“Write what you know” is a common piece of writing advice and something that came naturally to writer/director Gigi Saul Guerrero when drawing inspiration for her historical horror segment “God of Death” in the latest anthology installment V/H/S/85.
V/H/S/85 is set to arrive exclusively on Shudder on October 6, 2023.
The filmmaker behind recent horror hits Bingo Hell, Into the Dark’s “Culture Shock,” and Satanic Hispanics joins an all-star lineup for V/H/S/85 that includes David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Natasha Kermani, and Mike P. Nelson.
Guerrero’s segment, “God of Death,” draws from Mexican mythology and the devastating earthquake that struck Mexico City on September 19, 1985. For the filmmaker, the harrowing historical event that inspired her segment happened to be personal.
“As soon as they told me ’85, it just clicked to do the most famous traumatic event that happened in Mexico City, where I was born and raised,” Guerrero tells Bloody Disgusting. “And in Mexico City, for those who don’t know, the topic we always talk about is how our city is built on top of the Aztec Tenochtitlan land, and the city is sinking every single day. Even our most famous cathedrals have a giant pendulum to show how it’s moving so much and how the whole city is slanting.
“What’s very superstitious and strange about Mexico City that’s amazing is we have earthquakes every single September 14th, the 17th, and the 19th. It’s always an earthquake on the same dates. It’s very strange, very strange. You know you’re Mexican when you hear an earthquake drill or the alarm; you will see the Mexicans get the fuck out. We know earthquake drills like pros, man. There’s nothing like it. The sound of the earthquake drill every September is very traumatic for every person there. My dad’s one of the survivors of that day, just by pure Final Destination luck.“
Guerrero elaborates, “Just by pure luck, he decided to go to the doctor that morning because he had a headache, and so he went to the other side of the city, and then he was going to go to work. Where he worked was next door to one of the more famous buildings where everything on that street collapsed, and nobody survived. And he just by luck had a headache that day.”
More than just having personal ties to the events that inspired her segment, Guerrero sought to capture the authenticity by filming at the locations affected by that earthquake.
The filmmaker explains, “That day was the day that Mexico City came together to try and rebuild. But still, to this day, in the places that I shot; I purposefully wanted to film in buildings that were never cleaned up from the earthquake. So it was a very, very immersive experience. It just felt like one of the coolest things to do.
“The last thing I’ll share is that we decided to push production a week because we were a little too superstitious that we were filming on September 19th. It just happened to be the day we wanted to start. Our producer was like, ‘No, that’s weird. We will die. No, I’m sorry. I’m calling it, we’re pushing a week.’ September 19th last year, we had a big earthquake, and that’s why some of the scenes look really good. No, for real! Very scary. Very scary. Our actors had a lot of trouble coming back to set for sure.”
See “God of Death” when V/H/S/85 begins streaming only on Shudder on October 6th, 2023.
The post ‘V/H/S/85’ – Gigi Saul Guerrero Details Personal Horror Story that Inspired Segment “God of Death” [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.