Shot in Mexico City in 2022 and edited in 2023, THE GROTTO OF DEATH is a short film about Mexican comic artist Julio Camarena Pérez. This is the first film for co-directors Christopher Sperandio and Augusto Mora. We were fortunate to enlist the help of Brian Huberman, a longtime documentary filmmaker in the help of the completion of this film! It’s been a real team effort! Mora is a comic artist based in Mexico City while Sperandio and Huberman are both professors of art at Rice University.

A mysterious invasion of flesh-eating creatures terrorizes a small fishing village. What are these things, and where are they coming from? THE GROTTO OF DEATH is one of hundreds of comic books drawn by Julio Camarena Pérez. At its peak in the 1970s, Mexico was the world’s largest per capita producer of comic books — and Julio Camarena Pérez was one of its most elevated practitioners. Today, the Mexico comics industry is dead, and Camarena’s work is forgotten. A beautifully drawn black and white comic, THE GROTTO OF DEATH, is presented episodically as the Octogenarian comic book artist slowly draws a grimacing skull and tells the story of his life and work.

THE GROTTO OF DEATH is currently playing in various film festivals around the world, and has been selected as the BEST SHORT ARTIST FILM at the Portugal Indie Film Festival. Check back to see when THE GROTTO OF DEATH will be playing in a theater near you!