I know your all wondering why after 4 years am I finally getting around to watching this film? Well my answer is that I never heard of it til it was brought to our attention by the producer of the film thanks to everyone's naturally hated yet beloved enemy Facebook. Now when it comes to foreign films they don't really get the big push into theaters like English films do, unless their either raved and reviewed by every critic and that's when they are thrusted into the theaters for a week or so. Now I am a fan of foreign horror films, don't get me wrong I love American-horror films but to me they have become very weak in the past decade so having to venture out and find a decent horror films means having to deal with subtitles and not knowing any of the actors in the film. But in the end its a good move to watch a foreign film cause it shows that there are actually decent directors, actors and films outside of the states.
Now the films tells the tale of a police officer whose mission becomes more of an obsession as he hunts down a mysterious figure donning a trench coat known as the "Dark Rider" who walks with a skilled archer and a harmonica player whose tune causes pain and and drives people to madness and this all takes place during a zombie apocalypse. As always the main character has to have companions as he finds and takes in two teenagers and together they find a run down factory where a man and a pregnant woman are hiding out waiting for the "end of the world". This all runs into the final confrontation for the Officer and the Dark Rider.
Now like I said earlier when it comes to foreign horror films it tends to either fall into my lap thanks to word of mouth, internet or Netflix. Now if you would have said to me a few days ago that I would be watching a Brazilian horror film I would have probably laughed at you cause of the fact that its so hard to find these films unless I would have to go on ebay or amazon and throw an insane amount of money on. But I got lucky and was told that I could find this one on Netflix, now I know Danny is getting the screener from the producer but I figured I'd jump the gun and go for it before it got here. Now I was fairly impressed by this film noting that I did some research on it first and saw it won various awards but the fact that I never heard of this film kind of makes me upset cause it took me 4 years to find it and tell you the fans that this is a film you should see.
Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro's first major release here is a dash of zombie apocalypse, spaghetti western and samurai film all mashed together with a Latin-based soundtrack and a vibrant and beautiful background of color this shows that the apocalypse doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. We don't need to have a Mad Max-esque style of zombie apocalypse every time they make one and this film here does that by showing that the world can still be green and not all burning buildings, smoke and doom. My only problem is that the zombies are just there they don't serve much of a purpose but their there to be bumbling scene fillers and do nothing more than that as they don't kill anyone even though they do attack someone and there's a reference as to what happens when your bit by one of them. Their not even called zombies in the movie they are referred to as "returners" a reference to the 1994 horror film "Cemetery Man". The characters have little to no backstory so it makes it hard to actually get a feeling or behind someone other than the main character of the film. There's a lot of the film that needs a little more in-depth on certain characters and how things come to be for that character but you know those flaws are in almost any film so you have to just go along with the ride.
How do I feel about this film? Its good. Its not great it could have had more detail to the characters of the film and left out certain things that in my eyes just didn't seem like it should of been in the film. The final confrontation of a cat and mouse game seemed kind of Tom and Jerry but it was a spaghetti western ending so it was what it was. A showdown to the bitter end and only one of the characters was gonna walk away from this alive the other becomes a worm bed. Do I feel this hurt's Pinheiro's future as a filmmaker? No. Its a learning curve and I am sure I will see something from him the future and I can't wait.
Now this scene right here the fact that it ring's Stephen King's The Stand, the fact that its like the coming of Randall Flagg. All I have to say is good shit man. You did good on this scene right here!!!!!
by Bucky S.
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