O Cemitério das Almas Perdidas

CEMETERY OF LOST SOULS is a Brazilian Horror film which had the potential to be excellent but lets the audience down in the last third.

The movie intertwines two story lines, one set during the time of the Portuguese Conquistadors, and one set in the present. In the historical story, a Jesuit Priest who stole a Grimoir (Black book of magic) leads a group of seafarers to the new land (Brazil) where they encounter natives and promptly massacre them. Subsequent events carry the fate of his group into the present, when a traveling theater troupe specializing in horror shows is a little too successful in convincing the local population that they are in a pact with the devil.

The strongest aspects of this film are the highly polished visuals. The production design is very atmospheric and many shots are simply beautiful. The story itself, drawing on Brazil's colonial history and touching on issues of race and superstition is also quite good, rich with interesting subplots that contribute to the overall picture, all the while offering a few twists here and there. The narrative is occasionally non-linear but this does not distract too much from understanding.

Regrettably, in the third act the film devolves into a splatterfest which at times borders on the silly. Even though there is plenty of bloods and guts in the earlier parts, it feels like this act belongs to a different film, as the story itself basically reaches the climax about half an hour before the movie ends. The few twists offered at the end of the film to tie everything together therefore fall flat.

Had the movie maintained the high quality of story development throughout the last act, it could have been spectacular. As it stands, the strengths of the movie only partially compensate for this major shortcoming.

For non-Portuguese speakers, the dubbing may also be an issue: the dialogue itself is fine, but the sound design of the voices does not match the acoustics suggested by the visuals well, and this took me out of the movie several times. If I had a choice, I would have preferred subtitles.

Rodrigo Aragão's films are made for a guy like me: one who haunted the video store several times a week devouring horror movies. That was also the time of the SOV '80s when you could mail order horror films out of the back of magazines. Today, you can easily find most of these films on platforms such as You Tube or the Internet Archive. . . .

Aragão brings it: Creepy carnivals workers, Satanism, cursed cemeteries, the occult, along with all the dirt, grime, gore and oozing and crumbling zombies we want, and more!

The enjoyment, here, is that it takes me back to the works of Ruben Galindo Jr., with his own Cementerio del terror (1985) and Ladrones de tumbas (1989). As with Coscarelli's Phantasm or Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, I return to Galindo's and Aragão's work, often. Each are low-budget delights to behold. If you're a horror dog, more so a fan of low-budget films or SOVs, give 'em each a watch.

It is the Americans with the films of the Russian and Arab enemies and the Brazilians with the Portuguese, demons that they invoked are Cyprian.lol ir kkkkkkkk.

Well done horror action film from Brazil, with a lot of gore, creepy dark magic with religious tones, unconventionally portrayed vampire myth elements, and a two-period background ranging from Portuguese colonization and butchery of Indians and a contemporary travelling circus delivering its horror show in a tiny town with religious fanatic denizens. While there are few not so good moments, and the story is indeed a little confusing, the merits are remarkable, particularly considering the genre: awesome sets, art direction, make-up, soundtrack, light... everything leading to a quite spooky atmosphere.

After finding Kriya (2020-also reviewed) to be welcomed surprising film,I decided to check what else was being streamed at the Abertoir Horror Festival. With my pick of the last stream the day before having gone so well, I choose to do the same a second time,and enter the cemetery.

Note:This review contains plot details.

View on the film:

Entering the cemetery to a opening dedication to film maker Coffin Joe/ Jose Mojica Marins, writer/director Rodrigo Aragao & cinematographer Alexandre Barcelos dig their nails into Brazilian Horror with gloriously decadent splatter effects,as the Jesuit and his blood-thirsty followers paint the screen red with practical effect head smashing spewing crimson.

Locking the Jesuit inside graves with his cult for 100's of years, Aragao breaks them out with icy blues across the cemetery, whisked away in close-ups of blood- curdling cackles from their return.

As gore is sprayed all over the place, the screenplay by Aragao attempts a uneasy, but ambitious balance of supernatural chops with the shadows from the horrors of colonialism,where the serious manner in which massacre of the indigenous is presented, feels at odds with the pulpy chunks covering the cemetery of lost souls.