Eduardo Sánchez Sits Down With Us To Discuss SATANIC HISPANICS Opening In Theaters September 14

By Chris Hammond

Eduardo Sánchez (Director/Writer) is one half of the team that introduced horror fans to a new genre of horror with the found footage cult classic The Blair Witch Project. Since then, the Cuban-born artist has been busy with script, film and television duties. Many have seen his work without even knowing he participated in their creations.

Well, now Sánchez is back with a collaborated anthology creation called SATANIC HISPANICS. This film is an anthology of 5 short films from some of the leading Latin filmmakers in the horror genre, spotlighting Hispanic talent both in front and behind the camera.

We had the chance to find out more about his involvement with the film and specifically more about the story he directs called “EL VAMPIRO”

Eduardo Sánchez explains that through his friendship with Alejandro Brugués and Mike Mendez, who came up with the concept for a Latino horror anthology film.

“I’m friends with Alejandro Brugués who’s one of the producers and Mike Mendez, and they came up with this concept of Latino anthology and I was like, yeah that sounds cool you know. Then they told me the name and I was like I’m in like 100%. So a lot of times when you do these anthologies (actually most of the time they do give you a certain amount of freedom and they were like, look you can do whatever you want. It can be horror or horror comedy or it can be whatever it is”.

“They just wanted me as a Latino to be a director and they wanted to try and get as many Latino actors and just kind of you know, it wasn’t like something like we were going to go exclusively with Latinos, but we wanted to properly represent our culture and heritage”.

“Also, the name of the movie Satanic Hispanics really just excited me, it’s the kind of movie I’d want to see. It has all this promise of just craziness and just things from all over the place. I was like what am I going to bring to this luckily this idea came across my desk and all the pieces fell into place”.


The full audio version of the answer can be heard below

Sánchez’s segment in the film is called EL VAMPIRO and it leans very heavily on the comedy side of things with of course gratuitous violence and lots of blood. Sánchez lets us know why he decided to go the comedy route instead of just straightforward horror.

“I was going to do something a little more serious, a little more psychological and kind of creepier and I had something. I knew I wanted to work with Hemky Madera, him and I have been friends since Queen of South and we were talking about doing something and so I was like, what can I do with Hemky like something serious, something cool“.
“A writer Adam Sasar sent me a bunch of ideas and this was one of his ideas and Hemky would kill in this. I knew Hemky was a very serious, has done a lot of serious roles, but I also know that from being with him, hanging out with him that he’s a funny guy and always goofing around. On set there’s always levity coming from Hemky. So I sent him the idea and was like hey, do you want to do this and he was like I’m in”


The full audio version of the answer can be heard below

Horror comedies have been around for decades, all the way back to when Abbott and Costello meet Frankestein, which also sparked a handful of other films where the duo meet more Universal monsters. Eduardo Sánchez gives his thoughts on why the two genres go together so well. Sánchez also talks about how SATANIC HISPANICS mixes genres and how the movie may not have the biggest budget, but it’s here to give fans a fun and scary film.

“It’s my favourite sub-genre, like Evil Dead 2 kind of like just blew my brain open. I guess because real horror is like really scary and uncomfortable you know what I mean. I think that, at least for me is a way to do a vampire movie, but not be so dark. Horror is so dark so much of the time because that’s what it’s about. Having the ability to make a horror movie and make it gory and it’s a vampire and it’s this and that and there’s deaths and dicapitations and arms being ripped off, but at the same time you’re doing it in a light-hearted way if you can pull it off”.

“It’s just a cool thing and for me it’s something I never get to do. I work in television mostly, I do a lot of dramas and a lot of horror stuff. I don’t get to do any comedy really, or any straight comedy, so any time I get a chance to do it I try and get in there and do it. I think this one (El Vampiro segment) was like the idea just kind of came up at the right and the right time and the opportunity came in and we kind of connected all the dots and we were able to make the film”.

“We wanted to show the different flavours of all the filmmakers and again we didn’t want it to be too dark, we didn’t want it to be all comedy, we wanted it to be a nice mixture and luckily it just worked out. Sometimes your like how did you guys plan all the movies and make them mix so well, a lot of it is you just have to trust the filmmakers and I think Alejando and Mike really let us do whatever we wanted and were like we’ll figure it out once we start getting the script sent in. They did a really clever job of connecting all the films. For the budget and the kind of b-movies we’re emulating, it’s really fun”.

The full audio version of the answer can be heard below

SATANIC HISPANICS OPENS IN THEATERS SEPTEMBER 14