Director Gustavo Hernández Unpacks AFM Sales Hit ‘The Whisper,’ From the Producers of ‘When Evil Lurks,’ ‘Lobo Feroz’ 

BUENOS AIRES — Pushing out sales in Germany, the U.S., South Korea, Poland and Thailand and with distribution in Latin America set with Moving Pics, Gustavo Hernández’s “The Whisper,” the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Fest best picture, direction and actor (Marcelo Michinaux) winner on Sunday, is proof that a horror film from a genre auteur  made at high production levels can achieve what these days is an industry Holy Grail: rapid and substantial international sales.

More look likely to come, as “The Whisper” consolidates its status as one of Latin America’s major horror plays of 2025, opening the Sitges Buenos Aires Week on Dec. 4 after also taking best Latin-American pic at Mexico’s Mórbido Festival.

“The Whisper” screens for buyers at Ventana Sur on Dec. 4.

Written by Juma Fodde Roma and Hernández, it also boasts a powerful producer package of Uruguay’s Mother Superior, headed by Ignacio García Cucucovich and Hernández, Patricio Rabuffetti’s multi-territory powerhouse Non-Stop Studios (“Electrophilia,” “Memory”) and Fernando Díaz’s Machaco Films and Roxana Ramos’ Aramos Cine in Buenos Aires, who teamed to produce Demián Rugna’s 2023 “When Evil Lurks,” an international phenomenon, distributed globally by Shudder/AMC.

“The Whisper” kicks in with Lucía (Ana Clara Guanco) studiously cleaning the crime scene of her vampire father’s latest blood bath murder. To protect her much younger brother Adrián (Michinaux, “When Evil Lurks”), both go on the lam, escaping to their mother’s crumbling mansion to lead a normal life. 

Young girls are disappearing in the local forest, however, and the father (Luciano Cáceres) threatens to return and turn Adrián so he can inherit his whispering gift. “I just want him to break free. He has the gift,” the father says.

Part folk horror, supernatural fantasy and gender violence nightmare, “The Whisper” is family drama from beginning to end, as Lucía, a dutiful daughter becomes a quasi-mother battling with all the might she can muster to protect Adrián from a local crime syndicate and a benighted family destiny. 

“Gustavo Hernández is capable again of expanding the rules of genre with a look at the vicisitudes of a dysfunctional family  affected by a curse. The strong relationship between an elder sister and her brother reminds me of ‘Let Me In.’ Vampires, snuff movies producers come together in what for me is one of the most enjoyable movies this year,” Latido Films head Antonio Saura told Variety.

“We are really proud of continuing our collaboration with Ignacio Cucucovich, and really happy of this first time collaboration with Fernando Diaz and Roxana Ramos, the producers of ‘When Evil Lurks’ and real masters of the genre,” he added.

Hernández, Cucucovich and Ramos fielded questions from Variety about “The Whisper.”

The film can be read as the rebellion of a dutiful daughter, Lucía, who becomes a quasi-mother to protect her young brother Adrián from his destiny. In this sense, it’s Adrian’s coming of age tale….

Hernández: For me, the heart of the film was always that sibling relationship, how Lucía takes on an almost maternal role, a figure trying to preserve Adrián’s innocence against something inevitable. She knows what he carries inside, the inheritance running through him, and she does everything she can to delay that moment. But what’s fascinating about the genre is that it lets you talk about universal things through the monstrous. Lucía protects him at first, but when the inevitable happens, she understands she can’t fight what we are. It’s a raw coming-of-age, but also a tender one.

When they arrive at the mansion, there’s a carnival at the local village, where people wear masks and indulge their passions. You’ve said that’s a central metaphor for the film. Could you comment?   

Hernández: The carnival appears at the beginning, written on a sign: “Come be yourself.” That’s the thematic DNA of the film. Every character is wearing a mask: the kidnappers, the Miura, Lucía hiding her face during the crime scenes, even Adrián concealing himself behind sign language. Carnival is that space where society allows what we normally repress to come out. And the film asks: What happens when what emerges is monstrous? I was drawn to that tension between the social mask and the inner beast. Carnival is temporary permission to be someone else; for Adrián, it’s the impossibility of pretending any longer.

The film is a classic genre blender, part folk horror, part supernatural tale driven by a vampire narrative: Do you see this as your way forward as a director – juggling sub-genres?

Hernández: I grew up watching everything – from European cinema to American slashers to Asian horror. And I believe genre, when it’s alive, always mixes, mutates, cross-pollinates. I was never interested in genre purity. This film has folk horror in its rural isolation, survival thriller elements, found footage when we see the world through Jackson’s camera, and something that functions like hereditary illness. Each sub-genre brings its own emotional tools, and that allows me to find a broader palette for telling what I want to tell.

As a director, what were your guidelines?   

Hernández: I had some rules. The film lives between light and shadow, just like its characters – it’s a film of contrasts. And that’s what I did with violence: I played some scenes off-screen so the viewer completes the images in their head, and other times I exposed violence directly and rawly. That contrast heightened both approaches when filming the most difficult scenes. I had one sacred rule: the sibling relationship. The entire genre apparatus had to serve that story. I also wanted something that felt like a family curse – like alcoholism or inherited violence. Something you can’t escape, but something you have to learn to live with.

The first impact caused by “The Whisper” is its production levels. It looks like you’ve amped up the production quality as part off an ambition to clinch international sales. Ignacio, could you comment?

Cucucovich: Really, it’s the other way round. The international sales we’ve gained by previous films brought us to raise the production levels. It’s very important for us to continue down this path; we want our films to travel ever further and generate the interest they’re generating. I can feel our projects’ growth, in the demands we place on the screenplays that we’re looking for, in Gustavo’s direction, whom I consider one of the most complete and important of directors on the world’s genre scene; the editing, the score: All this makes us double our efforts to reach the visual impact of “The Whisper.”

“The Whisper” also forms part of your ambitions to convert Mother Superior into an international player in genre, which I believe also involves international co-production – as is the case here – a name auteur, and offering services to global streamers. Or maybe I’m wrong. 

Undoubtedly, we’re on track positioning Mother Superior as a global genre player. We aim for each film to take us to the next and grow ever more in production levels. That ambition drives us to see how far we can go, which is really exciting. We also try to associate with people who are equally passionate and bring that same adrenaline. Here, co-producing with Roxana Ramos and Fernando Díaz, producers of “When Evil Lurks,” has been very natural. We complement one another and we’re learning a lot from them. Also, our Mexican collaborators, Beto López and César Mascías, have much experience and vision. That underscores how genre really captures international attention, opening up more markets.

What role did Non-Stop Studio play?

Cucucovich: It’s as key that Non-Stop Studio, headed by Patricio Rabuffetti, has boarded the film, contributing key resources through Marina Sconocchini and Gastón Gualco. This confirms that our projects attract the interest of important layers in the industry which bet on talent. Thanks to their collaboration, we not only had the necessary resources, but a top-notch post-production which raised the film’s quality notably. All this is complemented perfectly by Latido Films’ international sales. What’s key is that our partners are on board from the screenplay, which is a large responsibility but at the same time shows a lot of confidence.

Ignacio has described “The Whisper” as “Rio Plate horror.” What would be its bases? 

Roxana Ramos: Over the last years, really solid, talented directors have emerged in the Rio de la Plata region. Our job as producers is to find them and projects which represent us in horror which we are making known worldwide. All have elements specific to Rio de la Plata region and South America, from the ways of telling the stories and the emotional bonds with the characters, as well as locations and the particularities of regional talent. Also,  strategically, the collaboration between our countries is highly enriching.

Does “The Whisper” say anything about the evolution of genre cinema in Latin America?

Ramos: Yes. “The Whisper,” like “When Evil Lurks” before it, speaks of a Latin American horror with can compete on the same level as Hollywood super-productions. There’s been extraordinary artistic and technical growth which positions our horror cinema in a very high place for spectators worldwide. Our obligation as producers is to maintain the level of our film so that the world accepts them in theaters. In our case, we’re committed from the time of “Terrified” and then “When Evil Lurks,” which saw theatrical distribution worldwide. Now we’re presenting “The Whisper” with the same audiovisual quality and we’re developing films always in this line so that our South American horror is competitive.