Gabriel Abrantes Talks ‘Amelia’s Children’ And Balancing The “Creepiness”

Now out in theaters and VOD, Amelia’s Children is a horror-thriller directed with a confident flourish from filmmaker Gabriel Abrantes. The Diamantino director injects a healthy amount of comedy in this Northern Portugal set narrative and he talked to Deepest Dream about his latest feature.

Edward (Carloto Cotta) is searching for his biological family and his search leads to a spacious villa in the mountains of Northern Portugal. His girlfriend Ryley (Brigette Lundy-Paine) accompanies him on the trip. Meeting his twin brother (Cotta) and mother (Anabela Moreira) puts Edward in a euphoric and understandably vulnerable state. When Ryley discovers that Edward’s family members might have ulterior motives, she tries to save herself and boyfriend from certain harm.

Whether it’s practical or digital effects, director Gabriel Abrantes loves applying those touches to his movie. He employed a prosthetic mask for the older Amelia (Moreira plays current day Amelia, and Alba Baptista is the younger version). “A prosthetic mask actually looks very much like what plastic surgery looks like,” said Abrantes. “So I thought it was great.”

Abrantes had Dave Bonneywell and Rita Anjos, two Game of Thrones vets, work on the mask and they “did a beauitful job.”

***Listen to our CinemAddicts review of Amelia’s Children (all three of us recommend the film):

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One big factor in making Amelia’s Children a focused narrative was the importance of rewriting Abrante’s script. “I’m a big fan of rewrites and then in the edit, we’re really trying to balance the humor and the creepiness, so we’re cutting some scenes out during the edit to try to have the right balance of those two moods,” added Abrantes. “Because sometimes it can get too goofy and too silly. Sometimes it can lose a bit of that touch that gives its original flavor of campiness.”

Check out our full interview with Gabriel Abrantes:

Amelia’s Children is now out in theaters and available on VOD. Support our site by renting/purchasing Amelia’s Children on Amazon (we receive a commission).

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