Director: Hernán Findling
Year: 2021
Country: Argentina
Alternate Titles: Realidad Virtual
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After finishing a new horror movie, the cast and crew arrive at the director’s house for a first-cut screening when they realize that not only is the footage not what they shot but that the new footage featuring their deaths in the movie happens in real life and must find a way to stop it from continuing.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty solid and enjoyable genre effort. One of the film’s better features is a rather intriguing central concept involving the dark secret at the center of the film shoot that looms over everything else. Since the concept of the film crew shooting a movie that goes awry isn’t that new, this one offers a novel twist on that concept by bringing about a more supernatural curse explanation for the events by tying everything together with the demonic pact made for fame and fortunes. These are integrated quite well as a means of explaining what’s going on once the film turns into the series of accidents that take place throughout here as the consequences of the pact mean that the movie being watched by the crew during the screening turns into something far different than what they recall filming and the fates of the real people at the new film screening end up meeting the same demise as the characters in the screened film which is the result of the established pact.
That is pretty much the other benefit of the film which is a strong series of highly effective and chilling setpieces showing the outcome of the newly-recut film being screened altering the fates of the real-life personas through the fates of the movie characters. The concept itself is highly original and manages to bring about a lot of fun from the chaos of discovering what’s going on when the cursed computer program gives the new footage a demented, macabre bent that starts affecting them in real life. Offering up some great confrontations including a character thrown into a glass table, another getting their eye ripped out and another viciously choked to death while ripping at the skin around their throat, there are some graphic and brutal sequences that are on display which are nicely staged alongside a stellar slew of suspenseful stalking and brawling that provides all sorts of necessary bloodshed and gore to give this a lot to really like.
There’s not much to dislike here but it does have a few minor issues. The main aspect that holds it back is the rather tired and repetitive third half here which tends to be quite frustrating and somewhat underwhelming throughout here. Since it’s already quite well established about the characters in the movie affect the fate of the people in the real world, it takes way too long before they come to the realization that the film is being corrupted and turned against them which means the film runs on a cycle of repeating the idea of them not being aware of something that’s plainly obvious. With the need to keep this going into the second half before the producer arrives to make everything feel complete, there’s a lot of the film dedicated to making sure this point is hammered home so there’s not a lot of overarching work to keep that in line which is also due to the result of some confusing work involving the purpose of the demonic activity and how it all works so that time spent explaining all that is missing from the film. These are what keep it down the most even if they’re not that detrimental in the long run.
Overview: ****/5
A highly impressive and enjoyable supernatural-tinged Argentine slasher, this one manages to bring about quite a lot to like as there’s more than enough on display here to make for a fun time. Those who are intrigued by this type of concept, are curious about what’s going on, or are a general fan of modern slasher films will have the most to like with this one while only those that aren’t into these factors should heed caution.
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