Review: What the Waters Left Behind

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020

Images from the Internet

What the Waters Left Behind (aka Los Olivados)

Directed by Luciano Onetti and Nicolàs Onetti

Cine Argentino; Instituto Nacional de Cine Y Arts Audiovisuales;
Onetti Brothers Productions; Black Mandala Films;
Rusty Robot; Unearthed Films; MVD Entertainment

100 minutes, 2017 / 2020

https://www.masterpiecesthemovie.com/

www.unearthedfilms.net

www.mvdentertainment.com

In remote Argentina, there was a popular tourist town called Villa Epecuén, just off Laguna Especuén, which has a high salt content like the Dead Sea; it was thus touted as a health resort. In 1985, a dam busted and the town was flooded out. When the waters receded a bit in the mid-2000, what was left were ruins that were white, coated with salt. It was uninhabitable (though a singular elderly person actually still lives in the very real place).

Epecuén is the focal point of the imagined story, as a film crew of seven decides to go gech it out and make a documentary of the place. If anyone follows stories like this, from the fantastical Creepozoids (1987) to the more recent The Chernobyl Diaries (2012), you know there is no good that is going to come from this exercise, such as for our gaggle of genre gauchos.

In part of the prologue, we actually get to see some nice aerial drone images of, well, what the waters let behind of the original town, followed by a brief but bloody confrontation. Did I mention this film is distributed by Stephen “American Guinea Pig” Biro’s imprint, Unearthed Films, so you know there is going to be a bloodbath involved; if that’s your thing, keep reading.

This could quite easily have been just one more Found Footage style release, considering our troupe is making a documentary, but thankfully the Onetti brothers decided to make a narrative film, with a few through-camera-style shots here and there.

Agustin Pardella, Victoria Maurette, Paula Brasca, Luciano Onetti,
Victorio D 'Alessandro, Paula Sartor, and Damián Dreizik  

We get to learn a little about the group on the road trip to the site in an old-style VW Van, such as Nacho (Victorio D 'Alessandro), the boom buy and driver being a frat boy type, the director Vasco (Damián Dreizik), who amusingly is wearing a Francesca tee-shirt, giving a nod to the Onetti Brothers' previous 2015 film; reviewed HERE)  is a surly older guy, model-esque Vicky (Paula Sartor) is his sexy and too-young-for-him girlfriend (and her small poodle, Kiki), the camera woman Erica (Paula Brasca, wearing a blue Ramones tee), the AD Diego (Augustin Pardella), and Carla (Victoria Maurette), who is a survivor of the initial flood when she was just a wee one. She gives them (i.e., us) a bit of personal exposition to where we are bound. Then there is the mysterious Señor X (Gustavo Garzón), who appears with a rifle; is he one of the good guys or in with the evil clan? Historically, in other films of this nature, this typical genre character can go either way. Oh, do I need to say that the film is in Spanish, with English subtitles?  Oh, wait... too late.

What I found impressive is that the location is actually at Epecuén, so we get to see quite a bit of the town, or what is left of it. Fascinating stuff. Speaking of which, in the first act we get to see some very nice Latina and Latino bods, flexing their youth such as in a bikini and shirtless. To paraphrase the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, Come-along a-baby, there's a whole lot of sexual tension goin' on... including one I did not see coming. The cigarettes are not the only thing that's smokin'. 

Rather than a leather face, the native miscreants seem to lean more towards the type of masks worn in The Road Warrior (1981; aka Mad Max 2). Cattle skulls appear to be the màscara du jour. With the slightly washed out and desolate local images, this could almost be seen as a post-apocalyptic world (because in this locus, it is).

While the story really picks up around the half-way point, the Onetti Bros manage to keep things hopping along the way, between the tension with some locals, the visuals, and the characters, so there is little time to be restless even though the ultra-violence is mostly in the second half. If this were the 1970s, the Ramones could come and save the day like that ridiculous KISS movie from 1978, but this was filmed in the late 2010s, and it was too late for the Ramones (RIP) and many of the film’s characters by then.

Yeah, the film is brutal, but there are two ways to look at it. For the average viewer who is used to “CSI” level of gore, this is quite shocking. For fans of films like the Hostel (2005) series and later versions of the Saw (2004) franchise, this is enjoyable and comparable, but not as a gore-fest as some of the other torture porn styles that Unearthed usually distributes (though I am saying this is still right up their alley) along the level of the likes of Audition (1999) or Bouquet of Guts and Gore (2014: reviewed HERE). 

That being said, sometimes the way the film cuts away just when something is about to happen, I wonder if there is a different edit of the film floating around somewhere that doesn’t occasionally (not always) skirts the issue for which most of the gorehounds are sniffin’ around. But don’t be deterred, there are still lots and lots of brutally violent and blood-soaked body parts to be seen and tasted.

Of course, the big, $64,000 question, is by the end will it be a mass slaughter of the innocents, or will there be a comeuppance; perhaps a mixture of both? I ain’t tellin’ since that’s a major part of the fun of these kinds of things.

Even from the trailer, it’s easy to see some of the foundations the filmmakers dipped their own toes into, such as the mini-van along the dusty road of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), or the hungry, hungry hippo actions of the towns inhabitants, like The Hills Have Eyes (1977; note that for both of these sources, I refer to the originals). And let’s not forget the utter bleakness and frenzy of Wolf Creek (2005) and the Wrong Turn (2003- ) franchise. If you want to push it, you could even add in Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (for this, I refer to the original play, not the limp film version). One character could even be straight out of Mother’s Day (1980), though I don’t know if she’s “a very a sick woman” physically, but mentally is another story.

What made me smile is that even though I figured out a key plot point early on, the way it was presented (meaning the timing) took me by surprise. This was an excellent choice by the Onettis. That is why, despite all its reliance on earlier and classic canon, the film still works and can keep the viewer entertained.

And stick around for the credits and afterwards for some amazing real news footage of the flood from, I'm guessing, the 1990s.

Review: Francesca

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2016

Images from the Internet

Francesca: Limited Collector's Edition

Written and directed by Luciano Onetti

Guante Negro Films / Unearthed Films / MVD Visual

80 minutes, 2015 / 2016

https://www.facebook.com/FrancescaGialloMovie/timeline

www.unearthedfilms.com

www.mvdvisual.com

The advent of VHS spawned an entire industry of VHS-based films that would have never been seen by a large audience, but rather relegated to areas like Times Square or art cinemas that were usually in the seedier parts of towns. These releases tended to be geared towards the cheap, the rushed and violent. American cinema in this area had a boom in both the sexploitation and horror, as these were the biggest sellers at Video Stores, but in places like Italy, the genre turned towards what’s commonly known as Giallo, murder mysteries that specialized in both gore and close-ups (sometimes even zooming close-ups!). The word Giallo, literally translated as “yellow,” is named for a style of populist fiction that started after WWII, which tended to have yellow covers.

Enough time has passed now that this period is looked upon (and rightfully so) with a strong pang of nostalgia by many, especially after the bombardment of high-powered franchised blockbusters. The films from earlier period didn’t always make sense, but they had heart (both figuratively and literally in many cases). Over the past few years, it has become cool to model the style of Giallo films, with various levels of success. In fact, I might ponder that there are more indie films adopting the style in honor of it, than there were to begin with in the day.

Francesca is one of those. Made just a couple of years ago, it is modelled after the Italian style. But unlike most, this is actually in Italian with English subtitles, although it was filmed in Argentina. But here’s an interesting thing that it almost seems as though the film was shot silently, and then all sound, including the voices, were dubbed in after. It’s obvious they are mouthing Italian, but it also seems like a bad dub at the same time, with all the actors’ voices dubbed by Luis Vazano and Silvina Grippaldi. It’s an interesting concept, which I’m not sure if it was intended, or purposeful. Considering the budgetary constraints, it’s forgivable, and gives the film an interesting touch.

The premise is that Francesca, a  psychopathic child, had apparently been kidnapped 15 years earlier, and now, similar to Se7en, people who are deemed “sinful” via Dante’s Inferno, are popping up dead with some Inferno reference nearby. The connection to Francesca is that her dad is a Dante expert. Two police detectives are kinda defective figuring out the mystery and are on the verge of losing their jobs. Will they catch the killer? Will the killer catch them?

The film is steeped in the motif of Giallo, loyal to its look, as if the world was based on the likes of Dario Argento. There are weird camera angles, an odd sort of off-coloring with an occasionally reddish filter, and the film is made to look VHS grainy. Also, there are lots of indicators of the time period, such as typewriters, a film camera, a slide projector, and the wardrobe. This all works together well, and there are actually some incredibly beautiful shots such as a bird flying in slo-mo and just the right composition to make it artful. The ending is also somewhat satisfying, with just the right couple of red herrings. But overall, the film itself is a bit wanting.

A confused copper

The reason for this is that the acting is kind of wooden, the kills are shown mostly off-screen, and the direction is at a tepid pace, even though there is a nice body count. Part of the problem is that there is a dearth of dialog, so the audience is left to fill in just what the cops are up to (it’s around the police that the writing is the weakest), and this never quite shapes up much.

In some ways, however, the film is successful in that is respectful to the genre, and they hit a lot of the right notes for the time. However, it is perhaps a bit too focused on what it is trying to be rather than bringing enough originality to the process. It’s sort of like when someone covers someone else’s song, but they do it exactly like the original. To me, the biggest error, though, is that they released this in Italian, towards that tribute. Considering it was filmed in Latin America, I believe if they had left it in Spanish, the overdubbing would have matched closer, and it would have brought that much more of the Ornetti brothers’ influence into the mix, and been less distracting from the story.

The soundtrack, which is included as a CD in the Limited Collector’s Edition, is a fun listen. The music is also on point, with a ‘80s sound that has just the right touch of dissonant electronica.

As for the film’s extras, first up is a 14:20 minute Behind the Scenes featurette that covers a wide range of topics, such as make-up, anecdotes about filming, locales, and yes the dubbing process, by using a mix of off-stage shooting and production stills. Next is a Deleted Scene, which is an alternative opening at 3:24. It was decent and good to see, but they made the right choice in the one they picked.

I was looking forward to seeing the 19:47 Interview one with the director, Luciano Onetti and the producer, Nicolas Onetti. The brothers also co-wrote the film together. While not as deep as I was hoping it would be, the brothers discuss the film from some interesting aspects. Nicolas goes on a bit about the premieres and awards; Luciano discusses the more interesting connections between this film and their first, Sonno Profondo (Deep Sleep) from 2013. He also indicates they are part of an intended trilogy.

The penultimate is a 2:01 “Hidden Scene,” which is what is shown after the end credits. Last is a bunch of trailers for Unearthed Films, including this one. Oh, but did I say that was all? No, for the Limited Collection Edition, there are the three-discs of a soundtrack CD, a DVD and a Blu-Ray, plus a very nice package with inserts and the like.

I do respect that this was an ambitious work by the brothers Onetti, and on some levels, it actually is quite the nice job. Personally, I believe they could use some outside editing (don’t look at me) to help them punch up some of the looser material. Either way, I look forward to seeing Sonno Profondo, and whatever comes next.