In “Darkness by Day,” Argentine Martin Desalvo‘s 2013 breakthrough, a reported rabies outbreak gradually creeps nearer to two women cousins, stuck in their isolated family home. Violence will let reign, but for most of its going, Desalvo seems more interested on building tension and the relationship between the two women.
Eight years later, Desalvo returns with “El Ciego,” another mix of suspense drama, horror beats and character study. Juana, mid-teens, tends a charcoal pit with her drunk, morose father Rubén, and by night slips out to attend house parties with her rap loving friends. One day, she stumbles on El Ciego, a forbidden thicket which, superstition has it, reveal dark secrets. Anybody who enters, moreover, will get lost forever. After penetrating El Ciego, Juana becomes obsessed with knowing more about her mother who died mysteriously when she was a child.
In other hands, this could have become a whodunnit. Desalvo...
Eight years later, Desalvo returns with “El Ciego,” another mix of suspense drama, horror beats and character study. Juana, mid-teens, tends a charcoal pit with her drunk, morose father Rubén, and by night slips out to attend house parties with her rap loving friends. One day, she stumbles on El Ciego, a forbidden thicket which, superstition has it, reveal dark secrets. Anybody who enters, moreover, will get lost forever. After penetrating El Ciego, Juana becomes obsessed with knowing more about her mother who died mysteriously when she was a child.
In other hands, this could have become a whodunnit. Desalvo...
- 3/23/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Ana Piterbarg's strange drama has the premise of a high-concept thriller, but the drifting feel of arthouse realism
Ana Piterbarg is an Argentinian director making her feature debut, and her producer and star is Viggo Mortensen, who spent his childhood in Buenos Aires and speaks Spanish. It is a strange film, and you have to let it grow on you: a drama with the premise of a high-concept thriller, but the drifting feel of arthouse realism. Mortensen plays identical twins: Agustín is a wealthy doctor in the city; Pedro is a loser who still lives in the remote Argentinian swampland of their childhood and is mixed up in shady business. Agustín is going through a crisis about his life choices and the existence he is locked into, and this is the moment Pedro chooses to pay his estranged brother a visit with the news that he has terminal cancer.
Ana Piterbarg is an Argentinian director making her feature debut, and her producer and star is Viggo Mortensen, who spent his childhood in Buenos Aires and speaks Spanish. It is a strange film, and you have to let it grow on you: a drama with the premise of a high-concept thriller, but the drifting feel of arthouse realism. Mortensen plays identical twins: Agustín is a wealthy doctor in the city; Pedro is a loser who still lives in the remote Argentinian swampland of their childhood and is mixed up in shady business. Agustín is going through a crisis about his life choices and the existence he is locked into, and this is the moment Pedro chooses to pay his estranged brother a visit with the news that he has terminal cancer.
- 5/30/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The good folks over at HarperCollins were kind enough to provide us with both a Q&A with Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan along with an excerpt from their latest print endeavor, The Strain.
For more information check out the official The Strain website. For now dig on the video and pre-order yourself a copy below!
Look for the book in stores on June 2nd.
Q: Guillermo, you’ve written screenplays and directed numerous movies, just to name a few of your many accomplishments. What motivated you to write a novel?
Gdt: Well, it’s a different challenge, but I’ve always written short stories and then in my film work when writing storylines for movies, the storyline is a slightly “freer” form than screenplay writing. I have published some of my short stories in the past and it is my secret dream to write shivery tales for young readers.
For more information check out the official The Strain website. For now dig on the video and pre-order yourself a copy below!
Look for the book in stores on June 2nd.
Q: Guillermo, you’ve written screenplays and directed numerous movies, just to name a few of your many accomplishments. What motivated you to write a novel?
Gdt: Well, it’s a different challenge, but I’ve always written short stories and then in my film work when writing storylines for movies, the storyline is a slightly “freer” form than screenplay writing. I have published some of my short stories in the past and it is my secret dream to write shivery tales for young readers.
- 5/11/2009
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
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