WEBVTT
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Hey goolfriends, it's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
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am still your host, and you are still listening to Susto,
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the podcast of ooky, spooky scary stories centered on Latin
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American Hispanic cultures. Ghoul friends, thank you so much for
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being here. Not only are you listening, but if you
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are a Patreon subscriber, then you can also be watching this.
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I'm doing this two ways. This time. I am making
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this video, this episode accessible to anyone who is a
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paid Patreon subscriber, regardless of which tier you are on.
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But best gool friends are still only getting the bonus
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content for this episode. It's just something I'm trying out.
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I don't know if it'll stick. We'll see what happens.
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I'll see what the feedback is. Let me know what
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you think. But if you are not a Patreon subscriber,
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then you are listening to this episode coming to you
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from the other side, all the way onto your podcast platform.
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Thank you for being here. Long story short, I really
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appreciate it. Let me tell you all really quick. I
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don't have that many updates. All I'm going to say
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is that this month as expected, and I will always
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say I appreciate it. I welcome it, I encourage it,
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I want more of it. But I am that video
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of Gaga going bus club, plane Club, another club, No Sleep.
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That's literally me this month, and I am so excited
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about it. I am very tired, but I'm very excited.
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And so again, if you have not seen that post
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on social media, I'm going to post another one, probably
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after recording this, so the day before it comes out
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you'll see it. When you see it, you'll know that
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that was tonight. Anyway, with all of my events, and
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I'm going to put all the flyers in there as well,
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with all of the details. I'm so excited to be
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doing all of these events. I'm so excited to see
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all of you there. If you have any questions about them,
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please do not hesitate to reach out to me. And
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I hope that you've been having a wonderful spooky season
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so far. I know we're still in the first beginnings
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of this month, but I feel like once it gets kicking,
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it's gonna go by fast. So anyway, I hope you
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all are having a good time. Let me know what
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you're dressing up as for Halloween. I'm just so happy
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it's October and everyone's finally on the same page. If
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you don't have plans and if it's between one of
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my events. I also posted the Susto's thirty one Nights
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of Frights on all social media, so let me know
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what you think of that as well. Feel free to
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toss in what movies you would have had on there
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and let me know if you're going to watch any
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of those this month. Okay, I know I said not
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too many updates, so we will keep it short house
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keeping kinds of things. The easiest way to support SUSTO
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is by engaging with the show wherever youwhere listening, so
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that means leaving five star ratings and reviews, by leaving comments,
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by sending me your stories for a letter from the
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Beyond episode you already know how to do that social
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media DMS, email, the website, putting tears of a fairy
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in a crystal glass it has to be crystal, and
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then swirling it three times clockwise and four times counterclockwise
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and throwing it over your shoulder while saying your story,
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I will hear it in my sleep. With all of
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that being said, we have another special guest this episode.
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I'm very excited to speak to this person. I'm very
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excited for you to hear from this person. They will
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be introducing themselves once more in a minute here, but
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without further ado, please welcome screenwriter and film director Miguel Martinez. Hello, girlfriend,
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and today we have a very special guest all the
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way from the world of film and creation, Miguel Martinez,
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writer and director of Litusa. Thank you so much for
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being here with us.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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So I want to get right into it for those
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of you who have not heard or seen, and I will,
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of course let Miguel let you explain a bit more
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about it. Miguel, you wrote a short horror film called Litusa.
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Before we dive into that, can you tell us a
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little bit more about who you are and the work
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that you do.
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Sure. My name is Miguel Martinez. I'm a filmmaker who
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loves horror movies, and so that's kind of what I
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lean towards. I first was a screenwriter, and then I decided, hey,
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I want to get some of these things actually made,
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and right now, nobody's making anything really, so I want
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to be the one to do it. So I started
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leaning more into filmmaking, learning more about that. Most of
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the schooling I did and most of the things that
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I looked into was filming when it was screenwriting, and
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so I kind of had to start on the ground
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up a little bit with with filmmaking and stuff like that.
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When I was in college, I worked a bit on
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some of Robert Rodriguez's film company, like so that was
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really fun. I worked on the From So Down TV show,
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So that's kind of how I got my start in
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the industry a little bit. But yeah, like I'm I'm
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pretty easy to get along with, I think, and I
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have a lot of different avenues that I don't put
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all of my eggs in one basket. I write comics,
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I have some books that I self distributed, and I'm
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actually publishing a poetry book at the end of the year.
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So that's something I'll look forward to you stuff like that.
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That's so exciting. I love that you mentioned the idea
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of like you kind of weren't seeing enough of the
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work done or in a way that you would do it,
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and so you just kind of said I'll do it myself.
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In several interviews, I've had people ask me about my
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start with Susto and how that happened, and I had
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pretty much the same answer was I was looking for
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this kind of content and I had a clear vision
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of what I wanted it to be like, and I
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couldn't find it, so I said, I'll do it myself.
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So I very much understand that, and I love that
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kind of like drive and passion for something to kind
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of just build something from the ground up.
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Right, definite.
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What initially drew you to filmmaking or I guess, like
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you said, to screenwriting.
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Yeah, I've always been. I've always been into film, and
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but I think it was only specifically when I started
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getting in the horror that I was like, Oh, this
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is something that I want to do, and this is
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something I feel I can do, and and like when
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when I was younger, I obviously loved movies, and I
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loved animated movies, and I love The Lion King and
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all that stuff. But I saw this poster once when
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I was young, and it was a poster to the
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Nightmare on Elm Street, and it was the post you
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see everywhere where where it's like like Freddy at the
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painting of Freddy, like above the bed and yeah, like
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that that whole thing. And I was like what is this?
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And I wanted to watch it, but for some reason,
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my parents weren't always like this. But for some reason,
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my mom was like, no, you can't watch that movie.
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And I was like, I was like, what do you mean?
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Like I think she saw Freddy's like his face burned
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face somewhere and she's like no, and so she's like,
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you can't watch it, and I was I could watch.
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I've watched. I watched like a bunch of horror, I
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watched like the Thing. But for some reason, that was
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the one movie that my mom was like, you can't
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watch it. So I went. I was very I was
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like eight, I think I went to school and my
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friend was like, oh, I don't have the DVD, but
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I have this, and it was the soundtrack to the
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movie Oh wow. And he gave it to you, like
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lent it to me, and I like took it home
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and I put it in my little CD player and
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I like hid in the corner at like at night,
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like listening to the soundtrack to Nightmare on Elm Street,
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which like when you're in imagining what the movie would
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be like, which I think is infinitely worse than what
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the movie is actually like. But I was so like
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enamored with this this like other worldly thing, and I
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finally saw the movie and I loved it, and I
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think it's it's it's a perfect movie. The first time
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my own Stree movie is a perfect horror movie. And
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then after that I just sort of kept being enamored
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and amored. But it was always the sort of like
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thing in the distance. It was always this like thing
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to admire from a distance, and like like movies like
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Spielberg movies are like perfectly chiseled Greek statues, and like
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horror movies are like this really really other like spiritual
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thing that you experienced. For me, I think it was
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only when I went to go watch Pans Labyrinth with
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my dad after my grandmother had passed away, and it
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was like the first thing we did like the day after,
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and it was it was I watched it and when
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it ended, I for some reason, maybe it was just
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old enough to have this stop, but I had the
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thought of, oh, somebody made this movie and they had
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a great time doing it, and this is like somebody's job.
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Somebody made this And it was the first time that
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I registered that as like a like a child. Yeah,
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And so I think since that moment on I was like, Oh,
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I want to do that, whatever that is, I want
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to do it.
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Oh my god, that's so cool. I think that's such
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a really cool, I guess moment to have that realization
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like this is not only something that people do like
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obviously for the love of it, but it's a it's
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a career path for many people. Yeah, that's really cool.
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It pans Labyrinth is also. That's actually it's it's on
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my I just posted that today. It's on my thirty
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one Nights of Fright Susto movie guide for or the
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month of October, because that one. I mean, it's one
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of those where I could I can rewatch it like
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countless times, and it's just it's such a like, I mean,
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of course, like how could you not write that's a great,
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great film, great choice for inspiration for sure. So speaking
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of great films, can you tell us about your new
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horror short LOTUSA.
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Yeah, well, the Choosa is a proof of concept short,
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meaning I have the future film, and I wrote the
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future film, and then I had producers who were like, hey,
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maybe you should turn this into a short and you
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can kind of prove that you can make this and
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prove that you can make it for cheap and prove
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that you can like like have like the visual knowledge
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of the visual language to tell this story. And so
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it went through a lot of iterations. But first I'm
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just gonna say that, So Lituosa is a folk tale
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from Latin America. It takes on a whole lot of
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different forms about different things. But my story is about
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these this group of sisters on the night of their
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mother's funeral, so it's after their mother it passed away,
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and one of the sisters gathers the others to try
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to resurrect their matriarch, and the Lachisa punishes them for
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their abuse of magic essentially, and that that's sort of
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the context that I wanted to say to take this.
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In the latusa from Latin American folklore, she she does
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a lot of things, but her sort of origin is
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that she was unjustly punished for using for being a witch.
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And and then so as she was burning, essentially, she
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made a deal with the devil to come back for revenge,
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and the devil returned her as this owl creature, this
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like half a woman, half owl creature, and which is
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something that I never saw again. With that thing of
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like it's missing. And every time you talk about like
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like Latino folklore, everyone talks about Loonona and I love Laonona,
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but but this was always was always like a thing
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that I was like, yeah, but there's this and there's
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this thing that my my dad told me the story
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about he lives, he lived on a ranch and that
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they saw this thing, and nobody ever knew what I
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was talking about. So I wanted to sort of try
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to bring it into like the visual medium and specifically
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have it in English too, which would would be nice.
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But yeah, yeah, I mean I can see that too,
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how like in a moment like that and the sisters
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in Litusa after losing their mother, I can see how
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that would be a moment of desperation for someone and
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the idea of doing anything, you know, to to have
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her back, to have a lost love one return to you,
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and so and and again I've I've told the story
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of Litusas and they're like with so many of these stories, right,
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there are so many different versions of it, and so
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there's definitely the I think one of them more popular,
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like the I guess quote accepted version is the story
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of a witch who was unjustly or or wrongly executed
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for practicing buhidiya, and then other people believe that any
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or not any. But there are multiple latusas out there.
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So there are witches who can transform into owls and
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they are known they are latusa's. It's a type of witch, right,
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So I guess with the idea of that of desperation
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wanting to bring back a loved one and the use