“She Wolf” director Tamae Garateguy, one of the most exciting talents on Latin America’s burgeoning genre scene, is set to direct “Fuckin’ Sexy,” a sex doll horror movie set up at Argentina’s Machaco Films, producer of Damien Rugna’s “Terrified” and “When Evil Lurks.”   

A bold swing, which is what Garateguy’s fans love about her, “Fuckin’g Sexy” is set on the Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil triple frontier where laborer Juan stumbles on a life-size latex sex doll. It proves “a device of death” but, in a long journey through the jungle, Juan comes to recognises its “noble heart.”

“Fuckin’g Sexy” looks like one undisputed highlight of Blood Window Fant.Latina, a new section at Ventana Sur’s Blood Window dedicated to six new projects by female horror/fantastic film directors, taking in other highly respected established talents such as Argentina’s Jimena Monteoliva (“To Kill the the Dragon”) and Spain’s up-and-coming Angeles Hernández (“The Lighthouse”). 

Add five genre titles from new initiative Spanish Screamings, part of Spanish Screenings on Tour, and the number of genre projects being brought onto the market at Blood Window has near doused compared to recent years. That reflects a larger picture. 

“Latin America has been growing year after year in the quantity and quality of projects,” Blood Window head Javier Fernández told Variety. 

“We are very happy with this year’s selection. I think we have a powerful program with proposals that dialogue with each other and that seek to extend their limits, from the most radical of the horror genre to intimate stories that seek to represent our deepest fears,” he added.

Following brief details of the project lineup. Blood Window’s Works in Progress titles will be announced shortly. 

Fant.Latina

“Anna,” (Rosario Giménez Gili, Chile)

Anna shows up in shock and amnesia on a jungle mountain. An iris scan reveals an identity unknown to her. She finally encounters a scientific explanation. A sci-fi thriller –  a relative rarity in Latin America – from Giménez Gili, director of “Camila’s Awakening,” seen at the Montreal World Fest’s first fiction films competition. 

“Caw,” (“La Solapa,” Laura Sanchez Acosta, Argentina)

Caught at August’s Sanfic-Mórbido, a feature expansion on Sánchez Acosta’s fest fave short. Teen Malena plunges into a forest to rescue her sister, captured by a creature: The Solapa. But more dangerous monsters lurk there. An expose of real life human trafficking backed by Argentina’s Cruz del Sur Cine (“Limbo”) and Far Away Cine (“Yésica”) and Uruguay’s Sueko Films (“Reus”).

“Fuckin’g Sexy,” (Tamae Garateguy, Argentina)

These days, any new film by the prolific and provocative Garateguy (“Las Furias,” “Pompeya”), described by Variety as “undisputed Argentine shock-and-awe royalty,” is an event. In many women are oppressed, fight back is savage ways. “Fuckin’g Sexy” looks like no exception. A sex doll, found in a box which falls off a lorry during a robbery, strews carnage in the jungle. 

“The Queen,” (“La Reina,” Jimena Monteoliva, Argentina)

Flor (20), wakes up in a cabin, alongside two other girls, having been abducted. They are presented to J. who tells them he is their King. The story of the “kidnapping, vampirism and redemption of the three “brides” of J.,” the logline runs. The latest project from another Latin American genre icon, director of “Clementina,” “To Kill the Dragon” and “Welcome to Hell” and producer of “She Wolf” and “Kryptonita.” 

“The Trail of the Wolf,” (“El rastro del lobo,” Angeles Hernández, Spain)

A thriller, set in a futuristic dystopia, marking the third feature from Hernández, best known as a producer (2015’s “Vulcania,” 2020’s “The Platform”). She is rapidly consolidating, however, as one of Spain’s foremost female genre auteurs after second feature, “The Lighthouse, ” now in post, and now “Wolf.”

“The Visitors,” (“Los Visitantes,” Lucía Nieto Salazar, Uruguay)

An identity thriller marking the feature debut of Nieto Salazar, a multi-prized short film director, winner of a special mention (“Eanna”) and best short (“Negra”) at the Uruguay Intl. Film Festival.

Blood Window Lab

“Anomic,” “Anomico,” Andrés Beltrán Nossa, Colombia)

A high-concept thriller: A man hire a hitman to kill him but, falling in love, no longer wants to die.  But he can’t find the hitman. The first feature from Beltrán Nossa, 

“Baby’s Flight,” (“El Vuelo del Bebé,” Marcela Matta, Mauro Sarser, Uruguay)

The latest from Matta and Sarser, who turned heads and closed major territories with 2020’s supernatural sex drama “Ghosting Gloria,” sold by FilmSharks, and a follow-up to “Los Modernos.” In “Baby’s Flight,” a baby is thrown out of a window. The film captures the multiple characters who witness or influence its flight. 

“The Braid,” (“La Trenza,” Gonzalo Calzada, Uruguay)

One of the high profile projects at Blood Window, set up at Javier Díaz’s Coruya Cine, producer of Calzada’s “Nocturna” and Fabian Forte’s “Legions” and to be helmed by Calzada himself. A child lives as a prisoner tied by a braid to his twin sister, who died at birth. Discovering that his mother is to carry out witchcraft with them, he determines to escape.

“Carrión,” (Renata Pinheiro, Brazil) 

A woman kidnapped by a gang of outlaws. After a lifetime of suffering, Carniça is killed and makes a pact with an otherworldly entity to seek revenge, leaving a trail of carrion through an arid landscape. A Bifan/NAFF Blood Window Award winner, helmed by Brazil’s Renata Pinheiro, celebrated for “King Car,” and produced by Andre Pereira (“O Rastro”).  

“The Glimpse,” (“El Destello,” Guillermo Carbonell, Uruguay)

From commercials director Carbonell, who took a producer’s credit 0n “The Evil Dead.” Tired of fighting cancer, Inés travels to her family country house to die on her own terms, until unexpected visitors push her in the middle of a supernatural confrontation. And Inés decides to fight.

“Huahuantin,” (Christian Díaz Pardo, Pablo Jofré López. México)

Xochitl, a rebellious young girl, and her friends overcome multiple obstacles to go to a clandestine concert of the pre-Hispanic black metal band Huahuantin – little suspecting the concert’s climax is offering them as a sacrifice to the god Tezcatlipoca, the Black Sun. A Montreal World Film Fest winner for “González, False Prophets,” Mexican-based Chilean Christian Díaz Pardo directs with Pablo Jofré López.

“The Last Witch,” (“La Última Bruja,” Alberto Serra, Panama)

The latest from doc and genre expert Serra, director of 2021 Blood Window laureate “El Sacrificio.” Zoe, whose family has always had magic running through its veins, seeks to avenge the violent death of her mother at the hands of a man known as the hammer of witches. Panama-based Canadian Frysha Boilard  produces.

“Memory of a Mother,” (“Memoria de una madre,” Mauro Iván Ojeda, Argentina.) 

Adopted, Génaro suspects that his new siblings, Nuria and Samuel, suffer from a paranormal siege. Directed by Ojeda, scribe-helmer of “The Funeral Home,” a Fantasia, Sitges and Frightfest title acquired by Shudder – only the second Argentine film in their line-up. Set up at Doménica Films, whose credits include Martin Desalvo’s “Darkness by Day” and “The Hunter’s Silence.”

“Plasma,” (Daniel Aspillaga, Chile)

Produced by Chile’s hu+mano production house, a fiction feature film come body horror mockumentary also presented at Sanfic-Mórbido. A flesh sphere with tentacles gravitates across the sky of Valparaíso, generating in its inhabitants an uncontrollable desire for liberation and well-being and genetic modification, they tell a film crew which records the end of the world. 

“The Secret of Evil,” (“El Secreto del Mal,” David Valencia, Juan Camilo Cuervo. Colombia)

Inheriting the family house she ran away from, Dorca discovers notebooks relating the terrible acts that her family committed to stay in power. The Fantasolab Blood Window Award winner, to de directed by Colombian duo Valencia, a New York Film Academy alum, and Cuervo. Produced by Marco Velez Esquivia at Lynch Anima, director-producer of “Noise” and “Psychosexual.”

“Silence Island,” (“Isla Silencio,” Andrea  Dargenio, Argentina)

Xavier Kardec, a medium, attempts to clean an abandoned mansion in the Paraná River Delta of the ghost of Laura, a lonely, troubled teen. The first feature of Andrea Dargenio, whose first short, “El Agua,” took Argentina’s “Historias Breves” Award. Produced by Dukkah Films, the new shingle hung by Pablo Udenio,  producer of “The Critic” and “Abzurdah” for Disney, both for Disney, and the series “Casa Féliz” for Netflix.

“Unwelcome,” (“Unwelcome,” Carlos Pelayo Gutiérrez Nakatani, Mexico)

The feature debut of Gutiérrez Nakatani, director of shorts “Missing” and “Plants Flowers Market,” selected for the Los Angeles Cine Fest, and “Sabbath” and “No Name,” backed by state agency Imcine. An ageing ad exec retires to care for his son who has terminal cancer. Both are watched and threatened by a stranger. Antonio Urdapilleta (“This Is Not Berlin”) produces.

Spanish Screamings

“Bloody Mary,” (Joseph Díaz, Spain)

Winner of the Sitges FanPitch Blood Window Award, a tale of female empowerment which builds on his short, ”The 6 Relics of Helena Mason.” “Bloody Mary” “shows us that trauma travels through generations until someone is strong enough to take all that pain and heal it,” Diáz told Variety. “The film deals with very primal themes like toxic relationships, gender violence, cults and control and ultimately revenge and like the poster line says: Revenge always needs blood,” he added.

“Celestine,” (“Celestina,” Tina Olivares, Spain)

Billed as a coming of age thriller, Bea discovers that the deaths of her friends follow the plot of “La Celestina,” the medieval novel she reads for a high school assignment. If she does nothing, her death will be next.  A “caring and crafted adaptation that Tina Olivares has made to bring a universal classic of Spanish literature into the modern age, setting it in a high school,” says producer Coque Serrano at Spain’s La Charito Films. Olivares has written for milestones Spanish series such as “Grand Hotel” and hot format “Los Misterios de Laura.”

“Echo,” (“Eco,” Nacho Solana, Spain)

Teen Andrea’s twin sister dies. She thinks it’s murder, given she can hear echoes from her last day, which could tell her who killed her twin, and why. A horror thriller and Solana’s feature debut after eight shorts, including “No hay fantasmas,” which forms part of the narrative universe of “Echo.”

“The Mantise,” (“Las Mantis,” Didac Gimeno, Spain, Argentina) 

From Gimeno, an ECAM alum whose short “The Sleep of the Dogs” played competition at Sitges. After her mother’s death, Aitana spends the summer at her uncle and aunt’s farmhouse, where she meets Lope, an introvert obsessed by ghosts. Produced by Rafael Álvarez (“Canción sin nombre,” “El Arbol Magnético”).

“Zombie Meteor: The Movie,” (Alfonso Fulgencio, José Luis Farías, Spain)

An animated feature splatter fest come disaster movie as a meteor packed by living dead hits the International Space Station. The prequel short bowed at September’s Austin Fantastic Fest. Directed by Farias and Fulgencio, founders of animation producer-event organizer Paramotion Films, behind the Quirino Awards and Weird Market.

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