Matar el Dragon - I am not making excuses but I was not in the best of conditions to make Jimena Monteoliva's (Clementina) new film my first screening of the market on opening night. I had just arrived in Buenos Aires that morning, twenty-two hours or so after leaving my home in Toronto, and hotel check in was not until six hours later that day. I had to acclimatize to the sudden 25 degree jump in temperature. I'd already gotten lost near my hotel, then near the market venue later, because even though the water does not go down the drain in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere like legend says Google Maps kept sending me in the opposite direction. And I know I got hosed at the intercambia but at that point I didn't care. The first half of the day? Ungood.
We have already written about Jimena's upcoming film but let us recap. Elena was kidnapped when she was a child and some twenty-five years later she is reunited with her brother and his family. Unfortunately the evil that captured her in the first place wants her back and has taken great interest in her brother's family as well.
Jimena's personal motivation for her story telling and filmmaking is consistent with what compelled her when making Clementina. Yet, after watching Mater al Dragon I interpreted the metaphor differently. I am interested to know more about the nightmare that created this story in the first place, see where my interpretation of the metaphor aligns. I am concerned for Jimena that her intended subtext will not get through to her audience.
The distinction between the two worlds is clear, through light and color, through set and production design, and through character portrayal.
The film still has to go through post production and effects work that will make the dark world even darker. Thankfully, the project did win a visual effects package at the end of the market.
El Diablo Blanco - Ignacio Rogers' The White Devil horror film is about a quartet of 30-somethings on a road trip who stop at cottage complex for the night, only to fall afoul of the local legend, El Diablo Blanco.
El Diablo Blanco revisits the remote village protecting a secret horror sub-genre and does an okay job of it. Not particularly gory or horrific it may not have enough thrills to satiate the blood cravings of an international audience. Still, it may stand a chance of breaking out of the Ibero-American region, perhaps finding a spot at a long haul festival with more spots for programming.
Biablo Rojo PTY - So here is the thing about Diablo Rojo PTY. Well, a couple things. I do not know what the PTY stands for and I should have asked director Sol Moreno Frago and her producers about that when we spoke after the screening.
Originally from Panama Sol has been a part of the horror scene in Barcelona over the years and went back to her home country to make its first ever horror film. In an industry that overall is just in its infancy she was the first to make a horror film down there. No one else has done it, let's be the first! Like Mattie Do from Laos, just instead of ballet and things of elegance Sol marches through the muckiest parts of horror with heavy boots on. So there is that tidbit of awesomeness, making the first horror film in your country and you are a women director!
On to the other thing. Is Diablo Rojo PTY any good? Not really. But, as someone pointed out to me afterwards, I'm still talking about it. I think Sol and her crew know D R PTY isn't awesome but there is this DIY Punk approach to their filmmaking that is infectious and commendable. The story is standard issue and serves as a means to get our lost souls from point A to point B. However, and this is important to horror fans, a lot of the effects were practical and in camera. The gore factor is also very appealing, appealing like the scene of a witch pealing her face off with skeletal hands. I really hope they do not cut down the the hilariously overlong length of that particular scene at the end.
Scenes were missing and Sol and her crew said they will replace some of the weaker in camera effects later on. I do not know how far Diablo Rojo PTY is going to go outside of the region. It could be picked up by festivals that simply just appreciate the chutzpah and DIY attitude of Sol and her crew. It could work as a mid week midnighter.
I will definitely want to take a look at the finished product.
Respira - Leonardo cannot land a pilot's job with an airline so he takes a job as a fumigator pilot for a soy bean farm in the country. On the first night he and his family move into town they discover the town is hiding a deadly secret that will put them in danger.
And as we are speaking about airplanes such Respira is the thriller equivalent of moving into a new home and finding out there is an airport nearby. It gets loud and noisy quickly. There was already a level of emotional tension between Leonardo and his wife leading up to the move but as the situation in this small farming town reveals itself the family realizes they are caught in the middle and no clear way to escape it should amp up more. That may be perceived as a fault in the narrative, that the family arrives and there is no true build to the thrill factor, nothing that really makes the family second guess the move. Nothing from the locals that really builds up an apprehension in the family.
What we saw works okay. Respira is an approachable thriller that may find homes in international festivals with room to spare for smaller films. There is an homage to North by Northwest at very end of the film because you have to use that plane at some point. It is not so much a pay off as a nice touch.
There is still some effects work to be completed among others things but not much about the story and narrative is going to change from what we saw that week.
Soy Toxico - I am Toxic was the only completed film that I saw which was part of the market but this film by Pablo Pares likely stands the best chance of finding spots on the international circuit.
A bit of a noted figure in the horror scene in Argentina I was assured that the director of films like 1997's Plaga Zombie and subsequent sequels would be a draw for international horror crowds.
The story is about a man who wakes up among a pile of dead bodies in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Stranded with no memory of who he is or how he got there he searches for answers but runs into a small band of survivors who are resigned to not share there wares. What he does not know is that memory loss is the first sign of an infection that dries out its victims and turns them into flesh eating monsters.
I am Toxic probably stands the best chance of being included on international film festival circuit because post apocalyptic wasteland films are far and few in between. With some excellent costume work by Crystal Eyes directors Ezequiel Endelman and Leandro Montejano the film really does look like a throwback to those countless Mad Max knock offs in the 80s.
it also help that the dried out husks that roam the wasteland in search of flesh look a lot like Fulci's zombies, something nice for old school horror fans to look out for.