Exclusive interview: Carlos Marin for ‘Game Over’

For Carlos Marín, the idea behind Game Over can be traced back to a childhood feeling familiar to anyone who has ever discovered something strange lurking inside a video game: the uneasy suspicion that what just happened wasn’t supposed to happen at all.

That sense of digital unease forms the foundation of the Mexican filmmaker’s feature debut, which receives its UK premiere as the closing film of Dead Northern Horror Film Festival. Game Over follows Rebeca as she investigates her sister’s mysterious death and discovers an urban legend surrounding a supposedly cursed video game. Playing it herself brings her face-to-face with Goggi, a creature whose origins are almost as unusual as the monster itself.

Mixing modern technology with the practical creature effects and gore of the horror films Marín grew up watching, Game Over became an ambitious first feature that its director now admits was, considering the available time and budget, “borderline insane”.

Ahead of Goggi being unleashed on audiences in York, Love Horror caught up with Marín for our Dead Northern Questions From the Crypt to discuss childhood gaming nightmares, a monster first drawn on a napkin, the magic of practical effects and the challenges of bringing Game Over to the screen.

Exclusive interview: Carlos Marin for ‘Game Over’

There are lots of horror stories about cursed videos, games and websites. Why did you choose a video game for Game Over?

When I was a kid, I would sometimes get this feeling that I stumbled upon something I wasn’t supposed to find, you know? Like watching a midnight movie that feels just a little too strange, a little too “unsafe”. It was the same feeling I got when a videogame did something weird, like when Mario just glitched out of the screen and out of existence or when the end goal of a level just disappeared and you were stuck until time ran out. I always wanted to take that uneasiness and expand it in a horror movie.

The film is inspired by 1980s horror, but it also deals with modern technology. How did you balance those two different worlds?

I always wanted to have the visual contrast of two different eras clashing together. To see a character live streaming, completely drenched in neon lights, and then taking a few steps and walking into what looks like an entirely different world, or characters finding places that seem frozen in time. I thought it would be a nice visual way of conveying that these people were crossing into a weird universe, a menacing one that almost looks like it doesn’t belong to a specific place or time.

Goggi is a proper horror monster with his own look and story. How did you decide what he should look like, and when did you first see him and think, “Yes, that’s Goggi”?

As a matter of fact, my co-writer, Katya, dreamed him up when we were just getting started with the script. She woke up, drew Goggi on a napkin (that we still have) and we pretty much based it on that. Then came the great input of the make-up and design departments, of course. To be honest, filming it was so hard and technical that I don’t remember having a “wow, there it is” moment. I think that very cool feeling came later, when I was watching some scenes cut together for the first time.

You used practical effects, prosthetics and animatronics instead of relying on CGI. Why was that so important to you, and did it cause any problems during filming?

I’ve had an obsessive love for horror movies since I was five or six years old, so pretty much every movie from my childhood was made with practical effects. For me, that’s the meaning of movie magic. My favorite monsters/creatures/gory moments ever were made with prosthetics, latex and a lot of imagination, so there was no question in my mind that this was the way to go. Of course, dealing with all of it was challenging, to say the least, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Behind the monster and the horror, the story is also about Rebeca dealing with the death of her sister. How important was that emotional side of the film to you?

Very important, and I think it was the core of my relationship with the amazing cast, especially Carla, who played Rebeca. I think it’s great when horror stories translate our real fears and feelings into something fantastical and otherworldly. That being said, I also enjoy when horror movies are a fun and wild ride, an aspect that I also tried to keep at the core of Game Over.

This is your first feature film as a director, and you gave yourself a lot to deal with: monsters, gore, practical effects and difficult locations. Was there ever a moment when you thought, “What have I got myself into?”

Oh, absolutely. That thought went through my head every single moment since day one of pre production, and stayed with me until after we wrapped. Weeks later, I still had nightmares about having to go back filming because we were missing some key scenes. I always thought my first movie was going to be something in the vein of the original Evil Dead or a Saw type film, you know? A few characters in a single location, but we ended up doing something that, considering our time and budget, was borderline insane. Life has funny ways of surprising us.

You’re closing Dead Northern with the UK premiere of Game Over. Which moment in the film are you most excited to for the horror fans there to experience?

I’m incredibly thrilled and honored to have Game Over closing such a cool festival, especially in the world’s most haunted city. Without spoiling anything, I think the fans attending are going to enjoy watching what happens to your body if Goggi actually gets you.

From childhood memories of glitching video games to the nightmares that continued even after filming had finished, Marín has clearly poured a lifelong love of horror into his first feature. And with Goggi created through the kind of practical effects that first sparked that obsession, Game Over seems particularly well suited to meeting its first UK horror audience on the big screen.

As for what that audience can expect when Goggi finally catches someone, Marín isn’t giving much away. Apparently, finding out what the creature can do to the human body is part of the fun.

Game Over receives its UK premiere as the closing film of Dead Northern Horror Film Festival at City Screen Picturehouse, York, on Sunday 27 September 2026 at 9.15pm.