{"id":629227,"date":"2026-10-13T10:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629227\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T10:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T10:26:10","slug":"horror-thriller-the-divine-comedy-unveiled-by-skincrawl-studios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629227\/","title":{"rendered":"Horror Thriller ‘The Divine Comedy’ Unveiled by Skincrawl Studios"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSkincrawl Studios has debuted a first glimpse at Chilean filmmaker Patricio Valladares<\/a>\u2019 supernatural horror feature \u201cThe Divine Comedy,\u201d a modern re-telling of Dante\u2019s \u201cInferno.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Irish production and distribution shingle, which specializes in horror and adjacent genre movies, is handling worldwide sales on the film, which recently wrapped principal photography.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Divine Comedy\u201d is a co-production between Italy\u2019s Anxur Films and Skincrawl Limited. Alessandro Gatto produces for Anxur, with Corrado Camilla and screenwriter Loris Curci producing on behalf of Skincrawl.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarring Christopher Rygh (\u201cVikings: Valhalla\u201d), Matthew Metcalfe, Tilda Metsola and Fadhillah Othman, the film is a contemporary reimagining of Dante Alighieri\u2019s 14th-century narrative poem describing a journey into Hell.<\/p>\n

\n\tValladares directs from a screenplay by Curci (\u201cThe Ghosts of Monday,\u201d \u201cHavana Darkness\u201d) that follows Dante, a grieving writer who descends into the realm of the dead in an attempt to bring back his deceased wife, Beatrice. Guided by Virgil, a former priest, he journeys through increasingly nightmarish circles of Hell, confronting supernatural entities and manifestations of guilt, desire and suffering.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Divine Comedy<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Skincrawl Studios<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe challenge here was to turn Dante\u2019s \u2018Inferno\u2019 into a visual experience,\u201d Curci tells Variety. \u201cWe took into account only the Hell segment of \u2018The Divine Comedy.\u2019 Of course, given the context and the complexity of the epic poem, we tried to focus mainly on the relationship between Dante and Virgil, and their voyage to the very bowels of the Inferno. We also took the liberty of giving Beatrice a different, more dramatic role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaking a cue from Dante himself, Curci also borrowed motifs from popular mythology.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen writing the screenplay, I thought I\u2019d use elements of the Greek tragedy. Dante populated his realms of Hell and Purgatory with figures, monsters and moral frameworks borrowed directly from classical Greek and Roman myths. He borrowed extensively from them, and then so did I. But our \u2018Divine Comedy\u2019 is after all a modern fantasy-horror film. It\u2019s definitely the most ambitious film we\u2019ve worked on at Skincrawl, albeit it\u2019s small budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCurci co-penned Skincrawl Studios\u2019 recent thriller \u201cThe Sarajevo Murders\u201d with Barry Keating (Valladares\u2019 regular collaborator<\/a>) and also directed the company\u2019s upcoming \u201cIsland of the Minotaur.\u201d He previously worked with Valladares on the director\u2019s 2017 horror pic \u201cNightworld.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Divine Comedy\u201d marks Valladares\u2019 latest international genre production following his recent works, \u201cInvoking Yell\u201d and \u201cInvoking Scream,\u201d both written with Keating. Earlier works include \u201cHidden in the Woods,\u201d starring Michael Biehn<\/a> (\u201cTerminator,\u201d \u201cTombstone\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2023 found-footage horror feature \u201cInvoking Yell\u201d is currently available on AMC Networks\u2019 horror streaming service Shudder in multiple territories. His latest film, \u201cInvoking Scream,\u201d recently bowed at FrightFest <\/a>in London and is set to hit theaters in Chile next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tDublin-based Skincrawl Studios will present \u201cThe Divine Comedy\u201d to international buyers at next month\u2019s American Film Market and early next year at the Berlinale\u2019s European Film Market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ll have a teaser-trailer ready for AFM<\/a> and plan to have the film screened at the Berlin film market in February,\u201d says Skincrawl\u2019s Camilla. \u201cFrom then on it\u2019s doing as many festivals as possible. We\u2019re fully aware that this is not your average horror movie, so we plan to reach out to all sorts of different markets, and see how they react.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong Skincrawl Studios\u2019 other recent titles, \u201cThe Sarajevo Murders,\u201d directed by Giorgio Bruno, about the disappearance of a documentary film crew in Bosnia, is distributed in the U.S. by Cleopatra Entertainment. \u201cIsland of the Minotaur,\u201d currently in post-production, follows an archaeologist and his team who discover more than they bargained for after awakening an ancient and monstrous bull-headed creature in the subterranean depths of a forbidden island.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPatricio Valladares on the set of \u2018The Divine Comedy\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Skincrawl Studios<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Skincrawl Studios has debuted a first glimpse at Chilean filmmaker Patricio Valladares\u2019 supernatural horror feature \u201cThe Divine Comedy,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[67876,150930,156,148872,115871,409,111,139,69,308784],"class_list":["post-629227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-afm","tag-efm","tag-entertainment","tag-european-film-market","tag-michael-biehn","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-patricio-valladares"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}