Being dazzled by the Spanish Horror likes of Ego (2021-also reviewed) at other film festivals earlier in the year,I was excited to find a title from Spain in the line-up of the Cine-Excess Film Festival, which led to me stepping out into the Winter.
Note: review contains some plot details.
View on the film:
Revealed by the producer in a discussion after the screening/ stream that the film was shot over 16 weekends, and making his theatrical feature film debut, co-editor (with relatives Paula & Diego Garcia Cosio) / writer/ director Alvaro Garcia Gutierrez closely works with cinematographer Pedro Garcia Argumosa in cracking open an incredibly icy, frosty Horror atmosphere of long arc shots round the five survivors getting covered in snow and blood, as jagged whip-pans capture their cold breath turning into white hot screams.
Munching their way across the nation, Gutierrez gloriously tears into the frost bite gory practical special effects, with extreme close-ups on the zombies cornering survivors and splattering their blood across the snow.
Spreading the zombie virus across the land as it snows down, the screenplay by Gutierrez superbly balances visceral zombie shocks, with an exploration of the 1939-52 Years of Hunger that Spain suffered during the Spanish Civil War, as the loss of every commodity and the decaying of every institution leaves the group of five scrambling to flee/ live in exile in the countryside, when they find themselves up against the mass, all consuming zombies who are looking to end their hunger.
Note: review contains some plot details.
View on the film:
Revealed by the producer in a discussion after the screening/ stream that the film was shot over 16 weekends, and making his theatrical feature film debut, co-editor (with relatives Paula & Diego Garcia Cosio) / writer/ director Alvaro Garcia Gutierrez closely works with cinematographer Pedro Garcia Argumosa in cracking open an incredibly icy, frosty Horror atmosphere of long arc shots round the five survivors getting covered in snow and blood, as jagged whip-pans capture their cold breath turning into white hot screams.
Munching their way across the nation, Gutierrez gloriously tears into the frost bite gory practical special effects, with extreme close-ups on the zombies cornering survivors and splattering their blood across the snow.
Spreading the zombie virus across the land as it snows down, the screenplay by Gutierrez superbly balances visceral zombie shocks, with an exploration of the 1939-52 Years of Hunger that Spain suffered during the Spanish Civil War, as the loss of every commodity and the decaying of every institution leaves the group of five scrambling to flee/ live in exile in the countryside, when they find themselves up against the mass, all consuming zombies who are looking to end their hunger.
