Dead Man Tells His Tale (Fabián Forte) [Archive]

Grouchy

10-04-2016, 02:57 PM

None could be happier than me that Argentina's latest cinematic trend seems to be Horror/Fantasy movies since I'm a huge fan of the genre. There's a largely (as of a few years ago, at least) forgotten tradition of Horror cinema and TV shows in Argentina, of which the most important director is Narciso Ibáñez Menta. The reason that not even hardcore genre buffs have heard of him probably has to do with the fact that most of his work had never been preserved or properly stored and is now lost to the damages of time and a couple of insurance-related arsons.

However, like I said, I'm happy that young directors who are obviously raised on an unhealthy diet of genre flicks are delving into it right now. I'm not as happy with the quality of the results. This one is a vampire comedy about gender struggles, telling the story of a chauvinistic advertising director who is targeted by a group of Celtic witches (just saying "vampires" would be fine, though) that want to turn the world into a matriarchy. Their plan, their methods and even most of the story beats are blatantly ripped off the recent Álex de la Iglesia film The Witches of Zigarramurdi (known in the US as Witching and Bitching), which is bad enough on its own. But unlike that film, which presented us with a nicely paced descent into gonzo insanity, this one is in overdrive from the first scene. Rapid-fire editing, frankly boring direction and constant overscoring seem to be the rule of thumb here, alongside some goofy opening titles with a horrible font. Which is a shame, because there are some truly funny actors here. Not the protagonist, but the survivors group of men enslaved by the vampires is pretty damn funny, headlined by Damián Dreizik and Berta Muñiz.