Who will be the next José Mojica Marins?
Panos Cosmatos
Panos Cosmatos has only directed two features and he’s batting a thousand. He wrote and directed Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) in which Eva Bourne plays a woman with psychic powers held in an institution and monitored by Michael J. Rogers. Elena fights a battle of wills against the slowly disintegrating Rogers. No summary can fully prepare you for this magnificently weird story.
Bourne appeared in episodes of the tv shows Falling Skies, Once Upon a Time, Devil in Ohio, and the Battlestar Galactica reboot spinoff Caprica. Hard-working Rogers has appeared in a few episodes of a ton of tv shows. Genre-wise they include The X-Files, The Dead Zone, Dead Like Me, Bates Motel, Supernatural. Movie-wise his credits include Children of the Corn: Revelation (2001), Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002), the V is for Vagitus segment of The ABCs of Death (2012), and this curiosity from director Jim Wynorski, The Thing Below (2004).
Cosmatos followed Beyond with the incredible and well-loved revenge flick Mandy (2018), starring Nicolas Cage in the weird and beautiful stage of his career. He plays husband to Mandy played by Andrea Riseborough who you can catch in Possessor(2020). Mandy is a victim of a cult led by Jeremiah Sand played by Linus Roache. Roache’s work here is a very original stand-out performance in a movie of stand-out performances, adding a dimension to the bad guy we rarely see, but what would you expect from an actor working for fifty years. So many more great performances from the cult members, the demon biker thugs, and the disposable-razor guy from Predator, Bill Duke, who plays Cage’s buddy.
Cosmatos also directed The Viewing, an episode of the spectacular anthology tv show Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. The story is about four people, professionals in their various fields, invited by a wealthy man to inspect a meteor. All kinds of weird things ensue, as they typically do in a work by Panos Cosmatos. Mandy and the Viewing were written by Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn who wrote The Witcher: Blood Origin tv series, and directed some music videos.
Recent news revealed Cosmatos will be directing Elizabeth Olsen, Kristen Stewart, and Oscar Isaac in a vampire flick “set in 1980s Los Angeles” — Flesh of the Gods. Cosmatos co-wrote the script with Andrew Kevin Walker who wrote the screenplay for David Fincher’s The Killer (2023).
But man, what else has Walker written? The Well-Cooked Hams episode of Tales from the Crypt, Brainscan (1994), some obscure flick called Se7en (1995), 8mm (1999), and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999). These are just the highlights. Cosmatos and Walker. I hope this combo works for Flesh of the Gods, and I hope we see them work together again. Cosmatos is in the big time now. Anybody else notice we are getting a lot more period horror? All of Cosmatos’ narratives are period pieces.
Owen Egerton
Another horror movie is in the works from filmmaker and fiction author, Owen Egerton. He wrote The Axe Murders of Villisca (2016) about three teenagers entering the house where a true and unsolved crime took place nearly a hundred years before, directed by Tony E. Valenzuela.
Egerton wrote and directed Follow (2015), Blood Fest (2018), and Mercy Black (2019). Follow is a nice and weird “spiral-into-madness” horror movie. Noah Segan plays the lead. He started out as a child actor and never stopped, appearing in tv shows and movies including Brick (2002), the fun Natasha Lyonne-helmed All About Evil (2010), Starry Eyes (2014), The Weak and the Wicked segment of Tales of Halloween (2015), and the M.I.S.T.E.R. segment of Scare Package (2019) which he directed. Segan also wrote and directed Blood Relatives (2022) about a man who discovers he has a daughter, and they’re vampires.
Olivia Grace Applegate stars in Follow as well as Egerton’s Blood Fest. She also appeared in the Sleep Study episode of Bite Size Halloween (2022) and the dating-app-gone-wrong movie Succubus (2024). Applegate is also a writer, producer, and director.
Mercy Black (2019) is about a girl who helped create a local urban legend that comes back to haunt her as an adult. Egerton was an Austinite at the time and used actors who have worked with Austin-centric directors Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater. The movie stars Daniella Pineda, Austin Amelio, Elle LaMont, Lee Eddy, and Janeane Garofalo (!).
Pineda appeared in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), an episode of The Vampire Diaries, and the upcoming The Accountant 2 (2025). Amelio appeared in Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) and Hit Man (2023). LaMont is a Rodriguez regular, appearing in Spy Kids 4 (2011), Machete Kills (2013), From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, and Alita: Battle Angel (2019).
Eddy appeared in I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017), The Pizzagate Massacre (2020), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and The Toxic Avenger remake which was filmed in 2023 and finally coming out this September. Garofalo needs no reminder who she is. She is no stranger to the types of films we discuss on Roundup, including The Minus Man (1999), Mystery Men (1999) an episode of Ugly Americans (2012),–if you follow any link here follow that one–and she appeared in something called Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space(2017). I’m not sure what’s going on in that trailer, but I am warily anticipatory.
Egerton’s Blood Fest (2018) is a horror-con-gone-wrong movie which needs to be a bigger sub-genre. It stars Robbie Kay, Seychelle Gabriel, and Jacob Batalon. Kay had a bit part in Hannibal Rising (2007), and regular parts in the Once Upon a Time tv show. Kay and Gabriel were in the Sleepy Hollow (2017) tv series, and Gabriel had a regular role in the Falling Skies tv show. Batalon was a regular in the Tom Holland Spiderman movies and plays the lead in the tv show Reginald the Vampire.
I can’t leave out Chris Doubek. He was in one of my favorite Pandemic finds, Bacurau(2019), starring Sônia Braga and Udo Kier, about a small town that rises up against its adversaries, which is a terrible summary for a weird movie that is truly indescribable in a short word count.
Coming up next for Egerton is Whistle, written by Egerton, based on his published short story of the same name, and directed by Corin Hardy who directed The Hallow (2015) about a family fighting demons and The Nun (2018).
Rodrigo Aragão
Rodrigo Aragão is why I started Director Roundup here at Psycho Drive-In. A horror director with a competent filmography that nobody seems to be talking about. I discovered his work a few years ago when Mar Negro/Dark Sea (2013) hit streaming and I felt like I found gold in them there hills.
Mar Negro, which he wrote and directed, is quite possibly one of the best contemporary Lovecraftian films I’ve seen, not so much in the cosmic horror vein as the Innsmouth cycle. A fisherman, bitten by a monster fish, starts undergoing changes, which spreads throughout a small community. Looking for positive trans characters in horror? Look out for Christian Verardi as a madam who gets sick of it all and whips out her Gatling gun. That is not a metaphor. It’s a Gatling gun. Sorry about the spoiler, but Verardi’s performance outshines the spoiler.
Aragão has delved into pollution zombies with Mangue Negro/Black Mangrove (2008), chupacabras with A Noite do Chupacabras (2011), evil books in O Cemitério das Almas Perdidas/Cemetery of Lost Souls (2020) and El bosque negro/The Black Forest (2018), all of which he wrote and directed.
He has also directed segments in several anthologies. Alerta! Recuento de cadáveres (2014) is an anthology from Latin American filmmakers depicting the worst crimes in each of their respective countries. It includes segments by Aragão, Patricio Valladares, Lex Ortega, Jorge Molina, Jorge Mella, Paco Limón, Ramiro Garcia Bogliano, and Demián Rugna. Ramiro Garcia Bogliano is brothers with Adrian Garcia Bogliano who is probably most known for directing Night of the Wolf (2014) formerly titled Late Phases but should be known for the incredible Black Circle (2018). This is a helluva rabbit hole paragraph.
Aragão directed a segment in As Fábulas Negras/The Black Fables (2015) in which kids share horror stories from Brazilian mythology with other segments directed by Marcelo Castanheira, Joel Caetano, Petter Baiestorf, and Coffin Joe himself, José Mojica Marins.
Aragão also directed a segment in the recent Historias Estranhas 2 (2024) which is a demon and possession anthology with other segments directed by Henrique Nuzzi, Jose Pedro Lopes, Ricardo Ghiorzi, Filipe Ferreira, and Salles Fernandes.
Next up for Aragão is Prédio Vazio (2025) about a young woman searching for her missing mother. She finds her in an empty building filled with lost souls. The film stars two of Aragão’s regulars, Leonardo Magalhães from Cemetery of Lost Souls and A Noite do Chupacabras, and Caio Macedo who was in Aragão’s Cemetery of Lost Souls and The Skull: The Mask directed by Armando Fonseca and Kapel Furman.
Aragão has come a long way in a Romero/Raimi way, working repeatedly with a circle of artists. He and his work deserve their place in Brazilian horror cinema alongside his contemporaries Dennison Ramalho (The Nightshifter (2018)), Armando Fonseca and Kapel Furman (Skull: The Mask (2020)), the man who influenced them all José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe, and many others.
Demián Rugna
Speaking of Demián Rugna, Director Roundup covered him briefly in March 2023 for his segment También Lo Viin the Satanic Hispanics (2022) anthology, but most of you might still be wary of keeping your dogs away from children after watching his phenomenal When Evil Lurks (2023). It’s definitely the scariest jump scene I’ve experienced in a long time.
Rugna’s first feature, which he wrote and directed, was The Last Gateway (2007). A man creates a gate from hell but miscalculates and puts it in someone’s … stomach. As of this writing, the movie is streaming. What seems like a ludicrous idea, is still a ludicrous idea, but this movie is no comedy. It’s pure horror with great practical monster effects.
Malditos sean!/Cursed Bastards (2011) is an anthology film with three segments. Fabián Forte directed Alimenta la caja, Rugna directed Cafeomancia, and they co-directed El curandero. The wraparound story appears to about a healer who curses people.
Rugna directed a segment of the aforementioned Alerta! Recuento de cadáveres (2014), but details on his segment are scant. He followed that with the comedy No sabès con quièn estás hablando/You Don’t Know Who You’re Talking To (1016), writing and directed it. It’s about two men who steal back a car from the mafia.
Aterrados/Terrified (2017) was my first experience with Rugna’s work and what an experience, a precursor to his capabilities in future films. The story is about paranormal investigators looking into strange occurrences in a neighborhood where demon-like beings are crossing over.
He directed the También Lo Vi segment in Satanic Hispanics (2022). A man is able to show images of the dead on his phone, which leads to disastrous results.
When Evil Lurks written and directed by Rugna is about two men fighting off a contagious evil that is possessing people, and per Rugna’s style it does not end well. As with most of his work this one is full of glorious practical effects.
And what is Rugna up to next? He is returning to comedy with Felix: A Complex Puzzle about a vampire on the hunt for his mistakenly harvested organs. But hang on, the evil is still lurking. He has also announced that the script for the sequel to When Evil Lurks is written, and they are waiting on funding. Rugna has a pretty high batting average. I’m anticipating his future work, and I can definitely recommend his films that I’ve seen: The Last Gateway, Terrified, and When Evil Lurks.