Mars Volta’s Lopez Has Directing Debut

Feature film The Sentimental Engine Slayer will premiere Feb. 4 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. View the freaky trailer below.

By Blurt Staff

While The Sentimental Engine Slayer is not the first venture as a director for the Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez -- he also created two unreleased films, 2001's A Manual Dexterity and 2003's Letters from Dystopia -- it is his first feature released to the public. Made on a relatively small budget using money borrowed from a close friend and Rodriguez Lopez's parents, the cast and crew worked diligently on location in El Paso, TX to bring the project to fruition.

The Sentimental Engine Slayer tells the tale of the overdue coming of age of a 20-something misfit named Barlam (played by Rodriguez-Lopez). Set against the backdrop of drug-addled suburban El Paso sometime in the not-too-distant future, Barlam's awkward transition from boy to man is as much the story of struggling to find one's essence in a world of stereotypes as it is an indictment of the distorted reality of family life in the disengaged 21st Century. For a more detailed plot synopsis, check out the film's IMDB page.

In between his work with the Mars Volta, producing Juliette Lewis and collaborating with the likes of Hans Zimmer, John Frusciante and Erykah Badu, Rodriguez-Lopez also found time to learn the craft of filmmaking, familiarizing himself with the process by way of producing two unreleased films (2001's A Manual Dexterity and 2003's Letters from Dystopia) in lieu of any formal training. The Sentimental Engine Slayer, is the director's debut feature release. Despite a virtually continuous commitment to the process of recording and touring with his various bands, Rodriguez-Lopez has managed to complete two more films since principal production on The Sentimental Engine Slayer wrapped in 2007; El Divino Influjo De Los Secretos (2008) and Boiling Death Request (2009) are both currently in post-production.