Director: Larissa Anzoategui
Year: 2021
Country: Brazil
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Trying to get past her disturbing visions, a woman is subject to a series of horrifying scenarios that present a vicious, bloodthirsty vampiress and other demonic beings as continually thirsting after her forcing her to either succumb to their whims or fall to their diabolical plans.
Review:
There’s very little to this one that’s worthwhile. The best feature here is the arthouse sensibilities present which will easily be a personal preference for some out there regardless if they’re the best feature or not. A dialogue-free music video that switches up between shaded grey or vibrant color depending on whether or not the scene in question is happening or if the heroine is being subjected to horrifying visions, the stylistic presentation here is quite striking and results in plenty of bizarre moments. Relying on this approach to tell the story makes for a unique aesthetic where the series of bizarre visuals featured here slowly start to tell the story being presented where her stressed mental state being tormented by a string of bizarre confrontations involving the various vampiric beings mutilating themselves or torturing others resulting in a slew of grotesque skits filled with decent indie gore or bloodshed.
Even still, there’s a lot off about this one. As mentioned, the film’s whole approach will be a massive hurdle to overcome most might not be able to accomplish where the arthouse, near-experimental vibes presented here won’t make for the most easy-going means of accessibility. Despite the copious nudity and graphic visuals, not having dialogue at all makes this one incredibly difficult to understand if not impossible to make out what’s going on. Since we don’t know who any of these characters are, what these figures engaging in occult rituals are, or what the purpose behind it all means, it boils down to watching a string of music video sequences as the blaring Goth rock n the background serves as an accompaniment to what’s going on.
The other big issue here is the mindlessly unnecessary padding for a film that’s barely long enough for a genuine feature-length film. Clocking in as long as it does is mainly due to a string of excessively padded-out sequences where the vampires or other demons repeat what’s going on for minutes on end when it has no purpose for going that long. It’s even worse because there’s no dialogue to explain what’s happening so it just features them repeating things to get to a full running time, most notably the eye-gouging sequence where the figures repeat the process twice each just so that the film has more carnage and bloodshed with the repeated actions. This is just part of the problem with the repeated and drawn-out pacing here which will probably be the most egregious aspect here turning people off long before any of the other issues come into play and holding it back the most.
Overview: *.5/5
Solid enough conceptually but problematic in execution, this was a solid idea to see play out but the mileage for this one will rest on your appreciation for the approach taken. Adventurous admirers of this type of cinema or those curious about it will have the most to appreciate here while most others turned off by the style featured here should decide to either take a cautious shot or outright avoid it will depend on your reaction to the format.
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