'Outside' director Carlo Ledesma says Netflix zombie film is 'ultimately, truly Filipino'

“Outside,” the first zombie film by Netflix Philippines, is exactly how it is advertised, given that it presents values and situations that only Filipinos can understand.

In a film dialogue following the movie’s advanced screening at the Grand Hyatt Manila on Wednesday, director Carlo Ledesma said that, “ultimately, it's truly a Filipino film,” and highlighted several factors.

Firstly, the film was shot in Ledesma’s home province of Negros Occidental. Scenes were shot in a Filipino-style mansion, as well as sugarcane fields on a farm. “You can’t shoot that anywhere else in the world,” Direk Carlo said.

Secondly, Ledesma wanted to showcase the Filipino family, but not in its perfect form as most media tend to present.

“I think that the backstory that [Sid Lucero’s] character goes through is something that happens to a lot Filipinos,” Ledesma said.

“I think generational trauma is something that doesn't get talked about often, and I think maybe should be talked about,” he added.

Sid Lucero portrays the patriarch Francis, who projects his past and traumas onto the rest of his family, wife Iris (Beauty Gonzalez), and sons Joshua (Marco Masa) and Lucas (Aiden Tyler Patdu).

Ledesma added that Filipinos would know somebody who had suffered generational trauma from their family members, who may have also been abused before. He added that he wanted to shed light on Filipino generational trauma along with living in a patriarchal society.

“And one of the things I really want to change is that, you know, I want people to talk about it—talk about their feelings, and accepting that, [and saying], ‘Hold on. I don't have to pass whatever abuse I had from, you know, from this particular parent. I don't need to bring that onto my child,’” Ledesma said.

Meanwhile, the zombies in “Outside” are also unlike those portrayed in other media, as they speak and have more of a story behind each of them.

“There had been films where we see zombies talk, but I wanted to put a bit more backstory into all the zombies that I had, in the sense that whatever their last memory was before they were bitten is the last words that they say [as humans],” Ledesma said.

More than showing their last moments of consciousness, Ledesma wanted to highlight that the zombies still have forms of humanity.

“I didn't want them just to be mindless monsters. I wanted everyone in this film to still have emotions to still process."

“Outside” premiered on Netflix worldwide on October 17.

The film follows the family of Francis, Iris, Joshua, and Lucas, as they travel to a secluded mansion to be safe from a zombie outbreak. In the psychological thriller, the family also learns that they must deal with scarier monsters: their pasts.  

Ledesma is best known for directing the horror films “Sunod” and “The Tunnel.” He was also one of the writers of the Filipino animated live-action film, “Saving Sally.” —JCB, GMA Integrated News