Deus Irae (2023) - Horror Film Review

Deus Irae (latin for 'God of Wrath') is an Argentinian horror film written and directed by Pedro Cristiani. It deals with one of my favourite horror sub-genres, that of demonic possession. While the special effects, editing, and music choice delighted, I thought the way the film's story was set out became more distracting than intriguing.

Pablo Ragoni stars as Father Javier, a priest who specialises in exorcisms. While the church's official stance is that these possessed people are suffering mental illness, Javier has come to the secretly believe that they are literally possessed by demons from Hell. His search leads to the discovery of Father Marcos (Gaston Ricaud) and Sister Helena (Sabrina Macchi), a duo who work deep in the shadows battling demonic forces with fist and prayer. Recognising Javier's unique skill of being able to tell the names of demons (a sure-fire way to destroy them), they recruit him to their bloody and bleak crusade.

Starting off, anyone going into this movie needs to recognise it is just part one of a larger story. The film literally ends mid-flow with many plot threads left unresolved, and a title card stating 'End of Book One' or something similar. The journey to this end of a kind wasn't smooth. Deus Irae has an annoying habit of showing many of its scenes out of context, and splitting up its scenes so that they appear ended before heading back to them at a later timeframe. This made the film feel weird, and not a good weird, but an odd weird. While there was some enjoyment at slowly deciphering scenes as more clues are revealed, it gave the film a meandering circular feel with scenes believed long over suddenly appearing again with more detail added to them.
The three main characters are also a very odd bunch, and I often struggled to tell if they were on each others sides or if Marcos and Helena were actually opposed to Javier. These characters appear in a series of bizarre silent montages, with the characters showing strange facial expressions, such as when Marcos is beating a literal demon with his fists while wearing a gigantic grin on his face. These sequences looked super cool, and I loved the trip-hop style music that plays over these segments, but it doesn't alter the fact I didn't really follow what was going on, it became a bit too obtuse for its own good.

The special effects were tremendous, practical monster effects that wouldn't have looked out of place in The Thing. Spider like fleshy creatures, strange growths bursting out of victim's bodies, and lots and lots of blood. Outside of the soundtrack I would say these practical effects were the absolute highlight, as was the costume design. A long scene featuring a possessed man dressed up in a Jesus outfit was really memorable due to how good it all looked. The editing was strong, but some of the effects used to simulate a sense of strangeness were overused, particularly a loud glitch type noise that is used in conjunction with elements within the film suddenly speeding up, this appears throughout the whole eighty five minute film.

Deus Irae looks fantastic, it has lots of atmosphere, interesting characters, and the semblance of a good plot. It was just all a bit too confusing for its own good, I didn't think the scenes played out of order worked, making things needlessly complicated in an already complicated story. There are some very strong scenes here, but for me it just wasn't that satisfying a movie to watch. Deus Irae is streaming exclusively on SCREAMBOX.

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Virtual Reality (2021) - Horror Film Review

Virtual Reality (original title Realidad Virtual) is a great horror film with a frankly abysmal title. I wasn't sure what to expect from this Hernán Findling directed Argentinian horror, but what I found was something I found to be both bloody and meta in similar measure.

Matias (Guillermo Berthold) is a horror director who has recently wrapped up filming on his latest slasher movie. Into the occult, and wanting his film to be a success, he enlists the help of a shady producer who provides him with a strange item. He gives the director a memory stick that is said to contain a demonic A.I that has the ability to edit any movie into a masterpiece. Sometime later, at Matias' house, he has arranged a viewing party for his movie, with a select group of cast and crew invited to attend. These include main actress, Guadalupe (Vanesa González) and her teenage brother, Facundo (Federico Bal) who had played the role of the killer in the film, editor Hernán (Francisco González Gil) and a few others. When the movie begins they are all surprised to find out that events that are happening in the film were scenes they didn't shoot, despite them appearing on the screen, even including the crew, who in the movie are also brought into the story. The surprise turns to horror when they realise that any damage that occurs to their counterparts in the film, also occurs to them simultaneously in real life, and soon, one by one, they begin to die as their film versions are dispatched by the slasher. The survivors, unable to stop the movie from playing, decide they must find a way to get in contact with their on screen personas, in order to defeat the slasher and outlast the film's runtime.

Virtual Reality is quite meta and seems to enjoy messing around with the viewer. This can be seen straight away with the prologue. It was a cheesy horror film full of cliche moments and generic sound design, and I feared I was in for a bad time. That is until the scene cuts and its revealed to be part of a fake movie being shot. This meta feeling remains for the rest of the movie, with the viewer watching characters who in turn are watching themselves. Essentially there are two separate movies running concurrently, and while the focus is on the viewing party characters, events are both still going together. It leads to some fun moments, such as a character in the film just about to be killed by the slasher when her real life version manages to pause the film, knowing if it starts to play again she will be dead. The meta feeling bleeds into actual reality when characters comment on how long of the fake movie is left to go, when this actually reflects to the real life movie's remaining runtime as well. At some points characters even directly speak to the camera, and by proxy the viewer. This feeling of people realising they are trapped in some sort of nightmare film brought to mind the fantastic Resolution, with these films both having near enough the same ending to them. Stick around to after the end credits and there is an even more fun scene that plays out, which to say anymore would ruin the surprise.

There is plenty of blood and gore here, with knife and axe attacks, a skewer in a character's eye, a cool looking decapitation, and even someone falling through a glass table. The effects all looked great, appearing to be practical ones, and the blood never failed to look great also. I also appreciated the editing, which went from actual film to fake film effortlessly without making things confusing. I loved the moments that had characters from both films reacting to things at the same time, such as when Guada's brother is thrown in the fake film, and in real life is propelled into a nearby pillar. The actors display believable confusion to what is occuring, my only real complaint being the third act introduction of an antagonist figure of sorts.

I loved Virtual Reality, it had that feeling of watching something really special. I would say after a strong first act the movie never really achieves those heights again, but it still remained very fun to watch, with some darkly humorous moments in places, though mostly played straight and serious. The worst thing about it by far is the bland and forgettable title, something which will put people off from seeing this, especially frustrating as the title doesn't really fit with what is going on. Ignore that terrible title however and you will have a blast watching this. Virtual Reality is out now on VOD and Blu-ray thanks to Artsploitation Films.

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Amor Bandido (2021) - Thriller Film Review

Amor Bandido (also known as Bandit Love and Wicked Love) is an Argentinian thriller which was directed and co-written by Daniel Andres Werner in his feature length directorial debut. When it comes to well known examples of inappropriate love, Lolita comes to mind, here the roles are reversed with a woman preying on a teenage boy. While this started off as an uncomfortable romance film, it abruptly transitions within a few key scenes into much more of a thriller.

Joan (Renato Quattordio) is a sixteen year old high school student who has been having an affair with his thirty five year old teacher, Luciana (Romina Ricci). Due to the situation not being right, she quits her job, with the aim of putting distance between their wrong romance. After convincing Luciana to let him leave with her, the two head out to the remote rural mansion that her parents had left to her. For a time things seem idyllic, the couple are able to explore their feelings for each other in seclusion. The arrival of a wounded man (Rafael Ferro) one day shatters their peace, and it becomes clear that everything Joan believed to be true was all part of a sinister plan.

The film begins in medias re, that is to say, it starts at a later point in the movie before heading back to show how events came to be. With Amor Bandido it all begins with Joan fleeing the rural mansion, and so it is clear from the offset that something bad is going to happen. That all begins at around the halfway point of this eighty minute film, and before that we get half a film about an incorrect love. The first half does effectively demonstrate the relationship the two have. Joan is obviously an innocent with how the world works, his immaturity is shown time and time again, Luciana on the other hand is far more restrained and mature. It is clear that at best the two have a lustful rather than loving situation going on. It leads to a whole host of sex scenes that were very uncomfortable to sit through.
It was a relief to me (though not to the characters) when the tone shifts with the arrival of the wounded man. It isn't long before this becomes a thriller, and really helps to make Joan into a character to be pitied. Quattordio performs his role wonderfully, he is believable as a gullible teen, and acts his age perfectly.

The Red Book Ritual (2022) - Horror Film Review

Any regular reader of The Rotting Zombie will know that I love anthology movies, and so it was with some delight that I discovered the Ariel Luque (The Building, Ellose) directed The Red Book Ritual was one of these. In addition to the wraparound segment there are five other short films included in this nearly ninety minutes film, the theme revolves around witches and demonic forces.

Three young friends have gathered together one night to play 'The Red Book' game. This urban legend states you are able to commune with the dead by following certain rules. Not expecting it to actually work, the friends are scared to discover something bad is starting to happening. They realise that the only way to get out of their predicament is to follow the book's rules that they need to read the stories from within the book they are directed to. 

The first proper short is the 2018 short film Stray that was directed by Dean W. Law. It takes place at a remote homestead in which an American soldier (David Breen - Post Mortem Mary) has recently returned from fighting in World War II. He is shocked to discover his wife, Bonnie (Melinda Joan Reed) acting very bizarrely, she is filthy, not speaking, and refusing to wear clothes, seemingly reverted to an animalistic persona. This all may be linked to a strange cat that follows her around. There was barely any dialogue here, while the remote location made the soldier feel very isolated. I particularly liked how this ended. This one was only really let down by some slightly subpar CG smoke effects used on a couple of occasions.

Nocturna: Side B - Where the Elephants Go to Die (2021) - Horror Film Review

Nocturna: Side B - Where the Elephants Go to Die is a companion piece to the brilliant Nocturna: Side A - The Great Old Man's Night, both of which were written and directed by Gonzalo Calzada (Luciferina). I had heard this part of the double bill was more experimental, but I wasn't prepared for just how experimental this turned out to be. Was this arty? Sure, but for me personally, was it interesting? Not so much.

Side A focussed on the elderly Ulises (Pepe Soriano), this second part instead focuses on his wife, Dalia (Marilú Marini). This is vaguely a retelling of that first movie, in so much that key parts of that story are represented here. More than anything though this is a monologue from Dalia as she tries to explain her mindset of the world, and how hard it is to let go.

Thankfully this wasn't too long of a film, running at just over an hour long. To me it felt like it was a lot longer and found myself frequently clock watching or even worse subconsciously picking up my phone and starting to browse various websites. Of course, this is an insult to the director but while I appreciated this I could not get into it. I think part of the problem is the subtitles, dubbing is the very worst thing in my opinion, I always listen to foreign language films in their native tongue, but with Part B at times there is so much dialogue being spoken that I found my eyes glued to the bottom of the screen reading it, missing out on the various images that are meant to combine with the words. There is a lot of repetition here, both in what is being said and what is being shown, so eventually this became less of an issue, especially after the very fast editing that makes up the prologue to the movie.

Nocturna: Side A - The Great Old Man's Night (2021) - Horror Film Review

As the title may well suggest, the Gonzalo Calzada (Luciferina) written and directed Nocturna: Side A - The Great Old Man's Night has been designed as a double bill, its sister being Nocturna: Side B - Where the Elephants Go to Die. I thought the poster for this film was great, and it is a rare occurrence where the quality of the film matches up to the quality of the poster. Despite being in Spanish I found this to be a really affecting film, one that I admit reduced me to tears by the end of its one hour forty five minute run time.

Ulises (Pepe Soriano) is an old man approaching his hundreds who is steadily becoming senile. He lives in an apartment with his wife Dalia (Marilú Marini) and both live in fear of being evicted from their home due to their advanced years becoming an issue with the patient building superintendent, Daniel (Lautaro Delgado Tymru). The film takes place over the course of one long night, a night in which a neighbour from upstairs plummets to her death in the couple's courtyard, yet after this mysteriously keeps appearing at their door pleading to be let in. This and other events causes Ulises to reflect back over his long life and become mindful of his biggest regrets and mistakes that he hopes to somehow atone for before his own death.

First off special mention has to go to the acting here. Sure, I don't understand Spanish, but no character seemed to be a poor actor, Soriano in particular was a real highlight. Despite not understanding the language, he brought a tremendous believability to his role with his actions and expressions bringing over way more than just words ever could. The vast majority of the film rests on his shoulders, to my knowledge he is in almost every single scene and not once does he give anything other than a powerful performance. His senile moments feel real, and his role was such a bittersweet sad one. When Ulises and Dalia are scared it feels authentic, the way they act around each other with almost resentment between the two, yet a shared love brought about by spending most their lives together. Ulises was not a happy character, there is so much in his life that hasn't gone as he would have liked, with a son who barely visits, to an estranged daughter, the sadness and sorrow is reflected so deeply on him, especially in the moments where his failing memory upsets him.