Venus

Director Jaume Balagueró is internationally known mostly for his Rec zombie flicks, and one more time he dwells into the pits of the horror genre - and he delivers: Venus is a well made trip with a solid production and good acting. The story: a dancer girl takes a good load of drugs from a drug lord and then gets some more deep trouble because some elderly women have some devilish plans of their own. Venus is for sure not a new classic or brilliant movie and will not stir as much fuzz as the first Rec movie did, but in the endless ocean of mediocre to bad horror movies that are produced these days, it is an entertaining entry, and that's not the worst thing to say about a movie of that genre.

And a mucho mucho dark horror story coming outta the rather bad ridden parts of madrid of spain, a new queen of the kingdom of darkness is to be found, the desperately searching disciples turns the world into turmoil to find the right person...

at the same time a local drug kingpin is robbed off in his club by one of the clubs dancers. The loot of human demolition aka blue crysalis tablets worth its weight in gold really makes havoc in the gangster community, and a killer squad is sent out to find the thieving magpie...

a very well made spanish mystery horror flick, not the most elaborated story, but neatly dark and bloodgored to the fingertips, cast well chosen for the acts, and the sleuth ideas of a plot will for sure make even the most squemish viewers shed a tear when the clashes of the titans starts. So a recommend from the grumpy old man.

Jaume Balagueró is a filmmaker who loves telling stories about horrors that take place in apartments. REC, REC², Sleep Tight, To Let, Inquilinos (short).. the list goes on. Venus is a genre-bender with heavy inclinations towards cosmic horror (loosely inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Dreams in the Witch House"). Venus begins as a crime-drama about stolen drugs, though the film drops early hints about the horrors that await the protagonist Lucía. Things aren't what they seem, and there are mysteries surrounding the building she takes refuge in, i.e. Her sister's residence. Fernando Navarro's writing gives nearly equal footing to both crime and horror angles, but I was obviously more invested in the latter.

The visual style of Balagueró is still something to watch out for, and when coupled with practical effects, the outcome in certain scenes is a Lovecraftian horror fan's wet dream. That said, the way both stories eventually blend into one isn't really smooth, and as a viewer, you have no choice but to lean into the absurdity of it all. Ester Expósito gets a meaty role and she's the only one in the film to come out looking absolutely badass. The other characters purely exist as victims or villains. The finale will leave some viewers perplexed (like, THAT'S IT?) whereas some may deem it poetic justice.

This was at least a little original and was well acted throughout. It was actually a great watch until the end. It was like the writer couldn't figure out how to end the film. It felt cheap and rushed. Also, considering there was lots of blood, there was nothing horrific or scary about it. It couldn't decide if it wanted to focus on the crime aspect or the supernatural. This is definitely worth a watch, but it could have been sooooo much more than the mediocre offering it became. In the right hands, this movie would be served well with a remake, that focuses more on the supernatural, adds a few more kills, and cleans up that absolutely idiotic ending.

An argument that doesn't seem to be where it's going, and in fact it doesn't know where it's going.

It's the first, bad version of a script that a teenage film student would write in a weekend.

Of course, the ending is not at all predictable, but if it is not at all it is unfortunately for the wrong reason: It is without a doubt the worst part of the film.

It's a bad student scenario.

From the start it doesn't work: a gogo dancer from the "Fabrik" nightclub in Madrid decides to steal pills (the only motive of the film is perhaps to allow the fashionable actress to be sexy while time) in the nightclub where she works and abandoning her car and her cell phone about three meters from the room... to walk to a building from where, inexplicably, she never leaves. Well, after waiting a long time for something exciting to happen, more than three-quarters of the way through the movie, it looks like something is going to happen...

There's satanic cultism in the air, a full moon looks like it's about to trigger an alien invasion, a goddess of evil approaches, and then finally poops, pretty much nothing.

Nothing works, nothing is even correct, it's not horror, it's no longer a thriller, the bad guys seem to come from teletubbies, who are surely smarter!

Ten minutes before the end the heroine, a badass, exclaims: And now we're going to dance; We tell ourselves that at least these last ten minutes will turn into an effective settling of scores against the bad guys, the witches, the monstrous servant, the goddess of evil...

We are treated to a minimalist fight with one of the bad guys, and a shotgun blast at an old woman!

And the ending, yes I'll come back to it again, is so stupid that I felt embarrassed for the director. Because it's hard to believe that the director of Rec could have made such an empty film. Sometimes it's better to retire on time. With such a poorly constructed storyline, it's hard to come up with something decent that can't even be described as cheap teen gore. Another great failure of Spanish cinema which pretends to make horror cinema and puts people to shame.

Don't waste your time on this.