Responding to an urgent call for help, La Casa tells the story of a police officer who becomes trapped by the evil spirits of a cursed house. Searching for an escape, he must battle against the malevolent forces which are determined to drag him to hell.

Our friends over at DREAD CENTRAL are busy brushing up on their Spanish as they prepare to release their first slate of horror films for 2021, including a “real-time” supernatural Latin horror staple by Chilean film maverick Jorge Olguín: ‘LA CASA’ (The House). The guerrilla-style haunted house romp is part of a three-film package that also finds Andy Collier‘s / Toor Mian‘s ‘SACRIFICE‘ (with Barbara Crampton!) and Matthew John Lawrence‘s ‘UNCLE PECKERHEAD‘ in the mix, and will be released through its horror shingle DREAD via VOD on January 19, 2021 (and available on Blu-ray starting February 2nd).

Epic Pictures/DREAD made the initial announcement of La Casa’s acquisition back in June, so it’s great to see it finally get a tangible release date, especially after a successful screening at the 2020 Sitges Film Festival in October.

The always prolific South American writer, director, cinematographer and composer has carved out a respectable name for himself in the genre of fear, and has had a steady stream of credit accumulations during the last decade: Ángel Negro (2000), Sangre Eterna (2002), Descendents (2008), and Whispers of the Forest (2014). He also has a roster of larger budget commercial productions under his belt—but we’ll leave those for the ink of publications who dabble in that space (barf!). 

Peep the trailer below (and poster after the jump)…

From the public Epic Pictures/DREAD announcement (via Dread Central):

Written, directed, and composed by Latin American horror master Jorge Olguín, La Casa was shot in real-time with production taking only three nights. Olguín’s screenplay is based on the chilling urban legends about Casa Dubois, located in Quinta Normal, Santiago – a property with the largest number of records and testimonies of paranormal phenomena in Chile.

La Casa’s real-time nature paired with the cinematography and the score of electronic music, composed by Olguín himself, results in a gripping Latin American perspective on horror that leads the audience through an intimate psychological experience, as if they are alongside the film’s main character “Arriagada”. Adding to the strength of the film is an amazing performance from Gabriel Cañas: One of the most prominent and prestigious young Chilean actors of cinema, theater, and television.

“My idea of shooting in sequences and in real-time was to transmit the terror of the protagonist almost in the first person, and in this way transform the viewer into a companion of this policeman who enters one of the most terrifying houses that exists in my country,” explains Olguín. “La Casa has been my most personal film that I have made. In addition to creating its script and taking the camera, I did the sound design and composed the music.”

Yulissa Morales, Director of U.S. Distribution for Epic Pictures’ horror label DREAD says, “It is so cool for Dread to be kicking off our 2021 slate with a Latinx voice. I feel like we don’t see enough Spanish language horror films, but I know the audience is out there and excited to be scared by La Casa.”

TRIVIA: In March 2017, Epic Pictures Group acquired Dread Central and created the ‘Dread Central Presents’ brand. In 2018 it expanded the distribution network (a joint venture between Dread Central Media and Epic Pictures Releasing ), geared toward releasing horror films in theaters and on-demand. Last year the name of the brand was retooled to the short and succinct DREAD, and is now essentially an Epic Pictures’ genre label.

Most of the Dread Central Presents acquisitions have also been aggregated into packaged anthologies after their initial release. We can only imagine that La Casa, Sacrifice, and Uncle Peckerhead will also follow this established paradigm in addition to continuing to be available as stand-alone streaming rentals and digital purchases.