Exclusive Interview: Filmmaker, Guerrilla Metropolitana (Dariuss)
What made you want to get involved in the film industry?
My background is music and art and the shift to filmmaking was very natural as I always loved directing and creating my own stories.
I have always had a strong sense of visuals as well as sound (being a musician);
I wanted to create my own cinema based on these two elements.
The artistic and professional decision to become a filmmaker was a few years ago when I did my very first cinematographic project, which was an entirely unauthorised ‘guerrilla style’ short slasher film called BITS, which went viral on YouTube from the start.
That marked the beginning of my journey as a filmmaker.
What attracts you to extreme horror?
I am not particularly attracted to extreme horror, apart from some exceptions.
I am more into dark erotica and underground actually, however, I do watch pretty much anything.
My cinema turned out to be more and more extreme as time went on because of the intensity in which images and visuals in general have been carefully studied and crafted, often using sexual depravity as metaphor for hidden subtext within the stories.
The gore is not particularly frequent, but when it does appear, it is very graphic indeed.
This is not for shock value, but because I simply decide to tell a story the way I intend to, with no filters or political correctness of any kind.
Women and men can be raped, sodomised, tortured or killed according to what the script requires and completely detached from any political correct diktat.
But again, this is an artistic choice that comes naturally as ideas develop, rather than a decision made from the start in order to impress the audience.
How would you describe your style of filmmaking?
Extremely visual and expressive. Powerful and yet not confined within traditional formats or boundaries.
In all of my short horror films but particularly in my actual feature film DARIUSS this can be seen.
It is a film that breaks a century of traditional classic formats of moviemaking and yet it uses a lot of passed influences, but developed in a very singular way.
It is unprecedented not only in horror but in general as well.
Visuals and sounds replace traditional dialogue and the story is told through a ‘mirror effect’ like story with multiple interpretations where the viewer is not spoon fed.
The audience is witnessing what is going on and doesn’t feel like a passive viewer but as an active part of the film, through emotions and feelings.
What scene in DARIUSS did you enjoy directing the most?
I enjoyed every second of the making of DARIUSS, but from a directing standpoint the moments I enjoyed the most were the unauthorised ‘guerrilla’ outdoor shots at night with the hand camera and the indoor erotic shots with the female protagonist ILA ARGENTO, where I was able to explore her body and to cinematographically climax whilst filming pure beauty.
Every act of self eroticisim from the actress was felt so strongly that my camera was able to capture all of her sexual power and intensity.
What is the biggest obstacle you faced while making DARIUSS?
DARIUSS is probably one of the most difficult movies ever made in terms of editing (the editing alone took nearly a year) and my mental health was beginning to deteriorate as a result of the intensity and vision I wanted to achieve with this project from the very start.
I knew I was going to embark on my most ambitious and difficult cinematographic project, but I wanted to do it and I did at the end.
But the mental pressure cost me three breakdowns (the third was so severe that required therapy) but it was worth it.
My vision goes beyond my mental health.
I don’t give a fuck about the consequences, as long as my vision is completed and turned into cinema.
This film was the result of compulsive and OCD like craft, in every detail visual and sonic;
cinematographically speaking this was the work of a man who studied every millisecond of it and made sure it fitted with the original vision.
What was your proudest moment during production?
The final stage of editing with technical collaborator ARCHIBALD KANE.
When we both realised that this was going to be a unique film, truly, in any way.
In fact, we were right.
How do you get a film to stand out in the crowd in such a vast crowd of independent horror?
I think in the case of DARIUSS it all happened so fast (with the attention from people, etc..) because once reviewers watched the film, many of them started to spread the word around as they realised this was a unique film never done before in the horror genre.
The rest followed very quickly and easily.
After a few rejections from a couple of distributors due to its extreme sexual graphic violence and the unusual style, the movie got the attention of American company SRS CINEMA and soon after was out on bluray.
Since then the film is going wild on both sales and reviews.
But it is not a movie for popcorn horror fans, but more for ‘sophisticated and perverted’ minds who are not afraid to go beyond conventional boundaries.
That’s who I made the film for.
Not for the average or mediocre.
What other filmmakers inspire you to do what you do?
I don’t have filmmakers in particular but more like cinematographic influences.
Surely there are influences such as the French Nouvelle Vague, or German Expressionism, Dark Erotica / Underground from the 70’s and some experimental stuff from the past, that play a role in my formation and influence in general.
What is your favorite horror decade and why?
The 70’s without any doubt.
But not just for horror but for everything.
It was such a creative decade for filmmakers and producers.
They were not afraid to explore and experiment.
Back then they could do anything they want and a lot of what has been done turned out to be spectacularly phenomenal.
Contrary to today where you can’t do this or say that, otherwise some radical feminist moron or politically correct hypocrite is going to shut your ass down.
I don’t give a fuck about any of them.
In fact, my cinema has its own rules. Women are asked to get totally undressed and to do sexually oriented scenes if required, or any other scene I tell them to.
There is no such thing as no.
The word no means from my end one thing only: a big FUCK OFF.
All of my actresses are free spirits, truly liberated and not politically correct.
They can finger themselves in front of a camera, or get raped and killed or simply film in an unauthorised location with the risk of being in legal trouble.
These are the type of actresses who can work for me and be my cinematographic mistresses.
Those are the ones who make me climax and give me the perfect orgasm.
The ‘Emma Thompson’ like actresses (where anything or anyone with a cock is a threat), I trash them right in the toilet where they belong in the first place.
I have no time for animals.
My attention is towards truly artistic individuals who can become my heroines.
What can you expect from CORPORATE TORMENT?
This will be my following work after DARIUSS.
It is a return to the short film format.
It will star my new heroine JUICY X (named so as her breasts are huge and lovely).
She is a terrific actress with experience in theatre and films.
She has more balls than most men and she is not afraid to go beyond the red line.
A true blessing for me as a filmmaker.
CORPORATE TORMENT (it burns like HELL) is a story about corporate greed and sodomy.
It is about an underdog and his heartless Human Resources Manager (played by the actress mentioned above).
From there it developed into an escalation of total insanity.
Being a short film it will be for YouTube only and not for distribution like a feature film.
However, it will be submitted to festivals and it will be promoted accordingly.
It is a short but very powerful story about the unimaginable and the unspeakable.