We are excited to have two exclusive images from Isaac Ezban's upcoming coming-of-age horror flick, Parvulos, to share with you this morning.
The header image was released by Fantasia International Film Fesitval when they announced that they would be hosting the World Premiere of Ezban's fifth film. The other two, sent to us by Ezban, can be found in the gallery below.
While the plot has been kept under wraps Ezban has confirmed it is a coming-of-age horror story involving three young brothers living in a cabin in the middle of the woods that hide a very dark secret in their basement. He suggested we speculate about what we're looking at in these combined images.
The first image that Fantasia released with their announcement has the three brothers looking over a bloodied belly. They are in the kitchen of the house. Huh. I say that because you can see in the second exclusive image - the one of the brothers staring at three bodies hanging from a tree outside the house - that the older brother is missing one of his legs. Huh. The second image is of the brothers, a point of view shot from someone they have caught on the property, perhaps.
Pure speculation at the moment, but that is partly based on three films that Ezban mentioned to us which were inspirations when coming up for the story of Parvulos. We're not going to share those with you at the moment, because it's best to leave everyone else without any misinterpretations before watching the flick. But, the dark coming-of-age stories from an author like Stephen King and a filmmaker like Guillermo Del Toro, served as influences on this story. So there's that, but we all know that Del Toro is imprinted on the soul of every Mexican filmmaker from birth, right?
Ezban directed from a screenplay written by themselves and Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes. Ezban prodcued through their own Red Elephant Films shingle and were joined by Maligno Gorehouse, the producers of Michelle Garza Cervera's Huesera.
Parvulos stars Felix Farid, Leonardo Cervantes, Mateo Ortega, Horacio Lazo, Norma Flores, Noé Hernández, and Carla Adell.
By the way, Parvulos en Ingles means Toddlers? Interesting.
Director Isaac Ezban´s statement:“Parvulos is a very personal project for me and one I have been developing for many years now, almost seven years (I´ve been trying to make this movie since 2016), so it is truly a dream come true to finally be releasing the film to the world at Fantasia, a festival I keep very close to my heart for many reasons -it was where my third film and first English spoken film PARALLEL had its North Amercan premiere and I loved the audience over there, I´ve been dreaming to be back since.It is a personal film for many reasons. First of all, I´ve always loved to use movies to explore the coming-of-age stage, something we have all experienced and we can all relate to very well, and something I have talked to in some of my movies before (and even in my earlier short films…), and I´ve always believed horror and coming-of-age blend very well, as these stories are usually a great metaphor to what growing up and discovering (what) another world means.My last film MAL DE OJO was a very feminine and female driven coming-of-age, so its exciting to now be making PARVULOS (a very masculine coming-of-age) as the kind of counterpart to that movie. In a way, it started being personal because it’s a coming-of-age story (and don´t we all relate to those?) about 3 brothers (just like myself and my brothers), but it is also in a way a film about parenting, and children, so it became even more personal when I became a father, and then I realized it was also the counterpart to my previous film MAL DE OJO, but the way I see it now, this is a story about family, about a different family, and about trying to save a family, something I can personally relate to, at this point in my life.So this was one of those movies that kept evolving with me as my life also evolved and took a different meaning. Those are always the most interesting projects! As always with my films, I like to use the fantastical element to reflect on something human and real, so this is what I´m reflecting on now: family. Also, I believe all great filmmakers have their story about the end of the world, and I really wanted to make mine (the same).It is an honor to finally be bringing this story to life with such an incredible cast and the great team from Red Elephant Films and Maligno Gorehouse, who truly trust and value my vision and have been incredible allies. This is it, this is my film about the end of the world. This is my story about trying to save a family, and it premieres at Fantasia, this Summer!!!!”