Premiering this week on Shudder, All the Moons is one of those marvelous reinventions of the vampire genre that seem to come around every 10 years or so. With deep emotional resonance and a number of eerie, chilling moments, director Igor Legarreta focuses on a young girl (haunting newcomer Haizea Carneros, with minimal dialogue) who is mortally wounded during the Third Carlist War in 1876 Spain. She is healed—and transformed—by a mysterious woman (Itziar Ituño), who lets her know that she will now be able to see "all the moons"—in other words, the child is now a creature of the night, undying and dependent on blood. The film becomes a saga of the girl, who comes to be named Amaia, traversing many years, falling under the care of farmer Candido (Josean Bengoetxea), and trying to recapture her humanity.
In just his second feature, Legarreta (who scripted with Jon Sagalá) has created a movie that employs genre tropes, and imaginative variations on them, to explore what it means to be human. All the Moons, which won Best Director, Best Cinematography (Imanol Nabea) and the Audience Award at last year's Fantasia International Film Festival, announces the arrival of a major new talent on the international genre scene, who spoke to FANGORIA about his stirring and scary achievement.
Did any particular vampire movies or novels help inspire All the Moons?
I would say any good vampire movie helped to influence All the Moons, but there are two I consider most relevant: Let the Right One In and Interview With the Vampire, both of which contain unforgettable vampire-girl characters. On the other hand, Highlander and Pan's Labyrinth are in there as well.
How did you choose the Carlist War as the backdrop against which to begin your story?
We wanted to show the war in the film as a kind of loop, a backdrop that is always there; it's something that appears, disappears, and, sooner rather than later, returns again. The idea was war is something that, paradoxically, is part of life, and it is not difficult to find, in a short space of time, different conflicts in the same territory.
How much did you want to adhere to traditional vampire lore, and how much did you want to change/subvert?
We were quite clear that we did not want a "monster" as our protagonist—a being that kills humans to feed. Somehow, we wanted a vampire who was "more human than humans," a being who wishes to recover her mortality, to reverse her new nature. Someone who rejects immortality. That idea guided us in terms of tone and our heroine's journey.
What broader themes were you trying to address with this story?
I would say that the main theme of the film is acceptance—the acceptance of how random, fragile, and painful existence can be. But it can also be long, full, and beautiful. And the acceptance of death as something that gives us perspective on our own lives. As Freddy Mercury said, 'who wants to live forever?'
How did you approach the violence in the movie, both as a theme and the filming of it?
In general, the violence is shown in an implicit way. The viewer lives with the protagonist through her long process of understanding and assuming her new nature, and her discovery of a hostile world's rejection. To a great extent, our protagonist suffers less from violence that comes from outside than from the consequences of her own inner violence, which is born of loneliness and the impossibility of recovering what was lost.
Did any of your backers ask you to make it more of an explicit horror film?
From the beginning, everyone understood that All the Moons was not a typical horror movie—that it was a vampire movie, but closer to the fairy tales and ancient legends that have been passed down via oral tradition. A vampire film where the most important thing is not the blood itself.
How did you find Haizea Carneros, your wonderful lead actress?
I once heard that finding a child protagonist for a movie was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Let's say we were very lucky because we found our needle, and without a doubt, she is the big discovery of the film.
From the very beginning, I was conscious that the strength of All the Moons depended on its lead. So as soon as we found Haizea, we set up a coaching team to work with her. She had to be trained on an emotional and technical level, all in a very short period. It was the first time Haizea had taken part in a professional shoot, and she had to understand, at the same time, the nature of her character and the dynamic of filming, with a crew of 50 people and a camera facing her.
However, it was quite easy for me to get Haizea to immerse herself in the magical world we had created. Few tools are more valuable than the imagination of a 12-year-old girl. Haizea's performance is composed mostly of gestures, looks, and silences, and it is full of subtlety and sensibility.
How did you find all the stunning locations, and how was it shooting on them?
In a film where the use of dialogue is measured, we needed the settings where the action takes place to help convey the emotional state of the characters—and to give the story that magical halo that history creates. It was a process of search and secure, although fortunately, the Basque Country is a land full of stunning locations. But there is no beauty without suffering: Rain, cold, snow, mud, forests, caves, lakes… It was quite a hard shoot.
Were any scenes a particular challenge for you or Carneros?
Due to the regulations regarding minors, we could not shoot with Haizea beyond ten o'clock at night—which, in the case of a vampire film, was a small handicap [laughs]. We had little practical time to film her, which was probably the most difficult aspect, even more than the bad weather conditions.
How do you think All the Moons fits into the vampire genre, and the Spanish horror tradition?
It's hard to know… I think the film is, in some ways, special—one with its own personality, seeking its own path. It's the first vampire film shot entirely in Basque, one of the most ancient languages in Europe, which focuses on its characters and their conflicts, but with a love for the traditions of myth and genre cinema itself. It's a small ode to mortality with a little vampire girl as the protagonist. I believe time will put All the Moons in its rightful place.
Has All the Moons opened in Europe yet, and if so, how has it been received there?
The film was released in Spain last year, in the midst of the pandemic, so its box office there was seriously impacted. As it was an independent film, the producers preferred not to wait to release it, which was perhaps not the best decision. Booking at Fantasia was its first major success, and I hope that little by little, the movie will reach more audiences.
Do you have any horror/genre films in the works?
I love those kinds of films, but I love movies overall, so I'm working on different kinds of projects. But, of course, some of them are genre films. Long, but mortally, live horror!
All the Moons is now streaming on Shudder. Click below to watch.
