La cara oculta (2011)

Directed by:  Andi Baiz

Writers: Hatem Chraiche Ruiz-Zorilla, Andi Baiz (screenplay), Hatem Chraiche Ruiz-Zorilla, Arturo Infante (story)



If by any chance this is the first time you hear about this movie, immediately proceed with the following steps:

1) Read the rest of this text (it's completely spoiler free),

2) By all means avoid watching any trailers or reading any spoiler non-free reviews,

3) Promptly get the movie and watch it immediately because it absolutely rules!

Here's roughly what happens in the first half an hour or so: This guy Adrian, a young (and apparently very attractive to women, lucky bastard) Spanish orchestra conductor, gets dumped by his girlfriend Belen via a video message. Completely dumbfounded, he goes to a bar to drown his sorrow and there he meets a hot as hell young waitress called Fabiana, whom he promptly picks up, because he can. Lucky bastard. You would think he would spend some time mourning his previous relationship, but noooooooooooooo sir, this girl (whose hotness I can't stress enough) moves with him in what seems to be a matter of days. Lucky bastard.

 

Anyway, what I should mention is that all this takes place in a large house in Colombia, near its capital Bogota, the house which Adrian rents because he prefers the peace and quiet of the country to the city's... whatever the hell is the opposite of peace and quiet. To get back to the story, Adrian may have solved the lack of girlfriend problem, but other troubles kick in. First of all, the police are on his trail - as Belen apparently had never left the country, she's pronounced missing and guess who's the prime suspect? As if that wasn't enough, strange things happen in the house, mainly in the bathroom when Fabiana's using it (which, fortunately for us, she does quite often). Strange noises, water turning hot for no apparent reason, waves in the water in the sink when it should be perfectly still, et cetera, all that prompts Fabiana to think the house may be haunted. That's more than enough to give stress even to someone who picks up women so easily as Adrian, lucky bastard.

 

While this may sound rather mundane, the movie's structure and things that happen after that are anything but. Fabiana is scared of the house, but she also suspects that Adrian may still love Belen, he reassures her, blah blah, and than suddenly we see a ghostly face in the mirror and we are thrown back in time to get the explanation for all that's happening. We see Belen and Adrian, apparently a very happy couple, moving from Spain to Colombia because of his job and renting that awfully big house from some German lady. But that house also has a very interesting secret, which will become known to Belen during a conversation with the landlady, and it will kick everything in motion. Prepare yourself for a wonderfully conceived and directed story that's full of twists, it grabs you and won't let go until the ending, but also be prepared for a big emotional investment. I'm not talking about some teenage melodrama crap - this movie will have characters fall into grave dangers because of completely stupid small mistakes and you will probably very often find yourself rooting for them to overcome them. "No, no, watch that, watch it... nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!", "The mirror, look in the mirror!!! Yesssssssssssssssss!!!", "What the hell are you doing, you stupid bitch!!!??!?!?!?!?!" are some of the comments I made during some of the more tense moments in the film.

 

I simply cannot recommend this movie enough. If the greatly written and original story enhanced by good performances is not enough for you, then two beautiful female leads should persuade you. By the way, if you've seen this film and liked it, by all means check out the wonderful French film with Audrey Tautou called He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, which has a structure similar to this movie (same events shown from the perspectives of two main characters, where the shift of perspectives suddenly gives a very dark tone to what we have seen previously).

Kairo (2001)

Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

When there's no more room for ghosts in the next world, the living will start commiting suicides and turning into black spots on walls, at least that's what Kiyoshi Kurosawa tells us in this slow, atmospheric and frustratingly complicated film. The main problem with this movie is that it doesn't go for the cheap jump scares and shameless exploitation of long-haired ghosts (though it does have some of that), but instead tries to make a clever statement about human loneliness and how modern technology is separating us and crap like that. It also has some features of an arthouse film, like when you have absolutely no idea what the hell is happening and why is everyone doing whatever the hell they're doing.

 

The story begins with a suicide of some guy. But, not only did he kill himself, he also turned into a black spot on the wall. At the same time, some other guy stumbles upon a scary website that promises their visitors interaction with the dead (!). At the same time, there's a scary mysterious room that harbours a horrifying secret. Some friends try to investigate what's going on, but they can do little to prevent the bizarre series of suicides that threatens to make the entire world (or at least Japan) look like Pripyat, Ukraine.

 

I found this movie incredibly difficult to follow. I don't know whether the problem was with the subtitles, or the director in most scenes didn't try too hard to establish the location, or I'm just stupid - anyway, I had mostly no idea who these people were and where did this all take place. And it's all so sloooooooooooooow and sloooooooooooooow and it's bearable for the first half an hour because there's an occasional scare here and there (like the first visit to the Forbidden Room, that one was spine-chilling) and you still have hope that things will actually resolve or something. However, from there on, it just seemed to me that Kurosawa was making some kind of style exercise, for himself rather than for the audience and I almost completely lost interest.

The last part of the movie has some nice apocalyptic images and this is the first movie I've seen that combines a J-horror with an actual apocalypse in such a direct way. It's a great idea, but I would've preferred it to be realized in a more conventional story. I'm not saying this movie was bad, of course. It was just a bit too hermetic for my taste, but if you like the films of, say, David Lynch, by all means I recommend you give it a try.