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Adrian G de la Peña is a Mexican-born Canadian filmmaker with over 13 years of experience, specializing in horror and genre-related content. In this interview, Adrian discusses his passion for horror, inspired by his high school tradition of “Pizzagore Sundays” and the impact of George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead. He also shares insights into his production company, Machakiller Productions, and its mission to create marketable, diverse content. Adrian delves into his upcoming project Naualli, a revenge-thriller, creature-feature rooted in Meso-American mythology, and reflects on his experience at the Blood in the Snow Film Festival Horror Development Lab. Additionally, he talks about Little Fangs Horror Club, a dramedy about a teacher using horror movies in his curriculum, and The Gateway, a docu-series exploring the benefits of horror movies and culture. Take a look at some of Adrian’s work here.
Adrian offers valuable advice for emerging filmmakers, emphasizing the importance of patience, self-investment, and the business side of filmmaking. He also expresses his eagerness to explore new genres, including comedy and romance, while maintaining a focus on genre-focused storytelling through Machakiller Productions.
What initially drew you to the horror and genre-related content? Were there any specific films or experiences that sparked your interest in this niche?
It was during high school when the cousin of a friend arrived with a VHS bootleg gory movie, that movie was Day of The Dead by George A. Romero, and as soon as we gathered on that weekend to drink beers, eat pizza and watch gore, a new tradition started: “Pizzagore Sundays”. It became “our” thing, we would try and find all the gore and zombie movies that we could, and every weekend I looked forward to gather around with friends to relax, drink beer, eat pizza and watch a gory movie. I loved the absurdity of those movies, it was campy, fun, and grotesque, but I guess too that during high school, those are your formative years, the period of time that you find your identity and horror movies became mine, Initially I wanted to do special effects but failed miserably at my first attempts so little by little it drew me to filmmaking.
What motivated you to establish Machakiller Productions, and what are some of the core values and goals of your production company?
After being part of Toronto’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival Horror Development Lab in 2022, I found inspiration in other filmmakers that have started their companies and were developing their own movies, so I decided to start my own venture in order to push the content that I wanted to make. One of the main objectives with Machakiller is to bring high-concept genre projects to life, these will have a great potential for marketability and finding an audience, yet, another important focus is to add diversity whether it is in front or behind the camera and foster new talents by mentoring and sharing my experiences when possible.
Can you delve into the premise of your upcoming project “Naualli”? How did the lore and mythology of the Meso-American Nahuales inspire this revenge-thriller/creature feature?
Naualli is the story of a Mexican immigrant man who after being abused, discovers ancient Pre-Hispanic Nahual abilities, triggering the vengeful response of the late aggressor’s father.
More than just being a “monster movie” I wanted to portray a kind and protective entity, this movie is about the healing process, and how the characters will deal with and overcome their trauma, so the Nagual serves as a great tool to represent our recovery process and overcoming these obstacles. This resource is used in many movies of course, and that is also why I love genre movies, you can communicate deeper themes and topics with an entertaining lens.
On the other side, being an immigrant and consuming content outside of Mexico, sometimes producers fail to portray communities or cultural nuances in a genuine way, you can tell they are just “borrowing” elements and telling the same ghost or monster stories with a lack of POV. So in this case I wanted to bring a cryptid from Meso-America, and bridge that gap to bring this story to an international audience.
What were some of the key takeaways from participating in the development lab at the Blood in the Snow Film Festival for “Naualli”?
Being part of the lab was the first time I ever pitched to an audience, so in a sense it kickstarted this new “phase” in my career, one where I am taking more active steps towards pushing my own projects, investing in myself and taking the business side of film more seriously. On the other hand, being surrounded by like-minded creatives, developing their own content is inspiring as I mentioned before, but the main thing I could take away from it is that you really feel and see it is possible to make it work, and make a living out of filmmaking, and horror.
Second take away is to look at the importance of the business side of film, to take things seriously and invest in yourself and invest in your projects, to not wait for some “Magical intervention” to make things happen for you.
“Little Fangs Horror Story” sounds unique and intriguing. What inspired you to create a dramedy about a Junior High School teacher using horror movies in his curriculum?
It all started with the documentary series I am developing as well, when chatting with a friend he suggested “why don’t you turn that somehow into a scripted project” and from there it sort of clicked, I fell in love with the idea and all the possibilities for a movie, It is loosely based on me, there are so many things from my life that I am adding into the movie, I am an instructor at a university, I am a horror fan and I am developing a documentary on the benefits of horror, so thinking on an alternate version of myself that puts that to the test with junior high kids sounded hilarious because of course there are good ways to use horror but also there are ways that it can be traumatizing and movies that are not good for specific age groups. It is my take on the sub-genre of “unconventional teaching methods”
Can you elaborate on “The Gateway” docu-series and what you hope to achieve by exploring the benefits of horror movies and culture through this project?
Horror has been in my life for a while now, and as I grow older, I see things with a more mature lens, that took me to think of the horror genre in a deeper way, which led to think of its benefits.
Little by little you start discovering that other people think the same way, and they are doing academic studies on it or conducting experiments to prove it, so I love that we can even share that with an audience.
Yes horror movies are entertainment, and sometimes cheap, sometimes exploitative, but there are many more layers to it, and that is the point of this documentary, to hopefully change the perception some people have against the horror genre, and for fans to know more on why we like it and its impact.
What advice would you give to emerging filmmakers seeking funding and support for their projects?
The first piece of advice is to be patient, a project takes lots of time and effort and I remember when I was starting how I felt things would take no time, especially because you are used to “making a short film over the summer” but as projects become bigger and you require more budget and resources, then its a longer, steeper road.
Second is that you must invest in yourself, and your projects, and disregarding talent, this is a big differentiator between filmmakers. Seeing it as a metaphor, I started to realize that there is this huge obstacle that once you are on the other side, things start to happen, this obstacle is literally a combination of things: Having a strong portfolio, a strong network and connections, build knowledge on the industry, spending money in being present in conferences, events, and festivals, and investing in yourself like education. All of these will have their own obstacles, and of course, it takes a long time to tackle them all.
On the other hand, something that I tell my students is to kill our own egos, which is something we will struggle with at all levels of experience. Being a good listener, accepting being challenged on our ideas, to not get offended by feedback, and to always know that there are people who are better than us, and people who are less experienced than us, so we can learn from one and help the other.
Are there any particular genres or types of stories you haven’t explored yet but are eager to tackle in the future?
Of course, with Machakiller I say we are a genre-focused company, this could also include comedy, sci-fi, and even romance movies.
With comedy in particular, I love watching them(when they are good of course), it is a very undervalued genre, and exactly as with horror, it is very difficult to make a good and effective one, and they both rely on rhythm and delivery of the funny moments, or the scary ones, yet, there is a big audience for both, which makes a good business strategy too.
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Thank you for reading! You can learn more about Adrian G de la Peña here and Machakiller Productions here.
