Back to life
Horror series Reencarne (Reincarnate) breaks new ground for Brazilian drama with the nightmarish story of a former cop who comes face to face with the spirit of his ex-partner. Star Welket Bungué, artistic director Bruno Safafi and writer Juan Jullian tell DQ more.
The first original horror series commissioned by Brazilian streamer Globoplay, Reencarne (Reincarnate) blends crime with folk horror to tell the story of a police officer out to clear his name with help from an unexpected source.
The nine-parter begins as former cop Túlio is released from prison after spending 20 years behind bars for killing his partner, Caio. On the day of his release, Tulio plans to end his own life – only to be confronted by a young woman, Sandra, who knocks on his door claiming to be Caio’s reincarnation. Together, they begin to investigate the true circumstances around Caio’s death.
Starring Taís Araújo, Welket Bungué and Julia Dalavia, the series was created by a writing collective of Juan Jullian, Igor Verde, Elísio Lopes Jr, Amanda Jordão and Flávia Lacerda. It is produced by Estúdios Globo, with Bruno Safadi as the artistic director.
The series had its world premiere last month at the Berlinale Series Market, ahead of its local debut later this year.
Here, star Bungé, Jullian and Safadi tell DQ about creating a horror series for television, how it leans in to a particular region of Brazil and the unique approach to writing the show.
When he first read the scripts, Welket Bungué, who plays Túlio, was interested in how the complex crime story at the heart of Reincarnate was merged with the folklore of the central region of Brazil where it is set.
Bungué: It brings a new approach to the landscapes of Goiás, which is pretty much in the centre of Brazil, a countryside region where you have cowboys. I found it interesting how the complexities of the story are revealed, because there is an investigation that was interrupted 20 years earlier, and in contemporary times we see the crimes are happening again, so this is a hook to justify the [reincarnation] of one of the agents who was killed 20 years before. There is a certain mastery bringing together the problems of nowadays and the story that was interrupted 20 years ago.
While Túlio is trying to uncover the truth behind the crime he was accused of, he also has secrets of his own.
Bungué: He’s a character full of secrets, and they will be revealed throughout the narrative. He’s a quite strong man, but delicate as well. I would say he’s a non-normative police agent; he’s very passionate for life and also for his job. But he has been stuck in time because he spent 20 years in jail and the world has changed a lot.
He used to be a vigorous, virile police officer, and I have to play him at both 25 years old and 45. The acting should show this. When he’s younger, the character does karaoke, dances and is way more passionate about the problems of his life. Maybe that’s why there is a certain recklessness, because he’s too full of himself. That’s why he thinks it led to the killing of his partner. So we are dealing with this very contrasting character, not just in terms of ageing but also in terms of understanding life and existence.
Bungué describes Reincarnate as a series that blends elements of horror and fantasy realism, which is balanced by the naturalistic performances from the cast.
Bungué: Túlio is sceptical, but he starts to understand that his partner really has been reincarnated in the body of this young lady. He is shocked and he will need time to rely on her. But this will be beautiful throughout the show because you are shown images of their past relationship.
It involves also a spiritual context because this region is very much known for [folklore tales relating to] UFOs, crystals and sects doing rituals. So all this happening while there’s this investigation into a killer.
Bruno Safadi studied directors such as William Friedkin (The Exorcist) and John Carpenter (Halloween) before taking on Reincarnate.
Safadi: Well, I came from cinema, and I do very authored films in Brazil that are shown at big European film festivals. But five or six years ago, I started to direct for Estúdios Globo, and the projects there are the opposite – they’re very big productions. But I have always directed dramas, and two or three years ago I was invited to direct Reincarnate, a horror series.
I’m not so close to the genre, so I had to study it. I love to watch horror movies, but I have never made one. Horror movies are much more about what you don’t see than what you do, and the movies I’ve done are much more about images.
Safadi found the genre gave cast and crew freedom to push the boundaries of a story that seeks to reflect Brazilian people and Brazilian culture in a new way.
Safadi: You’re more open to create [in horror]. The genre gives freedom, so you can go to the stratosphere. We had great actors and they were very happy to go beyond. Taís Araújo, who is the policewoman who investigates the case, is one of the most recognised actresses in Brazil. It was very special. They had this opportunity to do something that they don’t get when making dramas.
Jullian: We play a lot with folk horror, and it’s such a British and American subgenre, so we had the opportunity to switch things up and make it Brazilian, make it about us. There’s black people fighting spirits, karaoke, you hear a lot of Brazilian country songs, and all it’s really connected with the melodrama of it. It’s about us; it’s for horror fans and for Brazilian horror fans who want to see themselves in the story.
There’s also LGBTQ+ representation and black representation in a genre where we don’t see it much. So it’s familiar in a way because there are the elements we love – children dealing with spirits, possession – but it’s really Brazilian. These are our stories. Bruno really captured this.
But nothing is what it seems.
Jullian: We play with identity. We want our audience to ask themselves, ”If I woke up tomorrow in another body, would I be the same person? Would my wife still love me? Am I my body? Am I my memories? What defines you as a person?’ There are some deep questions in the show, and we were asking them in the writers room all the time. There’s a natural debate about body and identity, but in a totally different way.
With five writers together in the writers room, Reincarnate was written in an uncommon way for a Brazilian series.
Jullian: We wrote it and created it collectively, which is a different experience in Brazil because usually you have a showrunner, a lead writer, but we did everything together. It was hard because we’re really different, but we’re also friends and we were able to find the best things in each other to create the show.
We have a telenovela tradition and, with telenovelas, you usually have a major writer who has their staff and decides who writes which scenes. But we were trying to find our own method, so we would do the structure together and then we would share the scenes, read each other’s scenes and correct each other’s scenes.
The writers and directors worked very closely through the project, with a focus on standout visuals to emphasise the drama’s horror elements.
Safadi: As a horror story, the visuals are very important. So when directing, it’s important to be bold with the images. The writers worked together with me – and one of them, Igor Verde, became one of the directors. That was fantastic because he was on the set, understanding what we were doing and turning to the script again and writing small changes. Juan was involved in the process with us too.
We made the series as a ‘super production,’ but with a very authored way of doing it. We had the conditions of a big production, but the way we did it was very intimate. That’s spectacular because it creates the possibility to really make something special, something singular.
Safadi believes Reincarnate, which debuts later this year on Globoplay, offers viewers around the world the chance to see a story set in a place that doesn’t often feature on screen.
Safadi: With streaming, audiences are more open to stories from other places. It brings a new type of cast – it’s not usual to see a cast that is 80% black. That’s very special, and with great actors. It’s a story that’s universal but, at the same time, it’s a place that we don’t usually see on screen, so it has many ingredients to get a big audience.
Jullian: It’s such a great time for horror, with [Demi Moore body horror feature] The Substance at the Oscars. And the scale of the series grows. We have big car accidents and people chasing other people in the middle of a cornfield, so there’s also a pop culture feel that might help with international audiences.
tagged in: Bruno Safafi, Estúdios Globo, Globoplay, Juan Jullian, Reencarne, Reincarnate, Welket Bungué