Relationships have long been fertile ground for storytellers, but while romantic entanglements dominate so many narratives, stories centred on friendship are comparatively rare. In his latest film, Best Friends with the Devil—a short I highlighted earlier in the year in our SXSW Best of Fest picks—filmmaker Hugo De Sousa looks to redress that imbalance by focusing his narrative on a woman who sets out in desperate search of her missing friend, enlisting the help of a mysterious stranger along the way. Straddling the line between horror/thriller and dark comedy, De Sousa’s film has a remarkable ability to shift gears, gripping you with tension one moment before provoking an unexpected burst of laughter the next. It’s the kind of film whose impact is difficult to discuss without giving too much away, so we’d recommend watching Best Friends with the Devil before diving into our conversation with the filmmaker. With spoilers kept to a minimum, we welcomed De Sousa back to DN for his third interview on our site to discuss the importance of keeping things simple, challenging yourself creatively as a filmmaker and remaining faithful to the characters at the heart of your story.
Hey Hugo, welcome back to Directors Notes. The last time we spoke to you – in November 2023, about your film Je Ne Suis Pas Une Star De Cinéma – you said that every short film you make is “an exercise in simplicity”. How does Best Friends with the Devil fit into that ethos?
I used way more tools with this one so I guess I betrayed that a little bit. The camera work is more dynamic and the filmmaking is overall much more muscular than anything I’ve done, but at the core it’s still a very simple story. Can I make two people on a hike feel big and exciting? That was the challenge I set for myself.
And has your understanding of what simplicity means – in filmmaking terms – changed since we last spoke and did making Best Friends with the Devil challenge that perspective in any way?
To me, simplicity means less is more. What’s the absolute minimum you need to tell the story? It’s a great approach, but I do think it can turn into a crutch like anything else and it can 100% stop you from trying new things. I’ve just become really conscious of that in the past few years. Maybe the story you’re writing does need more, you know? Are you cutting things down because that’s the right decision or are you scared to step out of your comfort zone? Less is more is a great starting point but I feel like you should be a little fluid and let the story go where it needs to go. Maybe you do need a canary to fly across the room for no logical reason. Maybe you absolutely don’t. It just depends.
Simplicity is a great tool but you shouldn’t always be 100% positive it’s making your film better. It can stifle your creativity too if you let it.
I originally wrote more locations into the story, only to quickly realize that I couldn’t afford any of them. So I cut it down to just the hike and I think it works but it also weakens characterization. So I guess simplicity is a great tool but you shouldn’t always be 100% positive it’s making your film better. It can stifle your creativity too if you let it.
That previous short was a little more experimental than this latest piece, which feels much more like a genre film. What motivated you to switch things up and make something ‘different’?
It was a direct reaction to Je Ne Suis Pas Une Star De Cinéma. It’s still possibly the film I’m the most proud of, but it was definitely challenging for some people. I wanted to push myself, try a different approach. I’m still finding my voice, you know, so I want to try as many styles as possible. Short films are a great way to do that. Now that I’ve made a genre short, I feel like writing something a little more raw and where performance is at the absolute center of the film, with room for the actors to move and breathe and discover new things. I want to work with a big cast too. That feels exciting to me at the moment.
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Despite those genre elements, Best Friends with the Devil is ultimately a film centred on friendship. What motivated you to make this relationship the core of the story? And what do you think this film says about friendship that you couldn’t have explored through a more conventional drama?
The honest answer is that I’m married and I’ve been in a very stable relationship for a really long time and I tend to find way more hardship in friendships. I feel like in a more conventional drama a lot of the neurosis and anxiety around a failing friendship and the guilt and trauma that comes with letting go of old friends would have to be communicated through dialogue and in a more literal way and I feel like this film allowed me to express those feelings in a more creative way. The guilt Lola is feeling is very self-destructive, and this film really allowed me to take that feeling to the absolute extreme where she basically self-combusts. That was really fun.
One of the things I really love about Best Friends with the Devil is the way it balances and plays with tone. At times, it feels like a straight thriller, while at others it descends into comedy. How did you work to find the right balance between those two sides of the film?
If you don’t betray your characters and you think very logically from their POV, you will strike a good balance. I think you only get in trouble when you’re forcing characters in directions they wouldn’t go. You need to really know who you’re writing.
I feel like the title is also guilty of playing with our expectations, as it immediately leads us to make assumptions about what we’re going to see. How did you land on the title and what was the thinking behind it?
It just came to me and I didn’t question it. It felt like a good continuation of the movie. Who’s the devil? Is Lola being led on by Amy? Or is Lola a total psycho?
The guilt Lola is feeling is very self-destructive, and this film really allowed me to take that feeling to the absolute extreme where she basically self-combusts. That was really fun.
Ellyn Jameson’s performance is crucial to the unpredictable nature of the film, with her portrayal of Lola bringing both tension and humour to the story. How did you work with Ellyn to develop the character and give her this particular edginess and energy?
Ellyn is just a really committed and gifted actor. She’s able to play really high stakes very honestly which is really, really hard. We didn’t have a ton of conversations. She just got the story immediately and knew what the character was going through on a very personal level. I told her to play everything at a 10 and she did and it was so fun to watch.
You also star in the film as David. How do you balance the roles of director and actor and what have you found works best for making sure you’re able to give both roles the attention they need?
Not very well. I think they get in the way of each other. Directing tenses you up, it’s a struggle. The only benefit is that you end up spending zero time in front of the monitor, and ultimately I think that’s a great gift. Keeps you in the moment.
I want the writing to dictate what we’re filming, and I like to think very practically, and trust that we’ll find great shots just by following the story.
Sarah Whelden’s cinematography does an excellent job of placing us in Lola’s headspace, as she feels increasingly isolated and on edge while searching for her ‘missing’ friend. How did you work with Sarah to develop the visual language of the short?
Location scouts were very helpful. Even though I made that rookie mistake of not bringing stand-ins, they were incredibly productive. Sarah has great instincts and thinks very efficiently about coverage so we had a really great time coming up with shots. I’m not big on mood boards, I really hate making them. I want the writing to dictate what we’re filming, and I like to think very practically, and trust that we’ll find great shots just by following the story.
Last time we spoke, you mentioned that you were working on the screenplay for your first feature film. Is that something you’re still developing and do you have any other exciting projects you’d like to share with our audience?
I’m currently casting my debut feature Drug Test Cowboy. It’s a character based story about a lone traveler who lands in Los Angeles for a lucrative clinical trial that completely shatters the foundation of his life. It’s very, very different from Best Friends with the Devil, which has been tricky to navigate.
Finally, this is a question we’re asking all the filmmakers we talk to for Directors Notes: what’s one short film by another filmmaker that you’d recommend to our audience and what makes it so special?
I saw a short film from the Netherlands at SXSW that I really loved called A Shot at Art by Ilke Paddenburg, about two women who volunteer at an art museum. Super provocative and funny, and masterfully cast. The two leads are just perfect. You rarely see 60-something-year-old women humanized this way. It’s so funny and endearing.
