Jessica Rothe as Alli in new horror thriller Beware Boiúna. Photo Credit: Ana María Gallón / Lionsgate
Arturo Hilario
El Observador
Monster movies hold up a mirror to us, the viewer, and society in general to ask the universal question posed in the best of monster movies, “who really is the monster?”
The question has been answered and visualized in so many ways in film history, from nuclear destruction and Japanese identity in the 1954 Godzilla, or 1982’s The Thing exploration of isolation and the fragility of trust. In many ways, these fictional creatures that frighten audiences and become icons of the screen are just manifestations of real human horrors and reflections of the anxieties of specific times in history.
Titanoboa is a real life fossil of a prehistoric snake that weighed 2,000 pounds and was found in the jungles of Colombia. This animal that moved within land and water would scare anyone that saw it in the present day, and the new film Beware Boiúna brings this ancient animal back to life to excite audiences and maybe teach a little lesson on the manmade horrors of capitalism and unchecked greed in an ever increasingly dire environmental situation on planet earth.
In the film a team of doctors on a humanitarian assignment in the Amazon rainforest come across a company’s illegal efforts in trying to build into the jungle. Then they all find that they have awoken a slithery and ancient mythical monster, called the Boiúna by Colombian locals. As humans and corporations begin to creep more into the uncharted jungle, the doctors, illegal miners, and locals collide with the apex predator. Again, “Who is the real monster?”
The film comes from writers Tony Giglio, Alan McElroy and director Mike P. Nelson, who have worked on such films as Doom: Annihilation, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and Wrong Turn (2003) and its reboot from 2021 which was written by McElroy and directed by Nelson.
In the following interview, lead actresses Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day films) and Kiana Madeira (Fear Street films) break down their experience working in the jungles of Colombia for this project, what their characters motivations are and how they connect with them, and why they were excited to work on this horror film.
To start off, within both your acting resumes, you have some great horror projects in there. What was the experience like of working with these great genre storytellers like Mike P. Nelson and Alan McElroy?
Kiana Madeira
It was amazing. Like, Mike was such a drawing factor to, like, even jumping on board this project. There’s nothing better than being an actor stepping onto set where you just feel like you can fully trust the captain. And it was very much that with Mike. Like, I mean, we followed him into the Amazon rainforest.
Oh my God, this woman is so badass and strong, and do I want to be her or do I want to kiss her? And I feel really confused and like maybe we should just escape to Mexico together!
-Jessica Rothe, of Beware Boiúna
Like willingly and like, “When can we go? Can we go tomorrow?” Like, we were very, very excited. And Mike’s work before Boiúna spoke for itself. Like, very, very talented. Him and his DP, Nick Junkersfeld, like they have such a great dynamic. Everything they do is masterful in my opinion. And I love what he did with this, and I’m excited to see what he does next.
Jessica Rothe
Well, not only that, but Mike is so incredible at adding texture and nuance and depth to his films. And there’s always a larger exploration happening under the surface, which I feel is the thing that my favorite horror movies that I think about, especially like classics, they all are exploring something deeper about the human condition, about our fears, about how we bring ourselves into the world. And I think that Mike just does that masterfully.
The horror genre has always had these threads connecting to real-life commentary. And I was wondering what you think Beware Boiúna is trying to say amongst all the entertainment and excitement?
Jessica Rothe
A bunch of different things, which is really cool. I mean, I think there’s— there is the obvious commentary about the environment and humans’ impact on the environment and when greed and corporate kind of advancement can overrun maybe what is best for an ecosystem.
There’s also the really interesting question of like, “Who really is the monster?” Everyone in this film isn’t just good or bad. We are multilayered, multifaceted characters that are fighting for what they believe, but also for their survival. And that makes for some really sticky situations. But that was such a fun thing to jump into.
Kiana Madeira
I think the film and the script and the story just do a great job at like showing different perspectives. And especially like in the world that we live in, I feel like people can feel so divided and think that because they think differently or they believe different things, they have nothing in common.
But, you know, when you’re in the jungle and you’re all together, there’s a universal need and desire to survive. And so when we remove all of those things, all of the surface things that we cling to, at the end of the day, like, we all are together and we need to be unified in order to do what needs to be done.
Could you talk about each of your characters, Lena and Alli, and what their motivations are in the film? And what were your favorite aspects of these characters?
Kiana Madeira
I think for Lena, off the jump, her motivation is to find her brother. But I think it’s so much deeper than that for her because her parents were killed in the jungle and she was raised, her and her brother were raised by a tribe called the Jaguari, but she grew up feeling like she didn’t belong anywhere.
She wasn’t from this tribe. Her one parent was Colombian, one was Brazilian, and just this not knowing where she belonged. And so her brother embraces the jungle so fearlessly and she doesn’t understand how he can do that.
She really feels like no one understands them, they don’t belong anywhere. “Why would you come to the jungle? Why do you love this place?” She hates the jungle really when we meet her. And so she’s forced back into it and forced to confront her trauma and her fears and fight for her brother who she loves.
But at the end of the day learns that the jungle embraces her and that belonging is where family is and you can belong anywhere. And I think that character arc is what I loved most about her. Like, she starts in one place and ends in a very different place, and throughout the journey is surprised by the people that she comes in contact with, specifically Alli, who, opens her heart, and Lena’s very impacted by Alli’s compassion, and Jess’s beautiful portrayal of Alli, I think, really helped me in finding that.
Jessica Rothe
Oh, thank you. I mean, it was such a joy bringing Alli to life with Kiana’s Lena. I’ve been talking about this, but like on top of all of the things that I discovered about Alli, one of them was that she has such a girl crush on Lena and also is maybe like kind of having a little bit of a sexual awakening.
Like, I don’t think that she knows that she’s queer and she’s showing up and being like, “Oh my God, this woman is so badass and strong, and do I want to be her or do I want to kiss her? And I feel really confused and like maybe we should just escape to Mexico together!”
And that was one of the beautiful things about Alli is she is on this adventure, on this experience, hoping to find herself. She is the fish out of water. She is the audience’s entry point into this very unknown world. It’s so fun when you get to like be someone who’s just eyes open, heart open, looking around, taking things in, wanting to have every experience.
And that’s also how I, as Jessica, felt coming to this shoot, is I was like, “I want to go on every adventure, and I want to get to know these people and I want to try all the weird food. And, oh my God, we’re taking a boat from our hotel to set, just like Alli takes a boat in the movie. This is so cool!”
And it was just really a gift. And I think that the other thing that’s so fun about Alli’s journey is it starts out so sunny and so optimistic and it takes a turn and she gets in really over her head through her own actions and just kind of the natural chaos that surrounds her and the ways that she navigates that are very unexpected and thrilling.
English Photo Caption:
English Photo Caption 2: (L-R) Jessica Rothe as Alli, Kiana Madeira as Lena and Jaime Newball as Raúl in Beware Boiúna. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate
Spanish Photo Caption: Kiana Madeira en el papel de Lena en el nuevo thriller de terror Beware Boiúna. Photo Credit: Ana María Gallón / Lionsgate
