Between 1988 and 1990, in the Tuesday television slot at 10 p.m., a generation of viewers knew what awaited the next half hour of programming. It was an afterlife space with all kinds of stories about the paranormal, suspense, the fantastic and even stories with science fiction elements. It was the block of The marked timea program made in Mexico that explored the horror genre in around 100 chapters, each self-contained, and that represented a different and innovative approach to this type of productions for the time.
The series, which allowed young and unknown people at the time Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and Emmanuel The goat Lubezki, forging his first weapons in the audiovisual industry, returns 35 years later, in a new anthological incarnation of Mexican horror to give a runway to new talents and try to captivate and scare a new generation.
This new season, of nine episodes, tells stories with elements such as a possessed hand, a reinterpretation of the story The dissected hand (1883), by Guy Maupassant, who, in the series, narrates the misfortune of a man named Maupassant who arrives at the Hospital de Jesús, in the Historic Center of Mexico City, after cutting off his own limb, convinced that it wants to kill him . Boris Schoemann, protagonist of this episode, says that the script and direction by Michelle Garza and Abia Castillo, in charge of the horror of Bone holdergives a “cool tone” to this new adaptation of the classic story.
“I was always very attracted to that suspenseful, gloomy tone that the author has. [Maupassant]. It is still valid and gloomily attractive. Abbia and Michel gave it a humorous touch, which also seems essential to me, that there are breaths within this suspense because it is also what softens you and then gives you the dramatic blow,” says the actor.
Gigi Saul Guerrero was in charge of the episode The visit, the story of Clara, a young orphan who arrives at a convent run by Mother Aurelia, a woman who performs miraculous cures. As she seeks to adapt to the strange place, she will realize that a sinister truth is hidden behind Aurelia’s powers. The filmmaker, despite having an extensive filmography in the horror genre—which includes chapters in The purge and in another popular horror anthology as the new installment of the franchise V/H/S—admits that growing up in a Catholic home he was “completely prohibited” from any film of the genre. Despite this limitation growing up, the actress also has a film background that, on this occasion, allowed her to capture the vision she wanted for her episode.
“There were three films that inspired me a lot. One was the remake 2018 Suspiria. I found it to be a visually beautiful and at the same time disturbing film. The second is one from Netflix, called Apostle and the third is another movie called The Black Coat’s Daughter. The example and challenge of those three was to maintain suspense with only the visual and that all the surroundings of the former Desierto de los Leones Convent generate mystery,” explains the filmmaker.
The series could not forget an iconic character from its beginnings, such as The Lady in Black, an enigmatic specter, present in each episode, who foreshadowed the inevitable destiny of its protagonists. 100 chapters later, one of the hallmarks of The marked time returns, this time played by Venezuelan actress Hilda Abrahamz, 63, who despite having previously participated in suspense productions, this is her first foray into the horror genre.
“It is a cult series that has been well known for a long time among the Spanish-speaking audience. I think it’s a great idea that it is now being done in a new version with the fresh vision of young people, with another idea of what things mean. “I think there is a balance in this first new compendium, which can capture those who remember the series, a new audience, as well as experienced talent and the fresh air of new creators,” says the actress.
Other chapters and creators included in the series are Fleeting reflectionsby the Colombian Andrés Beltrán; Smogby Lex Ortega and The dance of timeby Isaac Ezbán, a disciple of Guillermo del Toro, who is reinventing Mexican science fiction cinema and, in 2022, his fourth feature The evil eye It was the third highest-grossing film of 2022.
The return of The marked time There is a time in which horror productions are in good health, especially among the Mexican public, which holds first place as a consumer of horror films, followed by South Korea, Russia and the United States, according to a study carried out by he Stephen Follows, films data and education. Last year, for example, The son of the devil, Ladder to hell, Beast, The black phone and Nope!,cFive horror films ruled the movie billboards in Mexico during the month of August.
Horror anthologies, in short format, have not been the exception this year, prolific in different formats and versions, like the one that Guillermo del Toro himself presented this year with his Cabinet of curiosities; or Mike Flanagan, with his adaptation of the miniseries The Fall of the House of Usheran adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name.
The Argentine director Adrián García Bogliano was in charge of the episode The first gift, about a young couple, Lucas and Manu, who await the arrival of their baby in an old apartment inherited from their grandmother. As the birth approaches, Manu will realize that there is a presence in the building that is waiting for her baby as much or more than she is.
The also director of the Mexican film The exorcistsays that he was influenced and inspired by works such as Rosemary’s baby (1968), Repulsion (1965) and The tenant (1976), all three by Roman Polanski. “I came from making some more commercial and big films with some limitations in terms of personal matters. In The marked time They gave us a lot of freedom to explore certain things, to dive a little deeper and do something that was a little more uncomfortable with certain things that work a little on the viewer’s psyche, but not with very specific scares, which weigh on you. the narrative and it becomes more distressing. That was a little like the idea and how to do this in 30 minutes, it was a little like the challenge,” adds the director.
In that sense, Bogliano values the possibilities of creation in a short format like that of his participation in the Mexican anthology. “The theme of telling this scary little story is that it scares you. The truth is that it is a beautiful opportunity and yes, it seems to me that, well, it had been a long time coming to have a national product for all the terror that has occurred in Mexico in recent years. In this resurgence of the genre, in recent years, what better than The marked time”, concludes the director.
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