Posted in: Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: Diablo

Diablo Director on Blending Action & Horror, Adkins, Zaror & More

Ernesto Díaz Espinoza (The Green Inferno) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest action thriller for Lionsgate, Diablo, stars, and more.

Ernesto Díaz Espinoza is a triple threat as a director, writer, and editor, predominantly working in action and martial arts cinema from his work in The Fist of the Condor (2023) and Mirageman (2006). He's also worked in horror editing the controversial film The Green Inferno (2013) and the Drafthouse anthology film The ABCs of Death (2012). His latest film reunites him with frequent collaborator Marko Zaror and Scott Adkins, who star and co-wrote with Mat Sansom, in Lionsgate's Diablo. Espinoza spoke to Bleeding Cool about how he wanted to blend action and horror in the film, working with Adkins, Zaror, and Alanna De La Rossa as the film's core; filming the difficult climactic sequence, and how he distinguishes his work in action and horror.

Diablo follows an ex-convict, Kris Chaney (Adkins), who makes it his mission to right a terrible wrong by revealing a secret that could end his life. He is a warrior who seizes the daughter (De La Rossa) of a Colombian gangster to fulfill a noble promise to the young girl's mother. When her father enlists both the criminal underworld and the terrifying psychotic killer El Corvo (Zaror) to exact his revenge, Kris will need to draw upon everything he has ever learned — in and out of lockup — to stay alive and keep his word.

Diablo Director on Blending His Two Favorite Genres and Expanding on Horror

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued and inspired you about 'Diablo?'

I wanted to mix genres. I wanted to make an action movie with these horror vibes on a bad guy who feels like he's coming from the horror world rather than an action movie to have this fear, tension, and suspense throughout the whole adventure. That's something I wanted to try.

What was it like working with Mat Sansom as a creative?

This is the first time I worked with a scriptwriter, and it was cool. The movie was made because when I did the pass on the script, it didn't go through, but now it happened (working with Mat, Scott Adkins, and Marko Zaror on the story). It was good because he was able to put a vision into the paper and bring something new and some sensibility that I didn't have in my other movies. It was cool to work with new material, a new way of saying things, so I'm pretty happy with that work and the result of it.

What made Scott Adkins perfect to play Kris in the film? Can you speak of the chemistry he developed with Marko and Alanna, and what they brought to the film?

Scott Atkins is perfect for the character because he's the ultimate action hero, and we needed that for this movie. He also brought this emotion I don't remember seeing before in this relationship with Alanna's character. That chemistry that they have together, I saw it in the rehearsals, was so amazing to watch them doing the scenes. I felt more like someone in the audience than a director in those scenes. It was great to work like that. Marko and Scott know what to do together. They have experience working together, and they have the control to be able to kick and punch each other, just enough to make it look real. That creepy chemistry between Alanna and Marko, especially in the alley scene, worked well, and it's scary. We talked a lot about that scene and prepared to make it work, so I'm proud of what happened and the results.

What was your most difficult sequence in the film?

My most difficult sequence in the film is that final showdown action sequence. The last 15-20 minutes of the movie consist of a fight, and another thing that I cannot spoil, but there's a lot of action going on at the same time. It has action, it's bloody, tense, it has a lot of suspense, emotion, and that was difficult to achieve. Besides all that we did with the team in the set, it was also a big challenge for the editing, sound design, and post-production with the VFX to make it work. That scene was key to making that believable, and I'm happy with what happened there, because it was a huge challenge and it worked.

How do you compare your approach in action films to your work in horror? Is it dramatically different?

In regard to my experience, I wanted to make a horror movie. My experience before is my short in 'The ABCs of Death.' That was similar to 'The Twilight Zone' than a horror feature. You've got to approach it the same way because in the action genre, you have these action and fight sequences, and in the horror movies, you have the kills. You've got to treat those kills as delicately as you would a fight sequence, because you've got to try things, like the special effects. You've got to make sure that scene is going to work, then you go and do it. It's a lot of rehearsals, trying, and testing stuff.

Diablo is currently in theaters, digital, and on demand.

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