One of the surprise nominations for the Goya 2022 has been ‘Mantícora’ by Carlos Vermut, a controversial choice due to the difficult subject it deals with, but in some way it is treated as a psychological horror film, although a priori it has little to do with the horror of ‘Grandma’. However, the director, who is the screenwriter for the Paco Plaza film, has revealed that both films take place in the same shared universe.
A stock character who passes from movie to movie
In a talk after a screening of the film at the Spanish Film Academy, Plaza and Vermut spoke with the audience, and at one point both revealed that, in addition to the ‘Magical Girl’ reference, their two films share the same cinematic world:
“Paco Plaza: There is one very beautiful thing about Adela’s character and that is that she appears in Manticore, in the funeral scene. What happens is that this film, chronologically, happens before ‘Grandma’.
Carlos Vermut: It’s true. I have made a movie called ‘Mantícore’ and the character of Adela, who appears more in ‘La abuela’, has an appearance that in fact, because of what happens in ‘Mantícore’, goes to work at the grandmother’s house .
Paco Plaza: There is a cinematographic Universe, we are like Marvel, but on our own scale. There’s also the ‘Magical Girl’ thing… well, we’re doing little crossovers there.
Vermut: The truth is that it takes away a lot of worries, so in your next movie, you choose one of the characters and say, well, who am I going to use, for example the reporter from ‘Rec’.
Plaza: Well, that didn’t go well (laughs). Well, if you make a 2000s movie, before ‘Rec,’ yes.”
SPOILERS
For those who have seen both movies, Adela is the caregiver hired by Almudena Amor to take care of her grandmother, but it does not last long since she is killed by a spell of this. That same character is the one who takes care of the father of the protagonist of ‘Mantícora‘, who is seen at his funeral. The death of his father makes him lose his job, which would lead him to agree to take care of ‘La abuela’, who also lives in Madrid, finding his end there, with which, these events are later despite having been released in order reverse.
In the talk they told a good series of details that are not wasted, elements of the plot and alternative endings, even symbolisms such as the painting of “Susana and the old men”, since the character of Almudena Amor is called precisely Susana. Also They talked about the symbology of stopped watches, which reflect the fear of the grandmother’s death, which “stops” time because he notices for the first time that he is going to die. She stops time, transfers, and then time continues to count. They also revealed that it is the grandmother who causes the spill so that the granddaughter arrives on the appropriate date. This is important because it happens when she tells him that she can’t go because of the employment contract, but getting sick forces her to arrive at the right time.