Fantasma (2001)
starring:
Alberto Martinez
Brendan Foley
Claudia Martinez
Blury Ordonez
Simon Zurita
Aaron Pinder
musical score by Brendan Foley (http://www.youtube.com/user/ImmersionPsychosis)
edited and directed by yours truly
Rated R for suggestive content and frightening imagery, mild violence
FANTASMA tells the story of a man who comes into possession of a mask. Where did he get? The film does not tell us. How he got it is of no relevance. It's what the mask does to him that defines the story. Once he wears the mask, he fulfills a night of murder and dark deeds, capped off with his encounter with two scavengers seeking the mask for themselves, an encounter that ends tragically.
The film is about reaping what you sow. Does the mask possess the man into evil deeds, or is the mask merely a cover for the man to live outwardly without consequences? Does the mask change him or is it a gateway for his real self to manifest?
The film opens with a quote from Ephesians 6:12:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
It was the first time I opened a Bible voluntarily on my own. The quote stuck with me and has helped bring the film into its own importance in my life, because we really are vulnerable to the spiritual principalities of this world without God's aid in our lives, and in many ways the film shows man's depravity in the face of God's absence in our lives. The music, the camera angles, the performances of everyone involved, all serve to make this film one of my top three films I ever made. I would say it is superior to my first 16mm feature SOLOMON'S REQUIEM (2004.)
