Darida Rose, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): On your website, you mention that this film is inspired by a story you heard when young. What was that story?
Luigi Scarpa (LS): This is a popular legend I used to listen to as a kid that older kids would tell to scare us. I’ve always wanted to tell it and when I was ready I started with that legend, then expanded it and twisted it a bit.
Night, dark, a man meets a woman on the street who is cold and decides to give her a ride by offering her his jacket. He drives her home, but forgets his jacket. He returns the next day, to open the door is her mother, who says that it is impossible that her daughter took his jacket, because she has been dead for years. They go to the cemetery and on the girl’s grave is the man’s jacket.
(UM): How closely does the film match your childhood imagination of this story?
(LS): I started with the story, but since it is a well-known legend, I wanted to add more context. Over the years as I was growing up, I passed by those streets a thousand times and kept imagining what it would be like to make the film. Well that moment came on November 11, 2019.
(UM): Is this short meant to stand alone, or is it a trailer for a longer work to come? And if not, what projects do you have in the works?
(LS): Malum Aeterni was intended as a self-contained film, although it would be nice to tell something about the characters, but that’s another story. Right now I’m in post-production with my second horror short film, SĪBĬLUM. A shorter, more intimate film about the dynamics between a mother and daughter. The common thread is breath… a very current element in this period related to covid 19. The third horror will be related to the fears of the viewer in a very intense psychological journey, among very suggestive locations, such as an old disused psychiatric asylum and small abandoned cemeteries.
(UM): Did you have any trouble filming because of the Covid-19 pandemic?
(LS): As I said, I wanted to shoot what I called “the third film,” but because of the virus, it would have been impossible to work with the crew in already very unique locations.
For this reason I thought of a new story, based on real input, from this was born SĪBĬLUM. It’s a film that I’m very attached to, and I’m taking special care to make it very strong and impactful.
(UM): There is a brief shot of a pack of pills near the beginning of the film. Is this meant to suggest a less supernatural explanation for what happens to Luca?
(LS): I really like this question and appreciate this observation so much. I believe that there should be several keys to a film and each viewer can see in it what they feel. So the answer is yes, besides the supernatural aspect there is also the scientific aspect. Luca has a heart condition, he takes medication for heart patients. In the climax of the film, he touches his heart….
I was also interested in the idea of human behavior: Luca is sick but smokes, he has a heart condition but is curious. These are very interesting aspects. Moreover, the heart attack is also a fear of mine.
(UM): Did the people of Gioi know what you were making a film about? And if so, what did they think?
(LS): I love my home country. The people are amazing. Everyone knew and was very curious. But the most important thing is that everyone helped me in my time of need, even to solve very practical issues, which in a film like this there are so many. Everyone supported me, trusting what I was doing and making themselves completely available. There would have been no Malum Aeterni without the collaboration of all of them.
(UM): I found the building Luca enters near the end of the film quite striking. What was this building? How did you get access to it?
(LS): Wow! Thank you.
That building is a typical country structure that farmers often use for tool storage. They are very unique buildings, this one specifically very old and evocative.
The beauty of southern Italy and small countries is also this, there are things absolutely amazing and to discover. Gioi, my town, has so many things, even a Franciscan monastery of 400. The people are very hospitable and there is an excellent relationship with the tourist, who is accompanied to the discovery of all these realities, both gastronomic and cultural.
(UM): The word Malum can be translated different ways – evil, hate, etc. Do you think Lia is filled with anger or hate? Is she evil? Or is she just consumed by grief?
(LS): Oh, that’s a great question, or rather it’s the main question. I wanted each viewer to find their own answer.
For me, being the director, Lia is destroyed by pain, imprisoned in Eternal Evil. Luca is in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Lia is also very angry, she has lost what she holds most dear and so she deeply hates mankind…
By: Darida Rose
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.