14/06/2012 - The new film by the two brothers from Rome tells the story of a young girl held captive in a basement. In Italian cinemas on June 15

It was announced only a few months ago, during the release of their unusual science fiction film L'arrivo di Wang that the Manetti Bros.’ transfer into the horror genre was complete: Fear [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the first horror film by the two Roman brothers, champions of Italian genre cinema, will be in theatres from June 15 onwards, with 220 copies distributed by Medusa, most of which will be in 3D. A story that has a classical starting point but progresses towards oriental influences, psychological implications and echoes of real events, mingled with cadenced music and the inevitable irony of its authors. Three boys from the Borgata, Ale (Domenico Diele, already seen in A.C.A.B. [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefano Sollima
film profile]), Simone (Lorenzo Pedrotti) and Marco (the popular youtuber Claudio Di Biagio) find themselves in possession of the keys to a beautiful villa at the gates of Rome. The owner of the villa, the Marquis Lanzi (Peppe Servillo, the brother of Toni - photo), is gone for the weekend. The three friends take full advantage: they empty the fridge, drink champagne, eat caviar and mess about in the pool. All is well until they discover that, in the basement, next to the vintage wines, there is a naked woman (Francesca Cuttica, the protagonist of L'arrivo di Wang) being held captive and, due to unforeseen circumstances, the Marquis returns earlier than expected. There are many elements that compose the film, produced in part by the Manetti’s own company(Manetti Bros. Film) together with Pepito Productions, Dania Film and Vision Project: the homage to Dario Argento (the opening sequence with its rain, wind and voice-over is clearly inspired by Suspiria), the comic-book style title cards, which create a fairytale atmosphere (the film was initially titled The Shadow Ogre ), glimpses of the outskirts of Rome to the sound of rap music, quotes from The Sandman by Ernst T. Hoffman, explorations of the multiple aspects of insanity, as much metal and blood spurting as in Japanese manga, but above all an apparent reference to the case of Natasha Kampusch, the Austrian girl who was kidnapped and kept for eight years in a basement.

“We based our story on the case of Kampusch, which we learned more about by reading her diary-novel of her 3,069 days of imprisonment,”Marco and Antonio Manetti explained “but we staged it in a more spectacular way.” Servillo also referred to the book in the construction of his complex character who is at once a torturer and a father figure: “I read the book and tried to create Lanzi in the image of this young girl’s story, which, above all, fascinated me by the manner in which it was told.”

Despite the duo’s confession that once you have experimented with horror, it is difficult to conceive of films of any other type (“All the stories that come into our minds now are dark,” they said), in the Manetti’s projects there is a police comedy currently in the development stage. As for the announcement of an American remake of Wang, they have confirmed the advancement of negotiations but revealed, with a smile: “They sent some ideas towards the development of the story: they seemed ridiculous. Perhaps its better this way, at least our film will always remain the best one.”

(Translated from Italian)