Miguel Ángel Vivas’ stunning KIDNAPPED (now available via video-on-demand and opening in select cities tomorrow from IFC Films) is one of the best horror films of 2011. Accurately described by its Spanish director as “an experience,” the film chronicles a home invasion in showstopping form: a dozen intricately choreographed visceral long takes. Fango spoke with Vivas (with the great help of translator Lilia Pina Blouin) about the film, his intentions and his process...

FANGORIA: What was the initial genesis of KIDNAPPED?

MIGUEL ÁNGEL VIVAS: The idea for KIDNAPPED is based on a very personal fear that I have of people breaking into my house. It’s something I’ve experienced ever since I was a young child, and that I’ve even had dreams of. Nowadays, it’s actually a very real fear that I share with thousands of other people because of the way the situation has changed in our country. It’s something that does happen a lot more. In the old days, burglars would try to wait until families were out of their houses to break in. Now, that pattern has radically changed, and burglars actually wait for people to be inside because they know they can kidnap and take them out to get money and make a lot more. I wanted to talk about this kind of fear, but as I started writing the script, I realized that I didn’t just want to tell the story of a family, but I wanted to describe an experience. I wanted the viewer to receive that overwhelming fear throughout.

FANG: Part of feeling that fear is the immediacy of KIDNAPPED’s shooting style, its long takes. How difficult was that process?

VIVAS: We had 12 long shots. In every movie, there’s always a shot that is the most difficult one, and it’s complicated to pull off. We call it “the impossible shot.” We definitely had that. We had to pull off so many different things. I wanted to have these long shots because I didn’t want to deceive the audience in any way. I didn’t want to have any special effects, anything that would not be real. By having these long shots, it’s as if we took any trick out of moviemaking. Whenever there’s a cut, the actors take a break and you can change the lights and the makeup, and we didn’t want to do that. We just wanted the spectators to follow the story from the beginning to the end just like the characters do, with no way out. We wanted to avoid the classic manipulation of time and space that you have in cinema just to show exactly how the characters were feeling. Of course, it was very complicated, but we wanted to create something that was like a choreography, and that would create a harmony and almost a dancelike feel between the camera and the actors.

FANG: You very seamlessly pull off the more shocking moments in the long takes; how did you integrate those FX?

VIVAS: Actually, the secret is to have a really good crew. We really did not have any kind of special or in-camera effects. We just choreographed it very well and with a lot of attention. All of the things you see did happen for real—all of the falls and hitting, they’re all things the actors were really doing. So we played with their physicality and rehearsed it a lot both with the actors and the crew to make sure everything happened at the right time and in the right place. The only thing that was played with was [SPOILER ALERT] the scene where the daughter is hitting her attacker with the statue. We would do a long shot per day and just set it up for six, seven hours, we would try it out, rehearse it, lock it and then we would film.

FANG: It’s admirable how stark the film is. A lot of audiences feel it’s completely nihilistic. Is that in line with your personal worldview at all?

VIVAS: No, I wouldn’t say I’m nihilistic at all. In this particular film, I wanted to talk about a very specific situation and a very specific fear, and to make a realistic film. It’s not a matter of talking about hope, or hoping the family that undergoes a situation like that then comes out. My point was to make a movie about fear, exploring fear itself and how we would react, if we were in a situation like that. It has nothing to do with my worldview. I’m actually very hopeful for the world.

When I was developing my idea, I was reading a lot and talking to people and a lot of people were telling me, “Oh, if I was in a situation like that, I can’t even think of how I would feel. I can’t even imagine what it would be like.” I wanted people to think, to feel, to imagine how it would be, how they would react. The end is a little bit nihilistic, but the way I feel is that it is realistic. I didn’t want to make a movie where there’s a Harrison Ford or Bruce Willis who is going to show up and save the day for us. I just wanted to make a movie about you and I, and how we would react.

FANG: Was there a specific idea behind the ethnicity of the attackers, as one of them is pointedly Albanian?

VIVAS: There’s no specific reason, except for wanting to be realistic. Statistics say that 95 percent of these kinds of attacks in Spain are perpetrated by people from Eastern Europe. By saying that, I do not want to make any kind of judgment about Eastern Europeans. I don’t want to say they are worse or better than others in any sort of way. If I put a bald person there as an attacker, I would not be saying that bald people are attackers. I do not want to say that Albanians are bad, that Albanians are criminals, not at all. What I wanted to do was create a real character. I wanted to have a guy with a first name, a last name, a specific origin. The reason I gave the character a nationality was that I wanted to flesh him out. I wanted for it to be real.

Nowadays, when you see films like this and there’s an attacker, they’re usually made out to be crazy somehow or that they have some kind of an issue. I just wanted to detach myself from this kind of stereotype. The actor himself is Albanian, and he told me that he was really happy that for the first time he could play an Albanian character who’s a real human being and who is credible. So what I wanted to do was work with him on character development. I wanted for him to think of this guy and how he got there and where he was from. I think we live in a time where political correctness is all over the place, so a lot of people walk on eggshells with that.

FANG: I didn’t necessarily think it was a personal attack on Albanians.

VIVAS: I did get that comment a lot, though—a lot of criticism in Spain.

FANG: Was that the only criticism in Spain? Were audiences as shocked as many are here?

VIVAS: It was actually very well-received otherwise. It came out at the Sitges festival, and people loved it. We showed it at another event and had the same great reaction. When it came out in cinemas, it was met by a lot of positive response both in terms of critics and audiences. The audience really liked this movie; they would walk out saying they really felt a shocking fear, and they thought the feelings were actually deep and strong. When I go see a drama, I want to cry, and when I go see a comedy, I want to laugh; when I go see a thriller, well, I want to be scared. A lot of people told me they were very, very scared.

FANG: Do you have your next project lined up?

VIVAS: I’m on the second draft of WELCOME TO HARMONY, which will be in English. The theme is very apocalyptic. It’s set in a postapocalyptic world where only two people have survived. They’re the last human beings and they can’t stand each other.

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MOVIES/TV - Fearful Features