Descendents

After a devastating war has left the world polluted, a group of Chilean children who are able to survive in the toxic world navigate through the treacherous, zombie-infested world in order to find a sea-side sanctuary.

This didn't turn out to be all that great of an effort. The main problem here is the decidedly haphazard manner it's story runs through all sorts of rather inane and useless side-plots that don't offer up anything remotely interesting throughout. The concept of a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by zombies is a concept that in itself is done to death and hardly interesting in the slightest, and to counter this the concept of having children grow a gill-like appendage to breathe through but other than that it's hardly all that new and this feature isn't explored or even granted enough time to really make a mark on what it means. All sorts of clues are guessed at, but it never gives a definitive explanation for anything since it's too busy with the single most irritating flaw in this, the constant sentimental strains and melodramatic turns it provides. This plays out more like a dark children's fantasy tale about their survival in the landscape more than being munched on by zombies or forcing them to face any kind of fears or life-lessons along the way as this constantly has them sitting around talking about the world at large or what it means to miss their parents who are left behind. The dreams and constant memory-fades that this wallows in are for the most part the main source of inspiration through this so it really doesn't bring in a lot of opportunities for zombie carnage throughout though that is on offer as well. The make-up isn't bad and the gore is certainly serviceable as the early attacks at the compound and their escape attempt are about the main threats by the creatures throughout this, so they take on the main gist of the action scenes here but otherwise there's just not enough spread throughout the rest of the film to really justify the remaining flaws being so persistent and focused in here.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, constant issues of children-in-jeopardy, Graphic Language and drug use.

DESCENDENTS is a cheap Chilean post-apocalypse movie in which the central character is a bland little girl who wanders around having lost her parents. The film was apparently shot on the ultra-cheap and in just ten days, which gives some indication as to the reasons why it feels so rushed and amateurish.

I don't mind cheap films if they have good stories, because after all good stories cost nothing. However, this one doesn't. The main character is dull beyond belief and attempts to turn this into a zombie movie fall flat time and time again with ridiculous overacting extras. To disguise the paucity of his film, the director includes lots of camera effects, alongside filters, flashbacks, and plenty more in an attempt to distract the viewer, but needless to say I saw straight through all that. In the end, DESCENDENTS has nothing to say of any note.

South American cinema at its most powerful. Jose Olguin, director of the fascinating film, Eternal Blood, has left a deep mark upon Chilean cinema and it is clear why his impact has been so profound with this masterpiece. This motion picture certainly is an attempt to reconcile Chile's history of military dictatorships and violation of human rights with the enlightened nation it has become. Beautifully filmed with stylistic cinematic flourish, the imagery is hauntingly stark and surrealistic in intent. Some of what is depicted involving the innocents is shocking but justifiable in light of the artistic purposes of the director. The film is unrated or NC- 17 because of the violence directed at children but these sequences are clearly misinterpreted in their true meaning as metaphor. In the end, Olquin refers stunningly to Magic Realism and the film's conclusion is overwhelmingly mesmerizing. A true treasure of Chile's cinematic legacy.

Jore Olguin, visionary director and auteur, has taken a quite minimal budget and fashioned a masterpiece from it. With haunting imagery and surrealistic cinematographic effects, Olguin's saga of children surviving a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by zombies and killer soldiers unlike anything filmed before. The zombie genre has been overused and is a tired but this is a return to Romero's original concept and it is a stunning accomplishment. The unrelenting horror can sometimes be overwhelming and while it may be necessary to turn away and regain one's composure, this is ultimate a very satisfactory film experience indeed. The Chilean locations heightens the feeling of other worldliness and the sense of an out-of- kilter existence beautifully. An artistic metaphor for how humanity collectively fears the outsider, this is an important and memorable film.

Beyond Geroge Romero there has not been a zombie film that's loaded with this much social/political commentary. Jorge Olguin's 2002 follow-up to SANGRE ETERNA aka ETERNAL BLOOD is a very strong and original post-apocalyptic/Sci-fi/horror movie. For about a half a million dollars, the movie was shot in ten days, with mostly young children ranging from five to ten years old. The children's acting may not be up to par and some of the effects surely reflect the lack of budget & time but DESCENDENTS/SOLOS is a truly dark and disturbing movie set in a dystopian world that looks like a low budget mixture of 28 DAYS LATER and CHILDREN OF MEN, with strong echoes to Chile's past as a military dictatorship. Jorge Olguin is a talent to definitely keep an eye on.