Chilean Director Patricio Valladares Takes Dante's Inferno Into Fantasy-Horror With 'The Divine Comedy'
Chilean filmmaker Patricio Valladares will direct The Divine Comedy, a fantasy-horror reimagining of Dante Alighieri's Inferno, with cameras set to roll in Rome on 7 September (Variety).
The film follows Dante — here a grieving writer — and Virgil, a former priest, as they descend into hell searching for Dante's wife, Beatrice. It is a setup that keeps the bones of the 14th-century poem but trades theological allegory for horror cinema's visual grammar. Italy's Anxur Films produces alongside Ireland's Skincrawl Studios, which is handling international sales — the business of selling distribution rights territory by territory to buyers around the world (Variety).
The cast includes Christopher Rygh, Matthew Metcalfe, Tilda Metsola and Fadhillah Othman. Production details beyond the Rome start date and the cast have not been disclosed.
Valladares has been building a steady body of genre work out of Chile. His 2023 found-footage horror film Invoking Yell — a black metal horror piece that shot in Chile's Ñuble region (Screen Daily) — now has a sequel. Invoking Scream will have its world premiere on 28 August at FrightFest, London's long-running genre film festival. The sequel stars María Jesús Marcone, Luna Martínez, Teresita Rios and Matías López (Variety).
The FrightFest premiere gives Invoking Scream a festival platform in front of the UK genre audience and the international buyers who attend the festival circuit — the same marketplace where films like The Divine Comedy will eventually seek distribution deals.
Beyond feature directing, Valladares is developing an FMV horror game through his Vallastudio Films. FMV — full-motion video — is a format that uses live-action film clips rather than animated graphics, letting players make choices that branch the story. The project merges analog filmmaking with interactive storytelling, according to Variety.
For Valladares, the coming weeks bracket two very different stages of the production cycle. On 28 August, a sequel premieres at a festival in London. Ten days later, on 7 September, a new project begins principal photography in Rome. The first is the end of one chain of decisions; the second is the start of another.
