The Direct's Russ Milheim spoke with Rosario director Felipe Vargas and star Emeraude Toubia, where they spoke about bringing the central religion of the horror movie, Palo Mayombe, to life.
Rosario follows Toubia's titular character, a Wall Street stockbroker, who returns to her grandmother's apartment after her sudden death. Once there, she finds that something horrifying is taking place, leading her to discover dark rituals and family secrets.
Bringing Palo Mayombe to the Screen In Rosario
"It Is a Real Religion and a Real Culture."
- The Direct: "This film explores Palo Mayombe, can you talk about just exploring that in an authentic fashion in this film and introducing it to audiences? [As] I would assume that a lot of audiences have no idea what this is."
Felipe Vargas: Palo is at the core of this film. It is a real religion and a real culture. It's Afro-Cuban. It's spread to Mexico, to New York, and for me, it was very natural. I wasn't as familiar with Pablo, but I grew up with two aunts who were mediums. I grew up around Bujea.
I love the traditions and the rituals and the way that these, Paolo in particular, opens up a connection with the spiritual realm with your ancestors, but it's a religion of sacrifice. You have to give something to get something, and everything has a cost. So, that was perfectly in line with what we're trying to do with the rest of the movie and with Rosario's journey with her relationship to her family.
In terms of the research, it was really a deep dive. We met Rio Paleos, we went to Ri Botanicas in New York. In Colombia, they even offered real objects from the world as props to build a real cauldron, nganga cauldron, but we got a little scared when they told us it would have real animal and human remains, so it didn't end up [being used]. But it's a really beautiful culture too, because it has this light side, it has this beautiful connection with the ancestors and the roots.
- The Direct: "I was reading that you guys think you might have actually got this set haunted. Could you both talk about what happened there? Why do you think that we might have gotten into deep waters [and] called upon the demons?"
Emeraude Toubia: The lights were like randomly going off. The camera would stop working. It would rain hard. All of a sudden, some crazy stuff was happening on set...
Felipe Vargas: And that was only during the rituals. Whenever we would read the rituals. So we asked the writer to change some of the words, we brought someone [who] blessed the set. It was definitely, you know, I think objects can give off an energy, and there was a dark energy at the beginning.
I saw a dream very early on in the set. I never had sleep paralysis, but I saw a woman just like our monster in my hotel room. And then I told, I think it might have been the second AC or something, and they said I had the same dream. So I just felt this presence at the beginning, until we cleansed and cleaned things up, and then things ran a little smoother.
Rosario's Singular Location and Character Focus
"You're In One Place, You Can't Get Out, How Do You Make It Interesting?"
- The Direct: "Now the movie takes place almost entirely in one location. How did you both work to make sure that never pulled the film down in any way, but instead still engaged the audiences at every turn?"
Felipe Vargas: To me that was one of the things that most excited me about this script was having this creative control of one location and this propulsion where you know it's just non-stop.
You're in one place, you can't get out, how do you make it interesting? How do you make it dynamic and real and raw and that was a big goal for the film and the set you know we had all these details it was like a russian doll. It was like a cave where you discover new rooms, new secrets.
So, it was always kind of it's like a living breathing thing with camera too you know you're introducing a new look when the red curtains close when the terrains whiz by but none of that matters until Rosario our lead comes into that world and that's what really brought this film to life is Emeraude [Toubia] and her journey.
- The Direct: "The fact that there was one location, how did that influence your own performance?"
Emeraude Toubia: The majority of it was in her apartment, but to me, there were so many sets. You know, we have her apartment, right, which is that luscious apartment in New York, and then we have her job, and then we have the subway, and then we have the snow, and then we have the hallway, and then we have, again, the streets, and then we have the subway at night.
So, to me, there were so many sets that I got to play and discover, and as an actress and as Rosario, I was discovering them at the same time, which just helped with my journey through her emotions.
- The Direct: "On a similar note, it is not only one location, but it is (mostly) a character piece of one person. How do you feel that the avenue of focusing solely on her kind of enhanced both how you created the story for [you Felipe], but then also how, for you, Emeraude, how it influenced your performance going into the piece?"
Felipe Vargas: It really is Rosario from minute one to minute ninty. So, part of it was casting. We got so lucky. Everyone was willing to come onto this project. I'd seen her, she's incredible [on] 'With Love,' which is an amazing Amazon [Studios] series, and she was hilarious in it.
She was bold, she was direct, she was herself, and that was exactly what we were looking for. So it was very natural. This was her first horror movie. I'm sure Emeraude can talk about that a bit more as well. But once it cast her, the pieces came together.
She goes on this incredible journey. I mean, she starts in one world, of [the] Wall Street facade, and she has to break through that, to survive in this one cold night, she has to kind of reconnect with her ancestors and her roots and her core to make it out alive. So it was, yes, it's one actor, but they go through this incredible [journey].
Emeraude Toubia: It was a challenge. It was my first time doing war. And I feel in life, when you want to grow, you have to take on the things that scare you. And this was it. And I just really had such a good time filming this. It was such a beautiful crew. Felipe was just incredible.
He held my hand throughout it all. I hope I get to do more of it... I don't like to watch horror because I'm a scaredy cat, I just can't sleep at night, I'm really bad. I'll still sleep in my mom's room if I watch a scary movie because I feel like my mom was always gonna be my superhero, she's always gonna defend me. But I would love to keep working in this genre.
The full video can be seen here:
Rosario releases in theaters on May 2, 2025.
