By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo.
The goal, really, was to keep the audience off balance and unsure of how to feel.”
–Joel Potrykus
Joel Potrykus has crafted yet another unforgettable cinematic experience with his latest chilling film, Vulcanizadora (2024). Potrykus weaves a narrative that oscillates between moments of comedic camaraderie and profound darkness, reminiscent of a twisted buddy comedy before plunging headlong into despair. Despite moments of laughter scattered throughout, the film ultimately leads its characters down a path of unrelenting anguish. Potrykus delivers a masterful piece that captivates from start to finish.
How do you balance a story that is so devastating and with elements of humor?
I just know that we always reminded ourselves that it can’t just be really serious the whole time and it can’t be funny all the time. So we needed funny scenes all the way through and then at the very end, we poked the audience with a little hint that something’s sad or dark. So I think the tone is more funny and then dark rather than dark and then funny at the end. For me, it undercuts what the audience thinks is happening, which is consistent comedy.
Spoiler Alert! – In a very specific moment, I was confused by my emotions regarding Derek’s death when the two have headgear on and they’re about to kill themselves. The headgear works for Derek, and it doesn’t for Marty. It’s sad how he keeps clicking, but I’m laughing at the same time. So I think it was a really good balance.
Yeah, I think it’s actually Derek who doesn’t wanna do it. So he pulls away. And then in my head, Marty can’t do it by himself. That’s why he needs Derek. For me, Derek is too afraid to kill another person. And so he backs away and apologizes, leaving Marty unable, without the guts to do it himself. It’s a very intense thing; the goal, really, was to keep the audience off balance and unsure of how to feel.
I don’t know [which character] audiences will gravitate toward, but the idea is to give them two very different kinds of identities to see the film through and then take one of them away.”
Marty feels that he’s guilty but is not getting what he deserves, and at the end of the film, we see a little more on that, when he’s smiling for the first time.
Yeah, it was important that we saved his smile, that he didn’t smile until the end. Guilt is the major theme; he’s trying to find some way to not get rid of that guilt. He’s just too afraid to confront what he did. And then when somebody else basically helps him confront that, another makes the discovery. I want audiences to, again, have different reactions to how that moment is supposed to feel for them and whether it’s supposed to be redemption. I don’t want to put any ideas into the audience. I want them to feel it. But if somebody reads redemption, I love it. But if somebody reads it as a really incredibly sad moment, that a smile is sad, then that’s great too. I’ve been living with the film for so long that I have an exact way of reading it. And it’s hard for me to even think about other perspectives. So I just am really excited to hear how people interpret it and how they feel and react to it, because I don’t wanna tell anybody how I think they should feel.
These two characters are so different. One is frantic and chaotic; he talks all the time and never get serious. And then you have this really deep character, calm, really quiet, the two making a silent Bob and Jay kind setup. Did you have any inspiration to write these characters?
Yeah, it is important that one is talking the whole time and the other one’s just listening. I guess they are based on people that I know, but to get a little bit deeper, they are both halves of my personality that I’m putting out there, the one that’s brooding and angry and frustrated and quiet, and then the other who’s always geeky and can’t stop talking and being nervous, trying to alleviate awkward situations with humor. But the actor, Josh Burge, who plays the quiet one, he’s so good at saying so much with his face. And I think that’s a testament to his ability to emote certain feelings without saying anything. So I love just watching his face and I hope audiences can interpret different feelings just through his expression and lack of words. I felt if it had two characters both talking so much, it would get messy and there would be a lack of dynamic and contrast in the film, and less depth.
Their dialogue really stands out.
During editing, I wanted to create a balance. So, if we have big emotions for two minutes, we need 10 minutes of quiet, then from there, I’d adjust the timing a little. I didn’t want to give them too much rambling, funny dialogue at the beginning. To balance I had to edit out a lot, certain scenes that I really love, but just didn’t feel like they kept the rhythm properly.
The film also has a lot of great imagery with the beach and the woods. Was that something that you thought about when you wrote the story?
Yes. I live in Michigan, where we make movies, and we’re surrounded by beautiful beaches, dunes, and forests. And I wanted to show the scenery in a way that wasn’t overly beautiful or didn’t feel like a photo from a calendar. I wanted to take the beauty and make it a little bit scary and make what could feel like a picnic scene or area or location and twist it into something a little scary. I also wanted to spit time between the beautiful nature and urban settings. And I feel like when you have big locations like dunes that seem to stretch forever, you can have these characters feel very small in the frame and insignificant compared to what’s around them.
Finally, I’m curious about the role of fatherhood, since Marty has a complicated relationship with his father at the end of the movie, and Derek’s son manages without his dad. How do you see the theme of fatherhood here?
Yeah, I don’t know why. I have a very good father who’s still alive, but I think other people have noted how much my films deal with father and son dynamics. Mostly we never see fathers or mothers in my films, but there’s always something wrong that happened between the father and the son. I really wanted to explore that further because I had my son, who is six years old now. And this is the first time that I’ve ever made a feature length film as a father. I really wanted to show what the father looked like and for Marty, how disconnected that feels.
As for Derek’s son, I wanted to explore the theme in a way that’s less sentimental or less in line with the American tradition of handing down your legacy. Here the handing down is something very ugly, explaining why a character is the way they are because they emulated what they saw in their father. This really is the full exploration of fatherhood for me, and I hope audiences sense that.
Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo is an English philologist and has a master’s degree in cultural studies from the National University of Colombia. She is a literature, writing and reading teacher from Minuto de Dios University in Bogotá, Colombia. Her main research interests are in literature, visual research, television studies and cultural studies.