|
DAY OF THE BEAST aka El Dia De La Bestia - 1995
Iberoamericana Films / Sogetel S.A. - Distrib. Trimark Pictures
Rated: Australia, USA: R / Chile: 18 / France: -12 / Portugal: M/16 / Spain, UK:18 |
|
How often do you get a movie that gives you Satan worship, drug use, back-sliding
priests, murder and the apocalypse all in one? Okay, maybe too many times
to even count.
But wait!
I have the antidote to all of the cliché driven plot-lines that have come before
(and after). No, I’m not talking about END OF
DAYS. I’m speaking of Alex (ACCION
MUTANTE) de la Iglesia’s pièce de résistance - DAY
OF THE BEAST. In a world where too many plot devices have over stayed their welcome, the
now cult-hit DAY OF THE BEAST comes to turn them all on their head and provide a dark feast for the
eyes and brain. Black satire it is - in the fullest sense.
The title sequence sets the tone as we watch as a priest - who has just had a serious
exchange with the main character, Father Ángel - meets his doom in
a most bizarre mishap in a church sanctuary. Father Ángel (Álex
Angulo: ACCION MUTANTE, MUERTOS de RISA) continues on his way and we follow him as he steals coins from a beggar, pushes a mime into a subway and lifts an ID from a man
who has just been burnt to a crisp in a city fire. What’s wrong with
this demure, but somewhat evil-doing priest? We find out as the plot unfolds
to include an acid eating grandfather, a General-Zod-looking (Armando
De Razza) host of an exploitative tabloid TV show called The Dark
Zone, a drug addled metal-head (Santiago Segura ACCION MUTANTE), his brutish mother and strange and sundry secondary characters.
Father Ángel has decoded the book of revelations as a set of equations and has deciphered
the date on which the antichrist is to be born. He sets out on a detective
mission to find the place of birth and kill the child, thus saving the
world from certain annihilation. All this is achieved through some very
clever explanations and proceeds along through a frequently hysterical
series of events, making it one of the more complex dark comedies I’ve
seen in quite some time.
Don’t worry. The storyline of DAY OF THE BEAST isn’t too taxing unless you want it to be. You can take it for what it is, which is a varied farce that plays with the conventions of most people’s
expectations of evil and Satan worship (see: hilarious
scene in which Father Ángel calls on a heavy metal store looking
for the right music to lead him to Satan). Or you can take it as
the slight social commentary that is presented by way of interwoven sub-plots
involving roving vigilante gangs with “Clean up Madrid” slogans,
television’s inherent lies and fakery and the nature of belief. There
are points in the movie that even call into question the whole premise
of the story. Make no mistake though. This is a horror movie in the same
tradition as EVIL DEAD 2 (though with decidedly less gore) and some of the other more sly tongue-in-cheek horror
flicks.
The cinematography (Flavio Martínez Labiano) is top notch
with a wonderfully dark feel and there are some amazing shots reminiscent
of Dario (SUSPIRIA, DEEP RED) Argento. There are also some startlingly precise chase scenes and some great slapstick moments and physical comedy that hearken
back to the classic days of the silent era. The use of sound too is used
to great affect, from the soundtrack to the time Father Ángel and
his two cohorts engage in an absurdly elaborate invocation and experience . . . well, I shouldn’t ruin it.
This film would best be viewed on a big screen TV with stereo sound (if
not in a theater). I had neither of these. The video I watched
was subtitled in English and letterboxed, but was a bit grainy and in
the darker scenes I had to strain to see some parts of the screen. For
any Spanish speaking viewers there are cleaner copies available. Alex
de la Iglesia has made quite an exceptional film here. Much like his earlier
film ACCION MUTANTE there is so much
going on that it could easily withstand two viewings. This is definitely
one of the best - the Christmas Day massacre is not to be missed. I give DAY OF THE BEAST five out of five shrieking girls!
This review
copyright 1999 E.C.McMullen Jr.
 |
Kristopher Monroe
Manages an Independent "art-house" theater in Atlanta, Georgia - which was one of the first theaters in the country to show THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. |
"I got to witness first-hand the Blair Witch frenzy - someone puked in the theatre, hallway or bathroom almost every night, we had sell-out crowds and the media descended on us en masse since we were one of the first theatres to show it in the country. Reporters were calling all the time and, as a manager, I was personally interviewed by someone from Time, Associated Press and The Atlanta Journal/Constitution."
Weird Times published his review of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in iss.#14.
The following are his Horror Fiction credits:
A FLOWER OF HOPE - Of Unicorns and Space Stations
APPLE - MindMares
SPURIOUS WRATH AND LAUGHTER FROM 'OUT THERE' - Fighting Chance
His next work of fiction will appear in Flesh and Blood |
|
|
Return to Movies
|
|
