I could say in a most simplistic way that "1996" is another found footage horror movie that easily scare audiences or maybe not interest those
who had seen this device being overdone. But to quote a film critic, "It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it". And director/writer
Rodrigo Brandão makes of this common place element something unique, curious, exciting, thrilling and amazingly nostalgic that truly takes us back
to 1996 without relying on a massive budget. And more than taking us back to that year, he takes us back to a particular event that shook a smalltown, and later on
the rest of Brazil and the world of which many people still have doubts if everything that happened actually happened or not. The short film is a
fictional stretch on something that allegedly happened and with such combo one could only create something interesting to be seen.
The event in question was the alleged apperance of extraterrestrial creatures and UFO's in the city of Varginha, on 20 January 1996. Here, we follow
two girls (Yuly Amaral and Léa Nogueira) on their way to make a school project but they get lost in the forementioned city where strange things start to
happen; and all was confusingly captured by the video camera of one of them, who records everything about their journey much to the annoyance of the
other driving the car.
The film is impressive all the way, from the quiet dramatic moments, some bits of humor and then the horror of it all. Mr. Brandão really did his
homework as researching the actual date where it was first reported the alleged apparation as declared by three witnesses, he probably read the
descriptions given about the creature as detailed by a military then; and also the video format, the art-direction and soundtrack use, all of it that
presents 1996 as it was and without anachronisms. Everything's precise and authentic.
Obviously that in order to make something compelling he used of the horror and some imagination as
the things he shows never happened, but it's one of those things audiences unfamiliar with the case will keep asking, what it had happened? Like the
Roswell incident, it's one of those cases with countless conspiracy theories that there's plenty of room for imagination and filmmakers feel compelled to explore
possibilities. And for doing so, Mr. Brandão injects a theory and makes it interesting and frightening enough for us to care, and the level of quality
brought on resulted in one of the most interesting, fun and spooky short films I've ever seen. 10/10.
