Director: Marcel Santiago
Year: 2016
Country: Brazil
Alternate Titles: Vampiro 40°
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Tired of the posts’ demands, a vampire living under the decadent rule of an authoritarian regime retires to the streets and forces his mistress to find him to get back their power, unaware that a disillusioned, drug-addicted associate and a vampire hunter are also prowling the streets to stop the regime
Review:
This one turned out rather interesting and enjoyable at times. Among its better features is the rather fine decadent world of the vampire elite this creates for us. Detailing the events of the vampires as a known entity to the authorities and are waging a war to keep them from spreading to other boroughs in the city, this is a rather different take on the creatures which is almost as engaging as the structure and order of the vampire society. Taken to wearing masks depicting their social statuses, living in opulence or squalor, kept track of by having tracking chips implanted in their removable fangs and using a special powder to control their underlings to gain power, the setup to this one has a lot going on for it.
As well, this manages to incorporate some fun with the vampire attacks throughout here. At first preparing for the traditional series of the vampires biting others and being overwhelmed by the blood-flow, the scenes of them overcoming victims, the scenes of them overwhelming victims and taking them out has a lot to like which is enhanced nicely by the fact that that there are masks on most of the victims. When it comes to the big attacks on the massive gangbang in the park where they take out the vampires with their weapons, this signals the start of some rather fun stylized action of the group cutting through the various vampires of the society in order to get to the head they were after which gives this some energy at the right time for its overall positives.
There are a few issues found here. The most obvious facet here is the incredibly bizarre and over-the-top visual presentation which, for as much as it does to create an immersive storyline, creates a headache-inducing visual style that wears out its welcome rather quickly. The use of strange masks and costumes everyone wears is strange and unexplained which is one thing, but to mix it together with an off-kilter visual aesthetic that includes blur-inducing fog, comic-book style panels for every character being introduced, neon-lit everything and cardboard cutouts of weaponry being wielded is almost too much to take. On this kind of budget, this looks corny and distracting which does the film no favors.
That goes hand-in-hand with the other detriment in the film’s sluggish pace which takes way too long to get going. Since there are so many characters and storylines present here, from the order of the vampire society keeping track of each other as well as how they’re going to expand their drug empire, the former leader falling to the wayside forcing the girl to find a way to get him back and the once-disgraced vampire tuning up with the hunter to seek revenge being just part of what’s going on here. There’s way too much happening that this needs to spell out and introduce which means it’s nearly half-over before anything happens, which when placed alongside the aggravating visuals, makes for a plodding time and the general issues which hold this down.
Overview: *.5/5
While it does try to do something clever and original with the vampire formula, the fact that there are just too many flaws here with the aggravating visual style and some pacing problems keeps this one down from what it could’ve been. Give this a look if you’re intrigued by what’s happening here or don’t mind the issues, but most others will be just as distracted here and should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment