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5 noir stories that inspired us to create Pecaminosa

Pecaminosa · published 18 Oct 2023, 13:14 UTC

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Happy Wednesday, detectives!

We’re back with a new story around Pecaminosa’s development — this time, focused on our inspirations to create its mysterious and decadent world. The Cereal Games team grew up enjoying noir movies and dreamed of tributing these wonderful classic stories with a unique work of our own.

Yet classic noir cinema was important to us, many other enriching films and series came after them to help us define this aspiration better. Today, we’re mentioning five of them that are strongly connected to Pecaminosa’s essence. The last one will probably surprise you a lot!

Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987)

In this neo-noir film, private eye Harry Angel is hired to track down a famous pop singer who was critically injured during World War II. During the investigation, Angel will uncover a macabre occult plot that will change his life forever.

The most important thing we took from Angel Heart was the idea of a surprising narrative twist mixed with occult elements. In Pecaminosa, the existence of the supernatural is a certain thing from the beginning — it’s not every day that the spirit of a dead mobster asks you to investigate his old partners, you know. However, it's not until John goes down the rabbit hole that we begin to glimpse the full meaning of this “ghost story”.

Besides this, we loved Mickey Rourke for moving his character away from the idea of the fearless paladin — detective Angel is a normal guy doing his job in very unfortunate circumstances. Some kind of unwitting hero who constantly fights against his desire to flee away, let's say… Just like the good ol’ John Souza.

Midnight, Texas (NBC, 2017)

Named after the book series by Charlaine Harris, creator of True Blood, Midnight Texas tells the story of a young psychic who moves to a small community where supernatural beings live. The protagonist, along with his new neighbors, will run an investigation to learn about the strange forces that seem to be attracting all sorts of bad things there.

Midnight, Texas inspired the creation of Pecaminosa, a border town between the United States and Mexico that is under some sort of evil influence. Political corruption, drugs, violent crimes... all of them, happening at the same time everywhere. Too much to be just about human affairs, don’t you think?

John will uncover the truth as he investigates the business dealings of his most recent client, dead Charlie "Two Angels", and some of his living “friends”. Fortunately for him, there are allies worth counting on even in a place like this. Together, they will learn who’s the shadow ruler of this sinful settlement.

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

Considered by critics to be the last great American noir production, Touch of Evil tells the story of a Mexican police officer who must solve a crime near the border with the United States. Mike Vargas will have to fight against the corruption of the U.S. police to solve the case, as they will not hesitate to fabricate evidence to frame an innocent man.

We love everything about this film, as well as its great director. Orson Welles is a man of taste, so here we find really intense plot twists that keep you on edge from the beginning to the end and an exquisite visual language rarely seen in neo-noir films these days.

Last but not least, we love that Orson Welles' idiosyncrasy is part of the film's script through a strong social critique focused on the legal shenanigans of border problems in the United States and police corruption. It is a film that, in a way, is still relevant today.

Sin City (Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, 2005) / The Spirit (Frank Miller, 2008)

Sin City lets you explore the dark alleyways of Basin City, a miserable city where justice is dead, by three of its inhabitants: each of them, with a unique story originally by Frank Miller published as three separate comic books named The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill and That Yellow Bastard. As for the Spirit, based on Will Eisner’s work, it follows a unique protagonist who’s tragically murdered but returns from the dead as a vigilante with a mission.

As a great exponent of neo-noir cinema, Frank Miller had to be part of this list. In addition, we have decided to include both Sin City and The Spirit because they share many narrative and visual elements. Born as comic adaptations, they tell corruption and revenge stories happening in crime infested cities, with dark anti-heroes, all sorts of villains and beautiful femme fatales with tragic destinies.

‘Pecaminosa’ comes from the word “peccō”, which means “sin” in Latin… so you can see how much Frank Miller's work influenced us.

The Meaning of Life (Monty Python, 1983)

Under the pretext of finding out the meaning of our existence, Monty Python explores every phase of life through sketches full of crazy situations. Usually, with sharp criticism towards a society trapped between conservative ideas and savage capitalism.

Those who follow us know our curious sense of humor, dark and sometimes non-sense, partially inherited from Monty Python. As for its presence in Pecaminosa, we’d say the film that had the biggest impact on it was The Meaning of Life.

Characters like Charlie ‘Two Angels’ Roger Moon and Manuel Tender always show off a special level of foolishness that tribute the British quintet. Also, we should mention that this movie gave us the idea to structure Pecaminosa in chapters.

Did you know about any of them? Let us know in the comments section below and mention your favorite, or the one you’d give a chance to. If you feel like having an extended conversation on this topic, join our Discord server to meet us personally. Plus, there you can ask for further updates on Pecaminosa: A Deadly Hand!