Three Films Make A Post: Will you win, Godzilla? Will you win, Kong? The battle of the century!

Copycat (1995): There are two reasons why Jon Amiel’s serial killer thriller is anything more than a slick adaptation of an overconstructed script. And since these reasons are called Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter, and both are in their fullest screen presence modes, this silly concoction about a serial killer who is basically a serial killer cover band turns into a tour de force commanded by two actresses who drag every bit of possible substance out of very little. This sort of thing can absolutely elevate mediocrity into a greatly entertaining movie, as the film thoroughly proves.

Malasaña 32 (2020): Some of the set pieces in Alberto Pintó’s movie about a Spanish family in the 70s moving from the country into what turns out to be a haunted apartment are very well done and effective. However, this is the type of horror movie that can only ever treat and see its supernatural threat as a reason for set pieces and plot twists, and never manages to cohere the political troubles of the time it suggests, the family’s experience moving from the country to the city in hopes of a better life, and the backstory of the supernatural threat into any kind of thematically coherent argument.

The horror pieces themselves tend to the grab-bag approach where thematic coherence or coherence of mood never appear to be of interest to the filmmakers, either. All the easier to borrow heavily from all kinds of sources, be it Poltergeist – a much superior film – or creepypasta.

Embrace of the Serpent aka El abrazo de la serpiente (2023): There’s a certain kinship between Ciro Guerra’s film and Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, Cobra Verde and Fitzcarraldo in the way naturalism and sudden outbreaks of the surreal intertwine, as well as in its location.

However, this is a film made by someone from a very different time and place, so there are as many differences in approaches and world view as there are similarities – Guerra certainly isn’t a Herzog cover band. The film’s treatment of colonialism, Western scientific and Amazonian traditional culture comes from a very different direction, but Guerra generally doesn’t simplify and keeps certain differences unresolved, philosophical questions answered from two opposing directions at once.

As a film this is an act of deep worldbuilding, making ways of looking at and being in the world understandable by slowly drawing a viewer into them, full immersion in a style only a handful of directors use these days (Robert Eggers comes to mind).

In short: El Callejón (2011)

Blind Alley (2011)

During an insomniac night before the audition that might mean her big break as a dancer and finish her career as a cleaning lady, Rosa (Ana de Armas) ends up in her corner washing salon. There, she meet-cutes a charming if slightly strange young man called Gabriel (Diego Cadavid), and things would be all set for a bit of romance, if this were a romantic comedy that is, and not a horror film with a bit of a sense of humour. So, inevitably and rather unfortunately, all may not be as it seems with Gabriel – most men I know at least don’t spend their night washing bloody women’s clothing – and Rosa’s night just might get exciting in a rather different way than the set-up suggests.

Antonio Trashorras’s Spanish/Colombian co-production is a simple, clever, sometimes ironic and pretty stylish piece of suspense horror that – as many a good low budget film does for obvious reasons – concentrates on a handful of actors (mostly Ana de Armas and Diego Cadavid, really) and locations and a straightforward plot. There are no distractions, and no attempts at doing things it’s not actually possible for the film to achieve, yet I never had the impression the film is any poorer for it. In fact, if El Callejón is anything, even in its little moments of humorous asides, it’s a film made by someone in control of his material, and very much willing and able to turn the simple set-up into an old-fashioned (as in 80s and early 90s horror, not as in Karloff) fun little horror film without pretensions that knows “unpretentious” doesn’t have to mean dumb.

Trashorras’s direction is dynamic (there’s even some fun use of that weirdest of traditional techniques, split screen), his use of colour moody and oh-so-un-2011 (which is to say, colours exist and might even mean something!), and the film never stops for breath once it’s got going. Add to this a charming performance by Ana de Armas, and there’s nothing to stop me from calling El Callejón a fun not-so-little romp.

Technorati-Markierungen: spanish movies,colombian movies,in short,horror,antonio trashorras,ana de armas,diego cadavid

Three Films Make A Post: One Cop. One Vigilante. Alone, they're unstoppable. Together, they're invincible!

Hugo (2011): Now, it would be quite easy to put on my cynical hat here and treat this as your typical Oscar bait movie, seeing as it contains children, is a heart-warming hymn on the art of film making, and has a very self-conscious happy end where everyone and everything wins. However, that’s not at all how Hugo feels to me. Instead, I see a heart-felt film made with all the love Scorsese so obviously feels for the history of movies and specifically Georges Méliès, created with a loving hand primarily for the eyes of his daughter. It’s a film whose happy end incorporates the sides of life that aren’t happy at all, a film that implies one of the things that makes us love art is its ability to fix the wrongs and injustices of life in it, seeing cinema’s happy ends as a way to push us into making happy ends in the world too.

Out of the Dark (2014): Director Lluís Quílez’s attempt to crack the US market is certainly a technically accomplished film but for a movie featuring the basic creepy menace of ghost children with rags on their faces, it feels surprisingly harmless, with little content that could actually disturb. That might be on account of the highly basic nature of its characterizations (seriously, could Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman be any blander?), and the obvious and predictable nature of every little thing that happens in it.

While I don’t exactly need everything grim and gritty (as my appreciation of Hugo shows), I’d also have wished for the film’s resolution to have felt less like an afternoon special and more like something with actual emotional impact, but then, that would – again – have needed some actual character work or depth, and that’s not something this particular film seems comfortable with.

The ABCs of Death 2 (2014): As a concept, this anthology movie series really is difficult to beat, because while you won’t like everything in here, the shortness of each single piece makes it difficult to become too annoyed by the ones you don’t like. Among the 26 short films here, there’s the stupid, the silly, the misanthropic, the clever, the disquieting and the gosh-darn bizarre, mixed via the awesome powers of the alphabet, and created by directors from all over the globe. To my tastes, there’s a lot more to like than to dislike here. At least, I found myself in turn laughing, shaking my head, looking puzzled and feeling mildly disgusted, and what more could I ask from a project like this?

Technorati-Markierungen: american movies,colombian movies,drama,fantasy,comedy,horror,martin scorsese,ben kingsley,lluís quílez,julia stiles,scott speedman

In short: The Squad (2011)

Original title: El páramo

Colombia. A squad of soldiers is supposed to secure the perimeter around a fog-shrouded mountain base of their own forces their HQ has lost contact with and wait outside the base until reinforcements arrive. After one of the men - following another of his colleagues who is racing up the mountain to enter the base against all orders - steps onto a mine that blows up his leg and the squad's radio, it becomes necessary for them to bring him into the base's infirmary or let him die.

Once at the base, the squad nor only finds the place empty, but also left in a state that suggests violence and something that's more off than just a guerrilla attack. One of the base's store rooms is filled with scrawled protection spells and has a bloody chicken foot hanging from the ceiling, suggesting madness or something worse. A little later, one of the men realizes that there's a freshly built wall in the store room. Walled in behind it is a tied up woman (Daniela Catz) who seems utterly crazy, which does not exactly come as a surprise given the circumstances. She soon escapes the not very tender mercies of the soldiers, leaving behind the corpse of their sadistic sergeant. After that, the already high tensions and unspoken troubles between the men begin to mount even further, and soon, they begin to crack in different ways, all of them slowly losing their minds just as the men who were at the base before them seem to have had.

It's interesting to realize there are by now enough movies about small groups of soldiers getting stranded in isolated areas with possible supernatural influences and being confronted with their own flaws and guilt to make up their own little sub-genre of generally psychologically complex, often capital-w Weird horror movies. Obviously, this type of horror movie is all too fitting for a time when the illusion of a good war fought by honourable men is something only right wing creeps still possess.

Jaime Osorio Marquez's Colombian variation (part of what looks like a minor horror wave from that country) on the form and the expected themes is a very fine film, putting heavy emphasis on a decrepit and doomed mood and characterisation that is more subtle than I at first expected. How supernatural the supernatural agency in this particular case actually is kept ambiguous until the bitter end; it's never completely clear if the soldiers are punishing themselves or if they have stepped under the influence of a punishing force; if the woman they find is a pitiable victim of men just like them, or something come to punish them, or just a shared hallucination.

Marquez keeps the reasons for the soldiers' guilt ambiguous for a long time too, and when it's time for him to reveal them, he's not going the long-winded flashback route and instead trusts his audience to understand things even if they aren't explained in excruciating detail. Not surprisingly, it's a decision that makes an already strong film even stronger and more emotionally resonant; the details of the soldiers' war crimes aren't - after all - important when it comes to showing us their guilt and their descent into open madness. The film seems to suggest that the protagonists were already "mad" when they did what now comes to haunt them, but that this hidden form of madness is really what is expected of soldiers; losing one's humanity is par for the course.

 

Technorati-Markierungen: colombian movies,in short,horror,jaime osorio marquez

Three Films Make A Post: Means Horror!

Kain Kafan Perawan (2010): A bunch of pretty and stupid young people tries to film a documentary in a haunted railroad coach. Only one of them survives the ensuing meeting with the resident ghost, who proceeds to hitch a ride with her and terrorizes her and her big sister and various other people.

Ghost! Scream! Ghost! Run! Ghost! Ghost! Run! Scream! Ghost! Whimper!

That's about all of this Indonesian teen horror movie's content. There's no theme, no characterization, no mood and no plot, instead one unoriginal shock after the other, with nary a pause for breath. It's too bad, really, because director Nayato (Fio Nuala) manages to make his probably ultra-cheap movie look quite alright through judicious use of fog and blue light, and could probably produce something atmospheric if he put his mind to it. Alas, it's just all running and screaming, all the time.

Gehara (2009): Charming short film that functions as a parodic homage to the kaiju genre, especially the films of Shusuke Kaneko, although there are also a lot of old school kaiju elements to be found. Quite different from a lot of genre parodies, this is short enough not to overstay its welcome and seems driven by actual affection for and knowledge of the genre it is making fun of.

And, you know, it's about a smelly, hairy (hippie?) monster that is conquered with the help of a really big ventilator.

Triangulo de Oro (1983?): For a deeper look at Colombian director of the fantastic Javier Pinilla, I'd recommend you have a look at an excellent article and triple review on Braineater.

Unfortunately, this one, an adventure movie about a chubby, mono-browed shirt-hating guy wearing a leather vest on his naked chest trying to first save his sister from certain death and then steal a magic golden triangle from a very strange island, doesn't even seem worth watching for the lover of the campy and bizarre. On paper, Triangulo is full of the good stuff of crappy adventure movies: bad martial arts, man-eating bushes, teleporting golden triangles, a very dubious looking hero who is named after his own boat (well, or the other way around) and a direction style that looks self-taught in all the good and all the bad meanings of the word. But all that good stuff is buried under so much tediousness: scenes that don't need to be in the film at all, other scenes that run on and on and on without mercy, much annoying running back and forth and an awful lot of repetition. This tendency to tediousness turns what should be a fun sixty minute ride into ninety minutes of boredom that feel like four hours.

It really is quite a shame, because Pinilla's direction and his crazier ideas hint at the potential for something entertaining in the same honestly enthusiastic way Turkish pop cinema is entertaining.

Technorati-Tags: indonesian movies,japanese movies,colombian movies,adventure,horror,kaiju,in short