A country with a long film tradition Portugal has, nonetheless, not been known for producing genre fare, a fact that may be beginning to change. Case in point: Coisa Ruim.
This atmospheric chiller opened the 2006 edition of the Fantasporto Festival and if there were any questions about the film receiving preferential treatment thanks to its being a local product, those thoughts disappear in the opening frames. Beautifully shot and augmented with a minimalist score that evokes the work of Daniel Lanois, the film is a subtle, slow burning tale of a haunting in rural Portugal.
When a well respected academic inherits a beautiful, sprawling country home his family expects that he will do the sensible thing: sell it, pocket the money and continue to live a comfortable life in the familiar environs of the big city. But he does exactly the opposite, packing up his wife, children and grandchild and moving them all off to the country against their wishes. And the country is a vastly different place than the city, a place where superstition runs rampant, the local priest still performs exorcisms, and there may just be a thread of truth embedded in the strange, disturbing tales told about their new home.
Built around a carefully nuanced script and strong performances from all involved, Coisa Ruim is a welcome relief from all the noise of most Hollywood films: a film that takes its time to build mood and atmosphere. Rather than slapping you around with sound and fury the film builds its characters carefully while slowly raising the tension. It is a film more concerned with the consequences of the supernatural on this very recognizable family than it is with sensationalizing the supernatural itself – those elements are handled with enough respect that you wonder if the film makers are themselves believers - and when the supernatural forces involved finally becomes abundantly, evidently real that investment in character pays off with a finale that lingers long after the last frame has played.
Coisa Ruim functions primarily on two levels: it is a sharply observed film about family gone wrong and also a very intelligent look at the tension between reason and faith and the dangers inherent in having blind faith in reason. The family dynamic is marvelously nuanced, whether in the lingering tensions between daughter and father and her choice to have a child by an unnamed father, the passive aggressive hostility of the oldest son’s flat refusal to move with the rest of the family, the youngest son’s complete retreat into himself, or the parent’s gradually building resentment of one another. The discussion of the role of faith is no less multifaceted, whether the young priest struggling with his predecessor’s performance of unnecessary exorcism to soothe the fear of his parishioners or the city family’s refusal to say anything to each other about the strange visions, sounds and events they are experiencing for fear of being mocked by the rest of the family. This is an unusual film that takes very seriously the possibility that the supernatural may be very real and is ignored at our peril while it also recognizes the way that superstition is manipulated by the unscrupulous to wield power over believers.
This is a film that demands its audience to think, working through mood and tone and a sense of quiet restraint, presenting a world where more is hinted at than demonstrated, a world where there are many possibilities to be navigated. Beautifully shot in a magnificently decaying old country home the visuals consistently underline the disorientation that the family feels: are these visions real? Are the strange sounds a sign of something supernatural or is it only their minds playing tricks on them as they adjust to a new lifestyle in a strange new location? The camera work is outstanding and the entire cast believable through and through. As the supernatural element slowly builds the tension becomes palpable until it final reaches its tragic, cathartic conclusion.
A fiercely intelligent slow burner with a deeply human heart Coisa Ruim is a throwback to the sort of intelligent, adult oriented horror films that haven’t been made on these shores since the seventies. The are no scream queens here, just a serious look at the possibilities of the supernatural. Seek this one out if at all possible.