Out of the Dark is a useful reminder that resumes are not always accurate predictors of success in the movie business. How often do we see the phrases “From the Producers of” or “By the Director of” or the even vaguer “The Team That Brought You” splashed across the promotional material, only to find that the new film is nothing like its purported antecedents? Here, we have a collaboration of writers whose recent projects include fan favorites like Enemy and The Last Days. With such credits, viewers could reasonably expect, at the very least, a competent, workmanlike ghost story, while holding out hope for a new take on the familiar haunted house flick. Instead, screenwriters Javier Gullón (Enemy) and David and Àlex Pastor (The Last Days) deliver a dog of a script that is banal, derivative and so fraught with third act problems that the onscreen action provoked derisive laughter from the audience at the film’s premiere at the Berlin Fantasy Filmfest.
Posts Tagged ‘Colombia’
Out of the Dark Review
Posted: August 28, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Horror, ReviewsTags: Bad Movies, Colombia, Enemy, Haunted House, Julia Stiles, Lluís Quílez, Pixie Davies, Stephen Rea, The Last Days
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Réquiem NN Review
Posted: June 11, 2014 in Documentary, ReviewsTags: Colombia, Documentary, Juan Manuel Echavarría, Movies, Puerto Berrío, Purgatory
Like many treasures, Réquiem NN, a gem of a documentary film, remains largely out of sight. Screenings of the movie can be difficult to find, but well worth the effort. What, at first glance, appears to be the story of an odd ritual peculiar to one Colombian town reveals itself to be, perhaps unintentionally, a meditation on the living and the dead, and the complex relationship between the two, when viewed through the prisms of identity, remembrance, and religion.
Puerto Berrío is a town of approximately 35,000, located in northwestern Colombia. It has served as a port of commercial significance on the Magdalena River since its founding in 1875. (more…)
