Director Mikhail Red plays the popular horror-adventure role playing game Diablo IV. Courtesy, Blizzard Entertainment 

MANILA - Gaming can be considered a major influence for many these days, thanks to the ubiquity of internet cafes in Filipino communities years ago, to smartphones now allowing gamers to play on the go.

Mikhail Red, a second generation filmmaker from a family of established storytellers in Philippine cinema, is one of many who grew up with games and it shows in his body of work.

In a media roundtable, the acclaimed director for films such as Birdshot, Eerie, and Deleter described himself as a gamer by heart, playing a lot of role-playing games or RPGs since he was a child.

One game in particular that influenced him was the Diablo series, beginning with Diablo II. He went as far as carrying diskettes to LAN parties and internet cafes, eventually playing through Battle.net, and now, engaging in the newest iteration of the game, Diablo IV.

"For me, Diablo is like the complete package, because I remember playing it for the first time. I was already captivated by the spectacular cinematics, like the narrative of Diablo, the themes, the atmosphere. But at the same time, it also had very deep and complex gameplay."

On how it influences his work, Red cited his characters being morally ambiguous, which could be seen a lot in Diablo. He is drawn to the horror genre mostly due to the psychological aspects reflected in its characters.

"It's usually a character always trying to make morally ambiguous decisions in order to survive. And you can see that even in my non-horror movies. I feel like it's like a common thread. It's maybe subconscious. It's my own fears manifesting in these stories and these concepts in films. It's always like a character who gets in trouble or sometimes is villainized by society or by the authorities. And it feels more oppressive that way, where it's not just your typical antagonist going after you, but the whole of society, your world collapsing."

Red also said the game has influenced the tone of some of his films, describing it as "very almost like bleak, serious" which he is always fascinated by.

"Some of my horror films, even before 2020, like my first few horror films, Eerie, already had that almost oppressive bleak tone, which is quite unusual locally. Because most of the local horror movies before had like a combination of a bit of humor or levity. But when I started doing horror, it was always rated R, just like the feeling and the mood, the tone of Diablo. And with the cinematics, the aesthetics, the look, the gothic lighting and all that, I'm inspired by that."

As the audiences exposed to gaming grows, and videogames themselves are becoming more narrative-driven, they are seen adapted into films or film series due to a large market. Red describes today as an exciting time as a filmmaker and a gamer, even as such projects pose challenges.

"It’s also very challenging but you can sort of tell when the creators or the filmmakers are really familiar with the source material. And those are the adaptations that really do well. It’s also challenging at the same time because games are all different genres... The gameplay is different, so it’s hard to translate. "

"So there’s a challenge of how do you translate a specific gameplay into a story. So it’s interesting to see what the filmmakers, the studios are doing and how they approach each IP, each game. Me, personally, I like games where there’s huge lore and world-building where it feels endless," Red adds.

Despite the unique challenges posed in producing a video game adaptation, he hopes to get a shot of producing one someday, aiming for the likes of Diablo for a big-budget project, or a Japanese horror title that can be done realistically without an A-list budget.

But diverting from his usual filmography, Red was able to make a film recently that checks off his bucket list: a gaming-focused film.

"Now that I make movies as a career, I've always wanted to do a feature film about gaming, and especially the sports genre... It's rarely done here locally. And I thought of trying my first time in that genre, but use gaming instead of your usual team sports. And it was a very fun project. And it was something that was very different from my usual filmography, which are more darker, serious thrillers or horrors.  I've always wanted to do something more inspirational and uplifting and upbeat. So that's why I made Friendly Fire."

As he wraps up in making Lilim, an upcoming horror film with his father Raymond Red, one may possibly find him online playing the new Diablo IV expansion, Vessel of Hatred - grinding the game, consulting the guides, observing the changing meta, and playing PVP battles - as he awaits the next new film project.