ROSARIO: Director Felipe Vargas Opens Us About His New Horror Film

Cinema Scholars interview Rosario director Felipe Vargas. The new horror film stars Emeraude Toubia, David Dastmalchian, Paul Ben-Victor, and José Zúñiga. Rosario will be released in theaters on May 2, 2025.

Introduction

Horror and social commentary often go hand in hand. Genre film gives us a way to address big subjects in a heightened context. It can help flesh out abject horror in a literal way, providing a vehicle for important discussions about the real horror people face every day.

In Felipe Vargas’ feature directorial debut, Rosario, the director uses spine-tingling terror tropes to tell a harrowing and sadly familiar immigrant story.

Synopsis

Rosario, or Rose as she prefers, has a high-powered finance career in the big city. Early flashbacks reveal a vibrant first communion celebration steeped in the traditions of her family’s Mexican heritage. This includes a slightly unhinged Abuela creeping around the festivities with a wary eye. Back in real time, Rosario’s busy day is interrupted by the news of her long-estranged grandmother’s passing, and Rosario is the only family member available to tend to the immediate arrangements.

When she arrives at Abuela’s decrepit apartment, however, Rosario starts to experience a series of unrelenting assaults from a supernatural force. As she battles this menacing foe, Rosario uncovers secrets about her family that will reframe her attitude about her family and their generational trauma.

Discussion

At its heart, Rosario is a traditional haunted house tale where the things that go bump in the night go on the attack. Jump scares, cringeworthy gore, and gruesome discoveries keep the fright factor at an eleven. All the while, mysteries of Rosario’s family history gradually unfold amid the terror.

Like its subject matter, Vargas keeps the look of the film dark and rich with a lived-in vibe that makes the viewer question every shadowed corner. With an emphasis on practical effects, Vargas doesn’t shy away from the visceral, both literally and figuratively.

Effects

While many movies of the same ilk these days tend to leave more up to the imagination, Vargas goes full throttle in the gore department without going total schlock. The combination of artistic quality, impressive monster work, and stunning splatter makes for a result both equally compelling and revolting.

Furthermore, Vargas’ attention to certain details in the horror elements plays on the trauma of the immigrant story thread subtly woven throughout the fabric of the film.

Performances 

With a roster of romantic comedy roles, lead actress Emeraude Toubia flexes her scream queen chops as the titular character in Rosario. Appearing in nearly every frame, Toubia expertly carries the film from initial discovery and ensuing gory battles to the physically and emotionally brutal bitter end. In addition to the rough stuff, Toubia also portrays her character’s arc from entitled finance boss bitch to enlightened badass with rom-com likable flair.

David Dastmalchian channels his recent genre success in Late Night With The Devil into a brief but captivating and humorous supporting role. As with many entries in the talented actor’s catalog, Dastmalchian’s nuanced take on the nosy neighbor leaves us wanting more.

Veteran performer Paul Ben-Victor also gets to chew up some scenery in a small role packed with an experienced punch. As the super of the afflicted walks up, Rosario’s interactions with him are limited. Yet his take on the seemingly innocent character hints that he probably knows a lot more about his tenants than he lets on.

Conclusion

Aside from the intro scenes, the majority of the film plays out in one creepy location during a once-in-a-lifetime blizzard that has crippled the city. This added layer of isolation not only ups the dread but also explains Rosario’s internment in the awful situation. While exposition on the lore and an eleventh-hour twist feel a bit convoluted, the result is very satisfying nonetheless.

Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott recently had the pleasure of chatting with Rosario director Felipe Vargas about his new chiller. They discuss his genre inspirations, graduating from homemade effects as a kid, and luring a rom-com star to the dark side.

Interview

Lightly edited for content and clarity

Rebecca Elliott:

Hi Felipe. Nice to meet you. I’m Rebecca with Cinema Scholars. Thank you so much for joining me today to talk about Rosario.

Felipe Vargas:

Thank you. I’ve been a Cinema Scholars reader for a while, so I’m actually a fan, and I appreciate you guys. Absolutely.

Rebecca Elliott:

Wow! Thank you so much for that. I understand you’ve done a lot of short films, but this is your first feature to direct. So I’m curious, how did you find Alan Trezza’s script, and what compelled you to make Rosario for your feature debut?

Felipe Vargas:

It was a kismet, destiny, it was fate. Alan’s script was exactly everything I loved, everything I’d explored in some of my short films. Alan and I connected because we’re both Colombian-American. So we understood what it was like to come from Colombia to grow up here in the States.

So we connected over that and these ideas of immigration, of sacrifice, what you leave behind. And beyond that, it was just a really fun horror story with body horror, gore, worms, blood, everything that I really love. So it was really a great script.

Rebecca Elliott:

Which brings me to my next question. What do you think? What is it about genre film that draws you to that particular type of filmmaking?

Felipe Vargas:

I grew up with these campfire tales during summers in Colombia. The monsters in the woods, the Guardian Angels, and the skies and stars. I think there’s always this magical realism, and fantasy, and a little bit of terror. It captures the chaos of reality in some ways better than reality itself. So I think genre can do that. It can really tell very powerful social stories and human stories.

But through a lens that is fun and that goes a little bit beyond our day-to-day. And I’ve always just been a huge, huge horror fan. I would tie homemade prosthetics to my dog when I was 10 or 11, and make them my movie monster. Or I would flood my parents’ bathtub with fake blood. I always just loved this stuff. So it’s just really fun to dig a little deeper on a feature-length project.

Rebecca Elliott:

And speaking of effects, I noticed, of course, in the credits that there is some digital going on, but it looked a lot of practical to me. I’m curious, was there anything you had to leave on the page that you couldn’t do because of limitations? And what was it like going through the design of the gory stuff?

Felipe Vargas:

I love practical effects. I mean, I’ve been telling you, doing it since I was a kid. So to be able to create these really detailed, intricate monsters with Autonomous F/X. They’re an incredible effects house in Los Angeles, so it was such a privilege and so much fun to work with them. And the design of the monster reflects the culture. It reflects the experience of these characters.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s just a lot of detail in the barbed wire and the wood and the sticks and the dirt and the moss. Even the way her teeth look and the way her scars…well, no spoilers! But there are just a lot of little details and things we were able to put in there. In terms of leaving things on the page, I feel like we were able to really execute everything we wanted.

Sometimes, obviously, practical effects have certain limitations. But it’s really just knowing how to light them and showcase them. And then the Columbia FX team, too, really pulled off some amazing work. We had all these dummies with holes and secret pockets you could stick stuff in. So it just gave a hand-made, practical, tangible feel to the filmmaking.

Rebecca Elliott:

Speaking of the look of the film, it’s dark yet rich, but lived in. It gave me some Del Toro vibes. Can you talk about working with your DP, Carmen Cabana, and how you set the look for this film?

Felipe Vargas:

Carmen Cabana is amazing. She’s shot a lot of TV series for Apple and for Netflix. She was willing to come on because she’s Colombian-Venezuelan, and she was just excited about the culture that we were exploring with the project.

In terms of the look, we talked a lot about Sam Raimi and Del Toro more recently. But also a little bit of a throwback to the Giallo Italian films from the ’70s. Like Argento, where you just have a lot of color and the gore goes a little bit bigger and more explosive than maybe it would in real life. Also, old-school Mexican horror movie classics, too.

Rebecca Elliott:

Very cool. I have to ask about your lead, Rosario, the titular character. You cast Emeraude Toubia, who’s incredible. You had to find someone to carry this whole film. She’s in practically every frame of this thing. Can you talk about finding her, and then just what some of your conversations were like as far as her character building?

Felipe Vargas:

I’d seen her in With Love, which is a series for Amazon, a rom-com. She’s just this legendary rom-com actress. When I called her on this film and said we wanted to do a horror film, she was like, “That’s not my usual cup of tea. I don’t even watch horror movies.”

But what really excited me was the idea of having a strong Latina lead, someone who is bold, who has done well in life, and just has this authority to her. It’s not a character we usually see on screen. Emeraude just embodied that. It was an honor to work with her. She was really, really fantastic. As you said, she just carries the film from start to finish.

Rebecca Elliott:

Yeah, she really does. I mean, it’s a physical role, too, as well as emotional. She’s running the whole gamut of her talent.

Felipe Vargas:

Yeah, I just remember there’s a vomit scene. And she’s just being vomited on again and again. It’s definitely a very different skillset than the rom-com world. But she was super game for it and just wanted to make the best film possible, and then it gave it her all.

Rebecca Elliott:

You also were able to work with two very experienced actors, Paul Ben-Victor and David Dastmalchian. I’m just wondering, what did their experience bring to the set? Did they have any input, or did they just let you do your thing? Tell me about that dynamic.

Felipe Vargas:

Both are incredible, and they work in vastly different ways. Paul Ben-Victor came in with pages of ideas, with little improvised lines here and there. He had a rock in his shoe that gave him a hobble, and he wore that from day one to get into character. He’s someone who just immerses himself in the world and wants to be on set and just feel the walls and the location and the space. He just is incredible. He just fully immersed himself.

David Dastmalchian is one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with. He’s extraordinary. He works in a very different way. Even during a take, he would say, “Throw me a direction and I’ll pivot my performance mid-take.” He would just pivot in a way that was so precise and genius. I think he came up with one of my favorite beats of the whole movie, where he improvised. He’s saying a very dramatic, melodramatic thing. He pulls out this little chapstick and starts putting it around his lips. He came up with that. So he’s just a genius. So I would love to work with both of them again.

Rebecca Elliott:

So cool. I think I have time for one more. I always like to end with a sillier question. Are you a believer in the spiritual world or the world of the occult? And did that influence this film at all?

Felipe Vargas:

Absolutely a believer. I have been for a long time. My aunts were mediums, both of them. They could communicate with the beyond. So I was always just very fascinated by the occult and these rituals.

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, the interview was cut short before Vargas could elaborate more on his experience with spirituality and the occult! But if you’d like to see the fruits of his inspiration fully realized, check out Rosario when it opens in theaters on May 2, 2025.

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