Álex de la Iglesia's Veneciafrenia, on paper, is a film right up my alley. It is one of those vacation-gone-awry films that works when it's being a pure slasher, and fails when it tries to be a lot more. As someone who lives on the other side of the world, the initial scenes centered around protests in Venice towards ocean liners (and the thousands of Instagram-happy tourists they bring) was news to me, which I had to Google more about. The concept is intriguing, and works fine for a slasher. The protagonists are your typical not-so-likeable tourists who'd do anything just to have a good time, and it was difficult to get behind any of their antics. At times, they're plain stupid. In a film like this, it's mostly the antagonists that you're eyeing. The creepy jester is a scary addition to that universe, and so are the rest of them in masks.
But I wish we didn't have to know so much about them. Retaining some level of mystery around these angry locals would have made it more enjoyable. There's a bigger conspiracy at play, and except for some of the jester's carelessly-yet-magnificently executed savagery, the thrills are lacking. Pablo Rosso's cinematography work captures Venice in darker tones, which is apt given the plot. The ending is also rather tame - you expect a BANG, but turns out, it's just a whimper!
