Damián
2017 · 15m · México
Directed by José Luis Anaya
Genres: drama, horror, romance
Tones: dark, melancholic, theatrical
Damián, a vampire obsessed with a mysterious woman called Roxana, finds the opportunity to turn her into an eternal being, while for Roxana grief for her lost family will take her life down another path, with devastating consequences, mainly for Damián.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A vampire romance that actually understands the genre is a funeral—Anaya subverts the eternal-love fantasy by letting grief do what fangs can't, which is genuinely bleak enough to feel like heresy in the superhero bloodsucker era.
Damián arrives fully formed in the Gothic tradition yet executes a formal restraint that elevates it beyond pastiche: the theatrical tone is disciplined, the melancholy architectural rather than indulgent, positioning this squarely in the lineage of art-horror that trusts its compositions over spectacle.
The pivot—letting Roxana's mourning eclipse Damián's desire entirely—is the single narrative choice that transforms what could've been rote vampire mythos into something that actually aches, and Anaya commits to it with unflinching formal control on a modest frame.