A Rundown of the 13 (plus) Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
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The Jaume Balagueró Slot

Yes, the admitted Jaume Balagueró slut kicks off with a Balagueró tie.
Can I help it if the man kicks righteous a$$ and deserves his own slot/category?

PARA ENTRAR A VIVIR
(TO LET)
(March 2006)


Since I’m proud to be a self-confessed Jaume Balagueró slut, it shames me to admit that it’s only now that I’ve finally gotten around to checking out the Filmax/Telecinco TV co-production, Peliculas Para No Dormir (6 Films to Keep You Awake)*, in particular, Balagueró’s contribution, Para Entrar A Vivir, which he directed between Frágiles and his collaboration with Paco Plaza on [REC].
Following the travails of a young couple (played by Dagon's Macarena Gómez and Adrià Collado) as they check out an apartment, this one turns out to be a twisted little number, a nasty piece of work that should tide me over till I get a chance to see Mientras Duermes (Sleep Tight).
If you haven’t seen this one yet, please do.


* These six television movies looked back to the original ‘60’s TV series, Peliculas Para No Dormir, and one of the 6 Films, La Culpa (Blame), was in fact directed by the show’s creator, Narciso Ibáñez Serrador.


MIENTRAS DUERMES
(SLEEP TIGHT)
(September 2011)


As it turns out, Para Entrar A Vivir didn’t have to tide me over for too long before I luxuriated in my next Jaume Balagueró fix.
In Mientras Duermes, Clara (Marta Etura) is waking up groggy and progressively out of sorts, and is being harassed by text messages, email, and yes, apparently even snail mail.
Clara’s got an obsessed stalker, and he’s a lot closer than she might expect.

Scripted by Alberto Marini (who co-wrote Para Entrar A Vivir with Balagueró), this one has a similar premise to the recently reconstituted Hammer production, The Resident, the difference being, Balagueró and Marini handle the material a lot more intelligently, creating a disturbing portrait of a sociopath who should be quite at home in this day and age of haters and Schadenfreude.

And while this dark little number is yet another Balagueró film that I love, I will admit to missing his collaborating with Xavi Giménez; Pablo Rosso has been Balagueró’s go-to cinematographer since Para Entrar A Vivir.
Of course, Giménez has gone on to directing, and I’ve been trying my darnedest to check out his feature directorial debut, Cruzando El Limite (Yellow), so maybe, everyone concerned is just spreading the love and astounding talent around a little more…
Rosso, after all, is one mean shooter too, what, with all the tricksy stuff he pulled off in the [REC] films.

So, while I eagerly await Balagueró’s [REC] 4: Apocalypse, it’s Mientras Duermes’ turn to keep me all warm and snugly…
Allow it to do the same for you.


(Para Entrar A Vivir DVD cover art courtesy of aullidos.com; Peliculas Para No Dormir screenshot courtesy of moviescreenshots.blogspot.com; Mientras Duermes and Sleep Tight OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡Qué horror! 2012

Candidate # 27

[REC]³ GÉNESIS

(March 2012)

  

While I’ve long been a self-avowed Jaume Balagueró slut, I’ve never been too keen on Paco Plaza’s Romasanta, so I really went in to the original [REC] on the strength of Balagueró’s past work.

Thus, when word first broke that Filmax would be wrapping up the [REC] saga with two films, I greeted the news with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I’d be getting double the action. But that realization was offset by the fact that the [REC] co-directors were splitting up, so Plaza would handle the third installment, Génesis, and Balagueró would take on the fourth and final chapter, Apocalypse; I was stoked to see that Balagueró would close the saga, but to get there, we’d have to cross Plaza’s Génesis first…

So I held my breath, hoped for the best.

And what do you know? I enjoyed this a hell of a lot better than Romasanta.

Imago Mortis’ Leticia Dolera and Diego Martín are Clara and Koldo, a young couple whose wedding reception becomes the scene of a full-on bloodbath, as one of the guests happens to have a connection to events that played offscreen in the original [REC].

Now, though not as somber and nerve-wrackingly straight-faced as the first two [REC] films, and foregoing the shakycam found footage approach at a certain point of its running time, Génesis is still a good entry, not just in the [REC] saga, but also in the annals of zombie cinema. (And yes, I know they’re not “zombies” per se, but this saga is nonetheless firmly ensconced in that section of horror cinema.)

Though I will go on the record as saying I still think the first two [REC] films are significantly better, Génesis still packs a potent emotional gutpunch, and has some stand-out moments of onscreen goreletting that shouldn’t disappoint.

And with that out of the way…

Onto Apocalypse…

([REC]³ Génesis OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

[REC] 2
(Review)

And I continue to be a Balagueró slut…


[REC] 2 kicks off right where [REC] ends, as four SWAT members are tasked to escort a Minister of Health into the quarantined apartment building where the horrors of the original took place. With the presence of the SWAT team, with their mounted cameras and heavy firepower, it initially gives the appearance that [REC] 2 is going the Aliens route, where the sequel doses up the horror of its progenitor with booster shots of adrenaline, testosterone, and gunfire.
But Jaume Balagueró and co-director Paco Plaza impishly tread other paths in this brilliant follow-up.


Contrary to the louder, “sound and fury” mentality of Hollywood’s hollower sequels, [REC] 2 targets higher ground in more significant ways. Not only are the shots more ambitious, but so is the narrative structure.
The diabolical aspects of [REC] are also opened up and taken further, neatly dovetailing into a sequence that takes the handheld camera from storytelling device to item of narrative consequence. (Battery life also comes into play at a certain point, so hurrah, for the acknowledgement of real life technological limitations on the found footage genre.)

Not only does [REC] 2 take the tantalizing promise of [REC]’s climactic reveal and run gleefully with it to places not normally seen in the zombie/infected genre, it also addresses some of the matters which were established in the original.
And in keeping with the spirit of [REC], it also has questions unanswered by the time the end credits roll, agonizing teases for more truly exceptional shakycam horror* in a third installment.**


* As much as I love what Balagueró has achieved with the [REC] films, setting some formidable standards for the first person horror experience, I’m also looking forward to his return to his own solo work, so my anticipation for Flatmate is rather high…

** [REC] 3 has already been announced…


Parting shot: [REC] was on the ¡Qué Horror! 2009 roll call, where it shared a slot with its English-language remake, Quarantine. Please feel free to scour the Archive, where reviews of Jaume Balagueró’s other films, Los Sin Nombre, Darkness, and Fragiles, can also be found.

([REC] 2 OS courtesy of impawards.com; images and PSA poster courtesy of jaumebalaguero.blogspot.com.)

QUARANTINE
(Review)


Being the Jaume Balaguero slut that I am, I really tried my darnedest to see [REC] when it was first unleashed, but that just didn’t happen. Then, I told myself that I’d see [REC] first before I would ever be unfaithful and lay eyes on its English-language remake, Quarantine.
Yeah.
That didn’t happen either.
And finally, it came about that I simply couldn’t keep putting off Quarantine in favour of its progenitor any longer, so, here I am, with my thoughts on Quarantine.


This very nearly breathless exercise in first-person, handheld POV horror sees Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott Percival (The Practice’s Steve Harris) doing a piece for The Night Shift, where Angela gets to live her dream for a night—being a fireman.
Well, actually just shadowing a crew of firefighters, first in the station, during their downtime, and later on, when they’re called in for what turns out to be a medical emergency with horrifying ramifications, gradually turning her dream, yes, you guessed it, into a nightmare…


Under the very able and deft direction of John Erick Dowdle (assisted by his brother Drew, who’ve made the example of the Coen brothers their own career template), the palpable tension of a collection of people trapped in a building under very intense conditions is only too evident, as events spiral out of control and hysteria steadily escalates into maddening terror.
And while this is a piece of ensemble horror, credit needs to go to Carpenter, who should be familiar to you from Scott Derrickson’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose, as well as Showtime’s Dexter. As Angela, she’s practically onscreen for the entire length of the film, and is the audience’s “in” to the chiller’s narrative, the gamut of emotions she runs—excitement to anger to indignation to anxiety to balls-out shivering hysteria—mirrors our own, as things rapidly go from bad to oh-so-very-frakking-worse.


Though this doesn’t have the Cloverfield advantage of a cast of relative unknowns (thus heightening the suspension of disbelief), we do get Johnathon Schaech as the 70’s porn-mustachioed fireman Fletch.
And that’s a pretty fair trade-off, I think.
It’s also a credit to everyone involved with Quarantine (including DP Ken Sang and editor Elliot Greenberg, for making the cinematic sleights of hand invisible) that the film’s scares outshine that mustache, ‘cause it truly is a scarifying one, people.
There’s also a very neat Doug Jones appearance in here; trust me, you’ll know Dougie when you see him…


It’s interesting to note that the Dowdles co-wrote the Quarantine script working off [REC]’s Spanish script, since the adaptation began while [REC] was still being completed.
It was in the same week that they completed and presented their Quarantine script that they first saw [REC], and though it did then inform the subsequent development and shooting of Quarantine, this didn’t tread the usual path most remakes take.
And now that Quarantine has proven to be a very effective film in its own right*, it only makes me even more eager, to see both the original [REC], and its impending sequel, [REC] 2, which is said to give the material an Aliens spin, as camera-mounted military types enter the picture to clean up the bloody mess.
Woo-hoo! Fun times!!


* It’s a testament to the achievements of the Dowdle brothers—whose tag-team work on The Poughkeepsie Tapes got them the Quarantine gig—that they were handpicked by M. Night Shyamalan to kick off the “Night Chronicles” with Devil.
The Night Chronicles will encompass three horror films that will find their genesis in original stories by Shyamalan, to be scripted and directed by individuals chosen by him as well.
Devil is to be scripted by Brian Nelson, who’s worked with director David Slade twice, helping to adapt 30 Days of Night for the big screen, and before that, on Hard Candy.


Parting shot: Incidentally, Quarantine—and of course, [REC]—plays like an early Cronenberg mash-up, taking the setting, an apartment building, from one of his films which I haven’t seen (Shivers), and releasing the threat from one of his films which I have seen, and which is reviewed here at the Iguana.
Other films’ reviews accessible in the Archive are shakycam POV horror titles that followed in [REC]’s wake, Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield and George Romero’s Diary of the Dead; Jaume Balaguero’s features Los sin nombre, Darkness, and Frágiles; as well as films featuring Jones (Guillermo del Toro’s El laberinto del fauno and Hellboy II: The Golden Army) and Schaech (Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation).
Schaech’s work on cable TV’s Masters of Horror is also tackled in the Archive.

(Quarantine Spanish OS courtesy of impawards.com; images courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

reVIEW (48)
RABID

Before today, I last saw David Cronenberg’s Rabid in the very early ‘80’s, on Beta. Beyond some key moments, my memory of the film had grown terribly fuzzy over the years.
Now, having seen it again after over two and a half decades, I can safely say it’s got the dodgiest acting I’ve seen in a Cronenberg film, and of all of them that I’ve seen, is the one that can benefit tremendously from a responsible redux (certainly more so than either The Brood or Scanners, both reportedly on the remake block).

In Cronenberg’s second feature film, porn star Marilyn Chambers stars as Rose, whose injuries from a motorcycle accident are treated to a revolutionary skin grafting technique by Dr. Daniel Keloid (Howard Ryshpan), whose Keloid Clinic, Inc. happens to be in close proximity to the accident site.
The surgery though will cause Rose to become a carrier for a rabies-like disease, whose vector was a bizarre, Cronenbergian bit that had never before been seen, and actually has also never been seen since, as far as I know.

The most noteworthy aspect of Rabid is quite possibly the fact that this film is the precursor for recent horror fare like Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, and, from everything I’ve heard about it, Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza’s [REC].
Here, we track the spread of the disease as the narrative follows the characters who have the terrible misfortune of crossing paths with Rose, whose newfound compulsions inadvertently cause the contagion to eventually reach civilized areas.

Scenes of armed security at the mall, and roving garbage trucks assigned to gather the infected and the dead, are just some of the chilling sights Rabid has to offer, scenarios which are arguably more troubling now than when the film was first released in 1977, what, in our post-millennial age of bird flu and SARS.

And, given the sexual trappings Cronenberg surrounds the manner by which Rose inadvertently spreads the disease, Rabid (as with Cronenberg’s debut feature, Shivers) can also be read as an eerily prescient portrait of AIDS.
As timely as Rabid is though, as I mentioned above, the acting leaves a whole lot to be desired. The original score is also rather horrific.* (Howard Shore, why must you still be two films away?)

All told though, Rabid still leaves an impression, in its depiction of the breakdown of civilization in the face of a virulent disease, and the disturbing visual of exactly how Rose spreads the contagion.

* It’s interesting to note that Ivan Reitman—yes, that Ivan Reitman—is an executive producer on Rabid, as well as Music Supervisor. (He also served in similar capacities on Shivers.)

Parting shot: Reviews of other Cronenberg films can be found in the Archive.

(Rabid DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.co.uk.)

(Thanx must go out to Jeb, for making this reunion with Rose possible.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (18)

18.1 The winners for the 40th Sitges Film Festival have been announced, and here are some of the awards that have me stoked:

Best Motion Picture
The Fall (directed by Tarsem Singh)

Best Director (Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza);
Best Actress (Manuela Velasco);
Audience Award El Periodico de Catalunya – Best Motion Picture;
Jose Luis Guarner Critic Award (unanimous);
and Special Mention, por cumplir con mano maestra nuestra fantasía de ver morir en directo a un irritante presentadora de televisión (for making possible our fantasy, by letting us watch dying live an upsetting TV presenter)*:
[Rec]

Best Actor (Sam Rockwell);
Special Mention, por la sutilidad con la que hace presente el miedo en la cotidianidad (for its subtle way of expressing the fear to today’s everyday life)*:
Joshua (directed by George Ratliff)

Best Script (Chong Seo-Kyung, Park Chan-Wook)
I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok (directed by Park Chan-Wook)

Best Cinematography (Toyomichi Kurita);
Best Production Design (Takashi Sasaki)
Sukiyaki Western Django (directed by Takashi Miike)

Best Make Up FX;
Best Motion Picture FANTASTIC;
Silver Méliès for Best European Motion Picture;
Citizen Kane Award to an up-and-coming director (Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo):
À L'Intérieur (Inside)

Best Special Effects;
Best Original Soundtrack (Kuniaki Haishima):
Mushishi (Bugmaster) (directed by Katsuhiro Otomo)

Though I haven’t seen any of these films yet, they’re all either done by directors I greatly admire, or, like Joshua and À L'Intérieur, movies I’ve heard some good things about. And the Balaguero co-directed [Rec] (already on its way to a Hollywood remake) was the big winner! For those of you who’ve been to the Iguana before, you all know I love me my Balaguero!
Congratulations to all involved with these films. You can check out the complete list of winners at the official English-language website of the Sitges Film Festival.

18.2 In related news, À L'Intérieur directors Maury and Bustillo are currently working on the script for the upcoming Hellraiser remake (though they’ve described it as more of an adaptation than anything else). They’ve apparently got Clive Barker’s blessing and supposedly have a new Pinhead waiting in the wings…

Parting shot: Reviews for Jaume Balaguero’s Los Sin Nombre, Darkness, and Fragiles, can be found in the Archive.

* All English translations are from the Sitges official website.

(The Fall image courtesy of outnow.ch; OS’s courtesy of cinemasitges.com/uk [40th Sitges Film Festival], dreadcentral.com [[Rec]], alinterieur.fr [À L'Intérieur], and truemovie.com [Mushishi].

reVIEW (26)
FRAGILES (FRAGILE)
[3 of 3]

Mercy Falls Children’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight is in the process of shutting down. With only eight children left in the ward, and a skeleton staff to keep things running, Amy Nichols (Calista Flockhart) is brought in, after the sudden departure of the previous night nurse.
It isn’t long however, before Amy discovers something is terribly wrong in Mercy Falls, something that causes children’s bones to break inexplicably, something that haunts the deserted halls and abandoned floors of the hospital.

Fragiles (Fragile) is Jaume Balaguero’s third feature, and in many ways, it’s the closest he’s come to mainstream horror. Taking a premise, setting, and threat that are genre conventions, Balaguero gives them all enough of his own personal spin to make this one a worthwhile watch.
As with anything shot by ace cinematographer Xavi Gimenez, Fragiles looks great. And with an effective central performance by Flockhart—who largely manages to make the audience forget the manic insanity of Ally McBeal with her haunted portrayal of Amy—there is much to recommend here.

Admittedly, I do miss Balaguero regulars editor Luis De La Madrid and composer Carles Cases; all due respect to Jaume Marti and Roque Banos. However, what haunts Mercy Falls is one freaky-a$$ looking thing that raises the hackles. (And though that doesn’t completely make up for those absences, that does go some way to appeasing me.)
It should also be noted that Paco Plaza (who is co-directing the upcoming [Rec] with Balaguero) did some second unit work on Fragiles.

Yes, compared to Los Sin Nombre and Darkness, Fragiles seems pretty old school, but the narrative and characters are solid, and the direction is as certain and assured as it was in Balaguero’s previous works.
So if you’re into Balaguero (or just enjoy your horror), you really should check out Fragiles.

Parting shot: Among the awards won by Fragiles: the Barcelona Film Award for Best Editing (Jaume Marti, who is also editing Brad Anderson’s upcoming Transsiberian) and the Goya for Best Special Effects.

(Fragiles OS courtesy of tepasmas.com; Fragile OS courtesy of filmaxinternational.com; UK quad courtesy of calistaflockhart.net.)