El Cerro de los Dioses

Paula (Paula Muñoz) , a documentary director, and his cameraman Marc (Jaume Ulled) investigate an influencer, an actress and an auteur film director who have been invited to 'La siega', a celebration in a small town in Castilla la Mancha called Fuentelsaz del Campo with the intention of offering their souls to an ancient God, in order to get fame and success. But inexplicably one of the team , Pedro Muñoz, disappears .

The first feature film directed by the Spanish filmmaker Daniel M. Caneiro, after a long career in the world of short films, is a film that mixes different genres , in a kind of mockumentary that has as its starting point the disappearance of Pedro Muñoz. The project tries to tell something from formal originality, which works quite well in this type of bizarre story, attempting to be original and in many moments it seems that the characters move without following a course or an established script. This film mingles the ¨Found footage¨ subject , along with interviews in semi-documentary style and the subgenre of the strange and usually terrifying events that take place in the rural world : peasant romances , fantastic disappearances, thrillers set on farms, and violent rednecks preparing horrible surprises for tourists, such as: ¨The Wicker Man , version 1973¨ by Robin Hardy , ¨The Wicker man , 2006 version¨ by Neil LaBute and ¨The Texas Chainsaw Massacre¨ by Tobe Hooper or the extensive saga of ¨Childfren of Corn¨ and the recent ¨Midsommar¨ (2019) by Ari Aster .

The film has gone through different national fantastic film festivals, among which Sitges, Nocturna de Bilbao and Fant de Bilbao and it stands out since it has many elements of genre cinema, with an enigmatic background , and some excessive and nasty mystery . The movie focuses on various cinema genres , and it works better for me when it uses irony to make people laugh in various situations, partly thanks to the freedom of movement given to the performers. The highlight of the movie is the complex edition as well as the originality of the project and the worst one results to be the script , it is quite uneven and does not work as a thriller . El Cerro de los Dioses is a small surprise that fans of genre cinema will appeal despite its flaws and gaps , and it also finds a certain originality in its curious mix of formats and in that rural horror based on a real town in Castilla la Mancha. The script is quite weak and could be improved, although it has some positive aspects, especially the editing, which I think is of quality, since it is responsible for being able to connect these different chaotic stories.

This displays a quite complicated intrigue with a largely real mythology , which at times keeps the viewer glued to the screen , to culminate by entering fully into terror. The different formats that we see on the screen give a very fresh air to the film, which manages to maintain interest enough in a brief 80-minute footage, despite the fact that it is lost in certain scenes that contribute little or nothing to the plot. In the interpretive section we find a number of well-known names in Spanish cinema with merely anecdotal roles, but their protagonists do a very correct job that adds interest to the film.

Among the cast, Paula Muñoz stands out, in the role of the director, Christian Caner as Pedro, the disappeared man and partner of the filmmaker, some well-known faces and cameos from popular actors who speak of "fame", such as : Raúl Arévalo, Alain Hernández , Isabel Coixet, José Corbacho, Macarena Gómez , Melina Matthews , Patricia Montero Isabel Coixet, José Corbacho, Macarena Gómez, Raúl Arévalo , Will Shephard and Itziar Castro who steals scenes with a haunting role , giving us the funniest moments. Jaume Ulled completes the cast as Marc, the cameraman who moves to Fuentelsaz del Campo with Paula . This Castilian-La Mancha little town is another of the protagonists of this feature film, in that strange final part and with excessive background music. A very outlandish film, which is not easy to follow, with some moments where it becomes irritating, and those who enjoy conventional cinema will not like it. This film won various prizes and nominations : Sant Cugat Fantàstic 2020 Ganador Jury Prize Best Actor Lluís Altés , Jury Prize Special Mention director Daniel M. Caneiro. Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival 2019 Nominated Vicious Cat Best Feature Film Daniel M. Caneiro . Alicante Film Festival 2019 Nominated Golden Tesela Best Film Daniel M. Caneiro.