‘The man in the sack’: terrifying images of the film about the origin of the myth with Javier Botet

First exclusive images of the promising ‘Bogeyman’the horror film that will address the origin of the gruesome Spanish myth, a character that takes us back to the Andalusia of existed at the beginning of the last century and that in other countries receives nicknames such as “the boogeyman”, “the man with the bag” or “the junkyard”. Will it make a strong statement on our list of recent horror movies to scare the hell out of?

Ángel Gómez Hernández, who debuted in the world of feature films in 2020 with ‘Voces’, has finished filming this production that mixes reality, legend and the history of black Spain. An up-close look at a popular figure who continues to scare children who are (un)lucky enough to hear his story and that, now, could be one of the best Spanish horror movies.

This origin of the myth takes us to Gádor, a town in Almeria where a tuberculosis patient is willing to do anything to be curedeven to drink the blood of the children he kidnaps in a sack.

And to narrate all this, there is nothing better than having in its cast Javier Botet, expert in personifying impossible creatures thanks to his excellent physique. Embodying complex characters helped by his acting ability and a comic vein that seasons everything with a certain surrealism, the impressive curriculum of the necessary Botet includes all kinds of national and international productions, from ‘[•REC]’ (Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, 2007) to ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ (André Øvredal, 2019), going through ‘Mamá’ (Andy Muschietti, 2013), ‘The Scarlet Summit’ (Guillermo del Toro, 2015), ‘The Warren File: The Enfield Affair’ (James Wan, 2016), ‘The Mummy’ (Alex Kurtzman, 2017) or ‘It’ (Andy Muschietti, 2017).

Next to him we will see our particular the queen of the scream, the Goya nominee Macarena Gómez (’30 coins’, ‘Musarañas’, ‘The witches of Zugarramurdi’), and Goya winner Manolo Solo (‘The good boss’, ’30 coins’, ‘Late for anger’). Lorca Prada (‘Oliver’s universe’), Claudia Placer (‘Verónica’), Iván Renedo (‘Mamá o papa’, ‘Malasaña 32’), Carla Tous (‘Alma’), Guillermo Novillo (‘Veneno’) and Lucas de Blas (‘Voces’) complete the cast of young faces.

“When Álvaro Ariza offered me this project, I thought that with ‘The man in the sack’ we are talking about the first monster that any child discovers at some early point in his life“, explains the director. “Before Frankenstein, Dracula, Slenderman… Millions of children belonging to many cultures and countries have heard of him. But what and who is the boogeyman actually?

“‘The man in the sack’ was born with a real character from my land, Andalusia,” says Álvaro Ariza, the film’s producer. “The story was so fascinating that, when Ignacio Cucucovich offered me to develop and produce this script linked to juvenile terror together, with the help of Juma Fodde and with the creative contributions of his partner and a benchmark in the genre, Mother Superior, Gustavo Hernandez, I didn’t hesitate.”

“I want to recover that chill when I believe that in a dark corner of our room there was someone watching us“, says Gómez Hernández. “That unsettling and inescapable feeling of any child who, after having misbehaved, believes with certainty that a terrifying monster will come to take him away.”

Produced by Esto Tambien Pasará, Mother Superior and Bowfinger International Pictures, in association with AF Films, BTF Media, Atresmedia Cine, CREA SGR and Mogambo, ‘The man in the sack’ will have a release date in theaters and, later, will reach Spanish homes through Prime Videoset to be one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime Video.