The Unhappy Holiday Film has nearly become its own subgenre, with this year’s new contributions ranging from sour seasonal rebound rom-coms to gory Yuletide horrors (including this weekend’s “Violent Night” and “Christmas Bloody Christmas”). Assuring viewers that they do not intend to dampen anyone’s holiday enthusiasm, regardless of how gloomy their dispositions may be, they all tend to retain a certain cuteness.
“Amigo” is the directorial debut of scar Martin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Javier Botet and David Pareja, a couple of frequent comedy collaborators whose chemistry is skillfully transferred to macabre dramatic terrain here.
This icy Spanish psychological thriller, which culminates on a New Year’s Eve that may be the last for certain people, debuted at Fantastic Fest more than three years ago. It has been delayed in its North American debut, but aficionados of restrained, small-scale, yet terrifying suspense will find the wait worthwhile. Dekanalog will debut in select U.S. cinemas on December 2, with home formats to follow in early 2019.
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David (Pareja) brings Javi (Botel) home to his secluded farmhouse, apparently directly from the hospital, amidst muted unhappiness. Javi can scarcely speak or move after being placed in a bedroom upstairs. When David bathes him, his emaciated, scarred body is revealed. It takes longer for him to comprehend that his condition is the result of a vehicle accident that David plainly caused and which murdered Javi’s wife.
David seeks to assume a position of nursemaid kindness, overriding Javi’s few possible avenues of resistance (such as eating) and disregarding the even fewer words of furious reproach he can spit. A chatty physiotherapist (Patricia Estremera) brightens the mood with her visits. However, as time passes, snowstorms render the nearby roads unusable, resulting in the couple’s full isolation.
In addition, they cut off David’s supply of medicinal medicine, which is extremely upsetting to him. Soon, it will be distressing to Javi as well, as David’s absence from medication increases his susceptibility to paranoia, hallucinations, and dramatic mood swings.
The basic idea of a defenseless patient held captive by a deranged caretaker recalls “Misery” and “What Happened to Baby Jane?” In its audiovisual depiction of fading sanity, “Amigo” is more reminiscent of Polanski’s “Repulsion,” with its creepy silence, sparse conversation, and matter-of-fact blurring of truth and illusion.
David installs a camera to spy on Javi’s imagined movements, as he is irrationally certain that he is secretly roaming the home (despite the fact that he can barely fit a rubber ducky in the bathtub). What he believes he sees on his television screen mirrors what bedridden Javi actually watches in his room: a regular diet of classic Spanish horror films and television programs. (There are also saccharine Christmas advertisements to emphasize the perversity of our heroes’ forced, unfriendly “togetherness.”)
The narrative is probably more vague than necessary, as we are never informed of the exact causes of the fatal vehicle accident. Nor is the central relationship ever fully established; glimpses of childhood images hint that the two men may be brothers or at the very least lifelong acquaintances, but a little context is provided. Such nuances could have fleshed out a tale that ultimately feels undernourished for a long film.
Despite this, “Amigo” gets a great deal of mileage out of its simple premise. While purposely slow-paced, it is always engaging, building suspense into two audaciously sustained shots featuring dire life-or-death situations.
Elsewhere, cinematographer Alberto Morago Munoz’s widescreen compositions make the unremarkable rural landscape incredibly attractive, while also imbuing the rooms with an abundance of mood. Manu Conde has composed a tremendously stunning and expressive original score.
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Botet’s emaciated physique (he was born with the genetic condition Marfan syndrome) has landed him important roles in the “[REC],” “Insidious,” “Conjuring,” and “It” franchises, among others.
Here, he employs it to create a figure of tangible frailty while preserving an unsettling edge. Pareja, his partner in countless sketch comedy projects (particularly internet videos and shorts), is similarly effective as a repentant friend-turned-victimizer whose mental difficulties are no less convincing for being left vaguely specified.
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