Tuesday's Guest

Mariano Baino

"Someone with a vivid and savage imagination that Bram Stoker would envy" The Daily Star

Hailed as one of the ten most promising directors in the world by prestigious French language magazine L'Ecran Fantastique, Baino started making films when he was just eight years old.

"I begged my father for his old Super 8mm camera and started making films with my brother,Elio, who at the time was six. Our first epic was "Tarzan", my brother played Tarzan clad in a pair of ripped pants which we'd painstakingly painted in a leopard skin pattern."

Many more mini-epics followed throughout his childhood and early teenage years.

"I planned a huge epic one year. It was called The Dragon and The Wolf, it was a weird mix of Western and Kung Fu, the story of a wronged Chinese guy traveling to the Old West to exact his revenge on the cowboys who'd killed his father ."
Unfortunately he was the only 12 year old in his group who took making movies seriously, "After a few days all the actors (they ranged in age from 9 to 12) had abandoned me. They chose going to the beach over making films! I was crushed!"

Fresh out of school, Mariano wrote and directed DREAM CAR. Shot in two days and post-produced in less than a week, the short film tells of the dire consequences of a man's literally consuming obsession for the ultimate four wheels status symbol. Mariano now considers it little more than an early exercise, something he had to do just to prove to himself that he could. The film has rarely been seen, and its inclusion on the NoShame double disc release of Dark Waters marks its official unveiling! click photo to enlarge>>

Mariano's next film was 'CARUNCULA', a highly acclaimed, short cannibalistic fantasy which first showcased the arresting visual style which has since become the young director's trademark. The film received rave reviews on the festival circuit. Respected novelist Ramsey Campbell pronounced it 'Not only a fine tribute to the Italian masters but a small masterpiece of sustained perversity in its own right.'
<<Caruncula image gallery

Accepting an offer from nouveau riche Russian producer Victor Zuev for initial financing, Mariano headed for the trouble torn Ukraine to begin shooting on his debut feature, DARK WATERS. Dark Waters image gallery>>

Once there, Baino and his crew were faced with conditions and attitudes which seemed to belong to a truly different planet. From the language barrier to shooting near Chernobyl (A corrupt production manager sold their allotted studio space in Odessa to a rival production for profit, leaving Baino and his crew with no alternative but to move to another studio and brave the nuclear danger), everything seemed to conspire against the film ever getting finished.

Rushes were watched only once a week, sets literally dissolved due to rainfall, his film stock was sold from under him on the black market and cast and crew were nearly asphyxiated when a scene involving hundreds of candles went dangerously wrong.

Mariano persevered and shooting was eventually completed. The film went on to win, among other prizes, the Prix du Public at Montreal's FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL and, at the FANTAFESTIVAL in Rome, DARK WATERS was awarded the prestigious 'Special Vincent Price Award' for outstanding contribution to Fantastic Cinema. Audiences in the UK and all over the world had a chance to see exactly how outstanding that contribution was, when the film was released to great critical acclaim.>>

Baino's style marks a return to the thematic concerns of the grand masters of horror cinema and pointedly eschews the viscera and shock for shock's sake of the slasher genre which has dominated the medium for the past two decades. DARK WATERS, very much a mood piece, relies on the implicit as opposed to the obviously explicit and is all the more terrifying for it.

"Growing up in Naples, I used to be terrified by the Catholic iconography, by the array of very morbid and disturbing images which seem to fill so many churches in Mediterranean Countries. All those statues of people suffering, their agonized eyes staring down at me, Christ nailed to the cross, his mother's bleeding, pierced heart. Deeply distressing stuff." Baino says when asked to explain the strong role of religious imagery in his work.

Mariano is next slated to write and direct CAPTIVE for producers Loris Curci and Andrea Marotti, and is also developing SUBTERRANEUS, about a group of vulcanologists who encounter ancient evil in Pompeii's labyrinthine catacombs. SUBTERRANEUS was co-written by veteran scribe Matthew Weisman, whose past credits include TEEN WOLF and Schwarzenegger's COMMANDO.

"I had a great time writing the script with Matthew and look forward to working on future projects with him", Baino says. "I was honoured to be working with someone who's had such a long and distinguished career in Hollywood. The fact that he turned out to be a delightful man who's become one of my best friends was just the cherry on the cake!"

Mariano's long cherished project, RITUAL, based on the bestselling novel by Graham Masterton, is making its way towards production under the aegis of producer Michele De Angelis.

Mariano recently completed a new short film, NEVER EVER AFTER, a dark, twisted fairy tale about a woman's dissatisfaction with her body and the miracle operation which promises to help her get rid of her worries forever. .

Mariano has also directed and edited music videos, including two for singer/songwriter Cecily Fay.

Apart from writing his own material, Mariano has been working as a screenwriter for hire for many years. Early in 2002 he wrote his first drama, FLOWER OF SHAME, for German Producer Vesna Jovanoska, who also hired him to adapt Chris Niles' urban thriller, HELL'S KITCHEN for the screen. He's also worked on an adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette's classic noir 3 TO KILL, and is currently working on a re-write of THY KINGDOM COME for Producer/Director Ilmar Taska.

info@marianobaino.com