Quibi’s 50 States of Fright: Interview with director Alejandro Brugués

1428 Elm recently chatted with Alejandro Brugués, the director of the Florida segment of Sam Raimi’s Quibi series, 50 States of Fright.

Alejandro Brugués has quite the horror resume, having directed segments of ABCs of Death 2 and Nightmare Cinema (currently available to stream as a Shudder Exclusive), as well as the Cuban film Juan of the Dead, which won the Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film in 2012. Most recently, Brugués directed Destino, which is part of the Quibi series 50 States of Fright.

The show dives into frightening legends and folk tales in different states across the US, with each story divided up into 8 -10 minute segments. Destino is set in Miami, Florida, and was written by The Blair Witch Project creator Eduardo Sanchez.

1428 Elm: Alejandro, you have worked on other horror movies, including Juan of the Dead, ABCs of Death 2 and Nightmare Cinema, so it seems that you like horror. What are some of your favorite horror movies, and what do you like about the genre?

Alejandro Brugués: “It seems that you like horror” is probably an understatement! I love horror and always have since I was a kid. My favorites are too many and always changing. From what subgenre? I suck at this favorite thing, but let’s try and say Jaws, The Thing and Evil Dead II are the Holy Trinity and it’s just unfair to try to rank all others.

If I start digging into my childhood and some that marked me when I was way too little to be watching horror, probably Fulci’s Zombie 2 and Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers, which I think is so obscure that only I remember it. But I loved it when I saw it and still find it amusing.

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From the more recent stuff, I love Get Out and Tigers Are Not Afraid. No list would be complete without The Descent. Obviously, I especially love horror comedies like Shaun  of the Dead, or The Cabin in the Woods or Peter Jackson’s Braindead.

I just love the genre. Now, I’ll be thinking all night about more movies that I should’ve mentioned.

1428 Elm: Destino is a “found footage” story filmed from the point of view of body cams and surveillance video. It was written by Eduardo Sanchez, who created what is arguably the best-known “found footage” film in the world, The Blair Witch Project. Tell us what it was like to work with him. Had you worked on any “found footage” projects in the past?

Alejandro Brugués: Eduardo and I met a while back, when we were both shooting episodes of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series. We’re both Cubans, so kind of have to like each other. And with him and his producing partner Gregg Hale we’ve worked on several things in the last few years.

Some didn’t happen, but some are still moving and we hope they’re gonna be awesome. Both Ed and Gregg are two of the nicest guys I’ve met, and if they really put some effort in, both can rock awesome beards.

In Destino, Eduardo did the story and Gregg was the one that actually wrote the script. Working with them is always fun. I really wish one day we could unleash everything that we’ve been cooking together.