#MacabroXVII: Press Conference for Expira

Come meet the cast and see the first images from the film Expira. We'll be joined by director Leopoldo Laborde and actors Gabriela Carrillo, Mario Zaragoza, Enrique Arrizon, Aline Marrero, Paul Act, Eduardo Longoria.

5:00 p.m. Casa Refugio Citlaltépetl, Citlaltépetl 23, Col. Hipódromo

“Expira”: the animality that kills you.

The opportunity arose to make a commercial horror film. But there's nothing more artistically terrifying than exactly that: “commercial horror”: cheap scares, obvious storylines; predictable characters, situations, and images —angry devils or ghosts, thugs who repent in the third act, possessed people who always roll their tongues and say the same thing, unimaginative gore, badly done nudity, dizzying plot twists... But why bother: horror is the genre I most love to shoot. Horror is the most creative style in terms of filmmaking resources: your whole canvas is ready for visual and narrative shades of gray, performances pushed to the edge, clever setups for staging, sharp angles, suffocating atmospheres, deranged sound design, multichromatic editing...

Going down that road, the production suggested a slasher. And, holy shit. What ethics would let me shoot a slasher movie in a country where femicides are an everyday occurrence and a reality that's more tangible, palpable, and irrefutable? Because the slasher, by tradition, is a genre of violence against women. Even though it's evolved today, the slasher has very clear rules: “Psycho”, Mario Bava, and Darío Argento never questioned who most of the victims should be: women. The only thing I could then think of was to write a parody of the genre. But Trujillo, the producer, was smarter: “do it for real. Do it right”. The harder the challenge, you have two options: you cave, or you do it. And I couldn't turn down the offer to shoot a horror film that was a slasher. After all, that's what rules are for: to break them; that's what genres are for: to reinvent them.

- Leopoldo Laborde

EXPIRA is an upcoming Mexican film, directed by Leopoldo Laborde and produced by Roberto Trujillo.

Production Company: UTOPÍA 7 FILMS, OLYMPUSAT, LR FILMS. Director: Leopoldo Laborde. Screenplay: Leopoldo Laborde. Cinematography: Luis Ramos. Music: Leopoldo Laborde. Producers: Roberto Trujillo, Gustavo Laborde Executive Producer: Yeshua Castillo, Roberto Trujillo. Co-Producer: Luis Ramos. Associate Producers: Manuel Saldivar, Arturo Tay. Cast: Gabriela Carrillo, Mario Zaragoza, Enrique Arrizon, Aline Marrero, Paul Act, Eduardo Longoria. Genre: Horror, drama, thriller. Format: 6K / Color. Approximate running time: 100 minutes. Locations: Mexico City Status: In production