A man and his son living on the edge of a remote lake have their lives altered when a man crawls out of the water.
This is an animated noir that is suitably uncomfortable. While its set in the daylight this is one of the darkest film noirs I've seen in a while. While you can figure how some of this is going to go you won't get it all.
This is a glorious example of what you can do with animation. Told using wire men for the characters and no dialog, the film is a jet black trip into the world of film noir. Its kind of got everything you'd expect in a tale like this other than a dame.
This is a great little film that haunted me. When it was done I wanted to go again.
I had this on my list of must sees at the festival for good reason, it's a killer thriller.
STEVE: Do you consider yourself a filmmaker with no qualifications? Or are you an animator? I am asking this because UNDER THE LAKE is not something that didn't have to be animated, but rather the medium was chosen simply to heighten the audience response.
JUAN: I consider myself a filmmaker first and foremost; the medium, whether it is animation or live-action, is secondary to me. I have directed projects in both formats because, ultimately, each story demands its own specific medium. My primary goal is to tell a story—my work is always deeply narrative—and I want the audience to fully immerse themselves in the plot and forget they are watching animation.
In the case of Under the Lake, the structure is inherently cinematic. I knew from the beginning that it had to be animated specifically because of the morphology of the wire characters. I was deeply interested in using these figures because they act as a catalyst, forcing the viewers to engage actively, project their own emotions, and visually imagine the characters' faces.
STEVE. Why was it important not to have faces? How difficult was it to modulate what you were doing not being able to use facial clues to tell the story?
JUAN: To convey what I wanted, it was essential for the characters to be faceless. In a way, it operates as the inverse of what Lars von Trier did in Dogville, where he used real actors but placed them in a minimalist environment painted on a stage floor, leaving the audience to imagine the physical surroundings. Under the Lake does the exact opposite: the setting is highly realistic and detailed, which establishes the atmosphere and drives the camera's narrative, while it is the viewer who must project the faces and emotions onto the characters.
Consequently, visual composition, framing, camera movement, and blocking are what carry the narrative weight and provide the clues about what is unfolding in the story. These tools have existed since classical and silent cinema, and it was an incredible challenge to utilize and modernize them to achieve the emotional impact we were looking for.
STEVE. How did you decide to use wire forms rather than anything else?
JUAN: From a narrative standpoint, as I mentioned before, it forces the audience to actively imagine the characters' emotions. Artistically speaking, the wire forms possess a certain elegance and slenderness that endows the characters with a distinct sense of fragility.
Technically speaking, the characters were created in 3D, and because their design was so streamlined, it significantly simplified the animation process. And, needless to say, it completely spared me from having to animate any facial expressions! :D
STEVE. Did you ever consider using dialog? If so, what would the film have been like had you gone through with the use of dialog?
JUAN: I was absolutely certain from the very beginning that the film should not have dialogue. Seeing faceless characters speak would have been quite jarring, as the audience wouldn’t be able to tell if they were speaking aloud or thinking to themselves. Furthermore, adding dialogue might have pushed the film into a philosophical or transcendental tone that I wasn't aiming for; I wanted the experience to be highly physical and palpable.
On top of that, I am a huge admirer of Steven Spielberg and his mastery of using blocking and staging to tell a story without words. Spielberg's influence is inevitable in my work—have I mentioned I’m probably his number one fan? :D
STEVE. UNDER THE LAKE is one of the rare shorts I've run across in the last few years that is truly self contained. We don't need to know more. There is no sense that this was a proof of concept for a feature. Was there any consideration of trying to go bigger or to tell a longer story? Are your films the story you want to tell or are you trying to do more?
JUAN: I have immense respect for the short film format as a medium in its own right. To me, a short film tells a story that is specifically conceived for that exact duration; for feature films, I have other stories that are better suited to that length.
That being said, I would also add that shorts serve as a vital tool to showcase my narrative voice—my style, pacing, and storytelling pulse—as I work to get feature projects off the ground. However, even when I successfully launch these features, I will absolutely continue to make short films with stories designed exclusively for the format.
STEVE. Were there specific noir films that directly influenced this film or was this simply you using the form to tell your story? I am asking because I have a sense of influences but not enough to call them out. Where someone like Quentin Tarantino steals whole cloth your work is more like other better directors who take everything they have seen and turn it into something of their own.
JUAN: I am very drawn to films driven by a strong plot, in addition to compelling character arcs, of course. In film noir, the plot is vital, which is why the genre has heavily influenced me. However, I also love comedy and adventure, even though Under the Lake leans much more toward the thriller, the Western, and even horror. For this particular film, the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men was a definitive influence, as was Sam Mendes's Road to Perdition, but I also drew from classic Westerns like John Ford's The Searchers.
Regarding your question about my influences, I simply live and breathe cinema, and my style stems from a melting pot of incredibly diverse masters. I look to creators who are a priori completely disparate, such as Steven Spielberg, whose masterful blocking and shooting style inspire me, or Lars von Trier, whose dark, twisted subversion deeply interests me. My core influences include David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, and David Lean. I take ideas and inspiration from all of them and mix it with Spanish cinema greats like Luis García Berlanga and Luis Buñuel, alongside a dash of the brilliant Mexican directors Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón.
STEVE. Two part question - What noirs do you think someone should watch to understand the genre? What are film noirs that you watch for enjoyment? I say that because I have a list of great films but they are not always my favorites.
JUAN: When it comes to film noir... Road to Perdition, Chinatown, Miller's Crossing, The Maltese Falcon, M (which I’d consider a brilliant piece of pre-noir), Sunset Boulevard, The Big Sleep, The Third Man, Kubrick's The Killing, The Untouchables... honestly, there are so many and they are all so outstanding. The truth is, I watch an immense amount of cinema.
For pure entertainment, I usually lean toward comedy, sci-fi, and adventure. However, one of my absolute favorite films—which actually shares a lot of DNA with film noir, mixed with several other genres including James Bond-esque tropes—is Christopher Nolan's Inception.
STEVE. Same question but concerning animation. What are the animated films you think someone should watch to know animation? What are your favorite animated films?
JUAN: I would start with Disney classics like Beauty and the Beast, move on to the Toy Story franchise (every single one of them is brilliant), The Iron Giant, and, of course, all of Hayao Miyazaki's masterpieces. I also highly recommend When the Wind Blows—what an absolute masterpiece. There is, of course, another style of animated cinema that is less narrative and much more experimental and artistic, but I am not a big consumer of that type of animation. As I mentioned, narrative is what truly drives me, and I confess that since I consume so much cinema, I never stop to consider whether a film is animated or live-action when choosing what to watch.
STEVE. What are your favorite films of any sort? What film(s) do you think are grossly under-seen and people should see?
JUAN: My top films list changes constantly depending on the day and my mood! :D But I can share some that I consider absolutely essential to me, such as E.T., Jaws, Indiana Jones (the fourth and fifth ones don't count :D), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind—and I’ll stop with Spielberg there, otherwise I’d list almost his entire filmography. Then there's The Sting, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Aliens, The Terminator and T2, The Sixth Sense, Sleuth, Plácido (by Berlanga), Se7en, Inception, Back to the Future, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Psycho, Vertigo, Interstellar, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Shawshank Redemption, Titanic, Prisioners and True Lies.
I could have looked for more niche or pseudo-intellectual films and names to sound sophisticated, but I genuinely love high-quality commercial cinema. I like to call it 'auteur mainstream' :D.
As for films that might be underrated from a certain standpoint but that I think are absolutely brilliant, I thoroughly enjoy Highlander, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (with Michael Caine), and Conan the Barbarian—which, by the way, has an absolutely incredible soundtrack. I would also definitely include Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island in this group. I've heard he sometimes regrets making it, but thank goodness he did, because people like me absolutely love and enjoy it.
STEVE. Obvious question- Now that UNDER THE LAKE is going out into the world, what is next for you?
JUAN: I hope people really enjoy Under the Lake because I have immense respect for the audience and highly value the time they dedicate to watching something, which is why I want that something to be interesting. It is now starting its festival journey. And hopefully, it will help secure support for future projects. And speaking of this…
Right now, I am fully focused on developing feature film projects. I once heard Guillermo del Toro say that in this industry, you have to be project-promiscuous and have several irons in the fire just to get one of them successfully off the ground. Taking that advice to heart, I currently have four distinct features in development.
The first is a dark Christmas tale (live-action). It is about a couple where time passes differently for each one. The second is a live-action drama centered on healthcare workers during the pandemic, which is deeply personal as it's based on the actual diary written by my sister, who was a resident physician back then. The third is a live-action family comedy-drama about a father who decides to make a horror movie with his two sons to help the more fearful one overcome his anxieties. Lastly, I am developing an animated feature—a gripping noir thriller about an autistic woman who happens to be the sole witness to a series of mysterious murders.
So, as you can see, there is plenty of storytelling ahead!
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