Rating: C
Dir: Matías Xavier Rispau
Star: Martín Rispau, Germán Baudino, Chucho Fernández, Demián Salomón
a.k.a. Me encontrarás en lo profundo del abismo
Not to be confused with the Werner Herzog death-row documentary, the original title translates as the rather more evocative, “You will meet me in the the depths of the abyss.” The official synopsis reads, “Trying to escape, Bannon realize that his very existence will be put to the test.” My synopsis – arguably, rather more accurate – would be, “A guy stumbles around in near-darkness for much of the 100 minutes, while it rains a lot.” Given this, that it reaches a grade of C has to be considered something of an achievement, and is mostly down to the stumbling being well-photographed. Indeed, it’s almost a master-class in how to film underlit scenes, a skill which many other films seem to lack. On the other hand, the plot…
Something has happened. It’s never clear what: it seems to involve creatures (from outer space?) showing up, and civilization has quickly imploded. Bannon (Rispau) is currently separated from his family, and is trying to reach them, but his car has broken down, the result of a dead battery, and he has been forced to take shelter during a storm, in a complex of abandoned buildings. He finds a walkie-talkie, and on the other end is Demian (Baudino). As Bannon searches for a replacement battery, he discovers that he’s not alone in the complex. What else is in there with him, isn’t exactly friendly, and can mimic human sounds to predatory intent.
The framework is here for a good movie, and I don’t think it’s that writer/director Rispau forgot to fill in the blanks, so much as he deliberated chose to leave them unfilled. It feels a little like Cloverfield, albeit without the found-footage conceit, in that it focuses solely on the protagonist, without any wider view of what’s going on. Similarly, the monsters here are only briefly glimpsed: they seem to come in a variety of flavours, all the way up to behemoths resembling those at the end of The Mist (top). They seem well-rendered, in the short glimpses we get of them, and it’s another point of aggravation that we are left wanting to see more of them.
Instead we are stuck with Bannon and his Amazing Cellphone of Infinite Battery Life, on which he scrolls through messages from his family, giving us some idea of what’s happening in the outside world. To be honest, this seems more interesting that what we get to experience through the hero, though I liked the way he’s no superman. Bannon has to be instructed by Demian on how to use a gun he finds, prompting a wry comparison to “Charlie Bronson.” There just is not enough development of story or characters, especially before Bannon eventually finds the resources he needs to get away, and the storm eases up. This segment really needs to have occupied the first ten minutes, rather than the first hour-plus. By time he leaves, your attention will likely have similarly departed.