiliation and depravity from the comfort of their homes, a regular technicolor nightmare.
“Without a doubt, it’s social criticism, not only of television programs but of ourselves. We live in a crazy society, and that’s why we’ve created this circus, a film that allows us to laugh at ourselves but also generates a cruel reflection,” Casas stated, further proclaiming that he believes the budding concept will “be the surprise of the year when we can film it.”
“It’s a film with music, colors, rhythm and a large dose of irony, as characterized by all of Caye’s previous projects, such as “Killing God” or ‘The Coffee Table,’” Pons relayed.
According to Pons, the project is eyeing a Mexico shoot with Spanish co-production. This would mark Casas’s first feature film shot outside of Spain, which Pons admits is “a step towards its internationalization.”
Pons concludes: “‘The Show of Luciferio’ is a different project, designed for the public to have fun and reflect through cruelty. We’re going to produce an entertaining, intense film that has a strong impact on the genre niche with a radically different alternative to the codes of genre cinema.”
