Zulma Terrones presented an intellectual breakdown of a brutal French slasher film at Visions in 2012. We tracked her down to see where her skills have taken her since.
A few years ago on the campus of the University of Chicago there was a sophomore with interests in photography, rock climbing, biking, and literature. She particularly fancied the likes of Dostoyevsky and practically anything with an underlying social critique. It's no surprise, then, that when enrolled in a Cinema and Media Studies course which focused on the history of the horror genre, Zulma Terrones focused her attention on gender roles in the conventions of the horror genre and how they comment on societal norms.
The film which Terrones chose to lead this genre dissection 
was Haute Tension (dir. Alexandre Aja, 2003), a nasty psychological showcase of extreme horror from France. The plot follows Marie (Cecile de France) as she tags along with her friend Alex (Maiwenn) on a trip to Alex’s parents’ house. Not long after they settle in, however, the home is assaulted by an evil, sadomasochistic man, who murders each of Alex’s family members and takes Alex hostage in his van. Marie, herself an emphatically masculine figure and obviously in love with Alex, escapes from the killer’s initial raid, and spends the latter half of the film attempting to rescue Alex. In her essay regarding the film, Terrones builds her discussion around the third-act twist (spoiler alert, if you have yet to see the film): the murderer, a plump, balding, middle-aged man, is actually a delusion of the main character. Marie is ultimately responsible for the heinous acts depicted on screen, which she presumably enacted due to her love for Alex. When I saw this film in 2003, I wrote the ending off as another dissatisfying pcycho-switcheroo without a lick of substance. In 2012, Zulma Terrones showed me how wrong I was.Terrones was in her final year of schooling when she was selected to present her paper at the 2012 Visions Film Festival and Conference. Her presentation of "Repressed Tension in Haute Tension," which was also selected for publication in Film Matters, a magazine showcasing undergraduate scholarship, breaks down specific instances in the film which challenge audience expectations, gender conventions, and the overall “repression that exists within the female body and its need for self-expression under the patriarchal culture.” Terrones further explores Marie’s character as a sexually inhibited individual and her actions as ideological abolishments. Her delusion of the man works two-fold as it personifies the dominance, autonomy, and sexual freedom that Marie herself cannot enact in her female form and exploits the constraints of the horror genre, as well as society, which disallow females from asserting the same authority as men.
According to Terrones, students attending the University of Chicago are instructed to “see beyond the surface” of cinema and rather view multimedia in a way that comments on societal norms. To her, the horror genre is ripe for such examination. “Although it might be hard to get past the blood and gore in contemporary horror films,” says Terrones, “you can definitely identify an evident pattern of the need to destroy the ‘Otherness’ of society.” While she has not written much criticism lately, Terrones has taken her eye for detail and attention to audience expectations into the world of marketing and multimedia services. Since graduating she's been working as an account executive at a promotional company in Chicago where she handles branding and marketing needs of customers from start to finish, "from finding the perfect item for giveaways, events, etc… all the way to ensuring that their product gets to them on time without flaws.
She claims her greatest accomplishment since graduating, though, is the construction of her very own multimedia production company UC Fine Productions,which aides artists and companies in creating marketing material including photography and promotional videos. The satisfaction is endless for Terrones, who states, "It's been great working with a diverse group of people and helping them build their name or create a new image for themselves!"
But don't count her out of the film world just yet. She's kept herself busy working with multiple independent filmmakers. One short she was involved in, entitled "The Interview," is preparing for a festival run. In the future, she foresees a career based solely in filmmaking, but not on the production side: "I would want to work as a development executive… I enjoy reading, writing, and analyzing scripts, so that, along with my background in literature, would make this the perfect job for me." In the near future she plans on going back to school and obtaining her MBA. She also says that she hasn't taken film writing completely off the table, stating she strives to "continue writing independently and submitting to different conferences."
Her paper and presentation at Visions 2012 proved that Zulma Terrones is a woman with a plan. If that weren't evidence enough, it appears that she has carved an intelligent career path for herself in pursuit of her ultimate goal. I asked Terrones what words of encouragement she'd give to young writers and filmmakers in the position that she was before graduating. She said this: "…just explore as much as you can. That’s the best way to pinpoint what about film intrigues you the most. Work on as many projects as you can! Interact with other cinephiles and experience film production/writing first hand. Even if you lack experience, the best way to grow and build your professional self is to know what you like, what you’re good at, and what you need to work on to get you where you want to be."For those of you intrigued, I suggest a viewing of Haute Tension with Terrones's article as a companion (readers can purchase here). You may never look at slasher flicks the same again.
—by Joey Powell
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