Points: 6
Ángel (Diego Gentile) is a successful director of advertising commercials whose work is celebrated and respected. He’s also a chauvinist, a womanizer, and a sex-addict. In fact, he uses his profession to seduce women — as many as possible. He’s also a hypocrite because his wife Lucila (Moro Anghileri) has asked him to bring other people into their otherwise sexually-starved relationship. She’s not narrow-minded regarding sexuality and feels threesomes could be a good way to get some excitement. But he refuses, time and again, because he says he’s an old fashioned guy who doesn’t like that sort of stuff, when the truth is he wants to be the only one with privileges.
Little does he know that he will soon be paying his dues when a sisterhood of Celtic vampire women come looking for him, as they’ve been doing for ages with many men who have used, mistreated and abused women. These female vampires called Baobbhan Siths will also come for Ángel’s business partner, Eduardo (Damián Dreizik), and once they bite both their necks, they will become two more casualties in the women’s army of living dead.
Written and directed by Fabián Forte —co-written with Nicolás Britos — El muerto cuenta su historia (“The Dead Man Spins His Tale”) is an uneven mix of horror and comedy with some assets regarding production values — mainly the cinematography and the production design — overall good acting, but not much of an ingenious plot despite all the fantastic elements tossed into it. Once the set up is established and the main conflict starts to unfold, it’s pretty easy to guess how the story will play out and end.
The introduction of other living-dead characters in the second act — played by Lautaro Delgado, Pablo Pinto, and Sebastián Berta Muñiz — feels somewhat reminiscent of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, and it’s a right move that adds a welcome new layer to a scenario that on the surface looks and sounds very well. Yet, for its all visual imagery, El muerto cuenta su historia still lacks a sense of surprise. So expect few thrills. It’s more of a flat line than anything else.
Emilia Attias, Viviana Saccone, and Julieta Vallina play the three ruling Celtic vampire women, and their expressive faces and husky voices are the two single features used to flesh them out. Other than that, they have no personality traits whatsoever. Considering their importance in the tale, they should be more than flaming figures to look at.
On the plus side, special credit goes to the makeup and F/X department that creates a great look of its own to this story of the fantastique invading the everyday lives of chauvinistic males to their profound dismay.
Production notes
El muerto cuenta su historia (Argentina, 2016). Directed by Fabián Forte. Written by Fabián Forte, Nicolás Britos. With: Diego Gentile, Damián Dreizik, Emilia Attias, Viviana Saccone, Julieta Vallina, Moro Anghileri, Lautaro Delgado, Sebastiàn Berta Muñiz. Cinematography: Leonel Pazos. Editing: Demian Rugna. Running time: 80 minutes.
@pablsuarez
