PART THREE: ICONS OF SIN
Time for some religious imagery in this last stop on the tour, as we move away from science fiction and into a few fantasy worlds. It's still going to be a pit stop of world cinema locations mind you. If anyone was expecting a review of something mainstream like Ti West's X they're going to be disappointed. Day Shift? Yeah right. I'm going to need something more outlandish than that. Call me when the much needed spin-off starring Scott Adkins is ready to go. Instead get ready for trauma as everyone's childhoods are ruined by visions of hell and a lot of monsters formed from puke and entrails. I'm not sure the representations of Catholic or Buddhist faiths are entirely accurate here. It's just a hunch. But they're frequently entertaining as a result.
Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil is certainly the most sombre affair in this year's line up. A tale of people selling their souls for one more chance in life, or giving up their humanity for a chance to be wealthy. Which isn't to say this is a totally po-faced story, particularly once the devils in question start to show their scaly faces. But this is a direct adaptation of a Basque folk tale, so it has a mixture of sobering ideas as well as a few cheeky moments long the way. It's occasionally bleak where necessary, telling a dark story in which the moral messages are up front. However at the same time it's also got a childlike perspective because one of the central characters is a village girl up to no good.
In the opening scene a firing squad executes a band of captured soldiers. But it's here that the blacksmith makes a pact with the forces of evil, gaining a new lease of life and taking his revenge. Why did he want to live so badly, and what has become of him after the war? That's all part of the tale to come as suspicious locals now steer clear of his workshop. Apart from an outcast child and a shady government official that is. It's a slow burn that takes time to set everything up before all the diabolic mayhem comes along. The connections between these three central players might not be massive plot twists, but there are some fun reveals, and some darker ones, along the way.
It helps that this all looks so striking. The final vision of the gates of the underworld might be a little low budget, but everything leading up to it looks pretty impressive. Sartael, the main demon, is nicely detailed and always well lit. The blacksmith's lair is shadowy and foreboding, as if the interior has started to absorb some of the evil atmosphere. Some of the folklore involved - holy bells and boxes of peas for example - feels a little outlandish, but that stops the film from becoming too overcast. Evil exists, both in human and demon forms, but it can be fought with the right tools. It's a compelling mixture which leads to an unexpected conclusion, one that is well worth seeing.
4/5
Tonally The Boxer's Omen is something else entirely. There are still battles with the forces of evil, but nothing about this can be taken seriously. It's instead a case of unexpected effects sequences and frankly disgusting moments dressed up as a moral tale. A boxer out for revenge against his brother's rival is nearly killed by a gang. However their attempt on his life is interrupted by a vision showing him that he's linked to a Buddhist monk. It seems both men were twins in a previous life, so now they will share a dark fate if the real villains aren't stopped. Is this a really a story about personal vendettas being forgotten so that inner peace can be achieved? Not by a long shot. This is all window dressing so that a series of wacky magic battles can be depicted.
The way Buddhism is portrayed in these movies has always fascinated me. I thought it was all about leaving your material concerns to avoid suffering. Reaching enlightenment by letting go of ego and desire? Apparently it's actually about supernatural relics and magic powers. There are always a lot more laser beams and monsters than I would have expected. But why question all of this madness when you can go along for the ride. What the villains want is never exactly clear, but it involves a lot of gross animal rituals and weird slimy antics. The first bad guy is a moustachioed fellow in purple pyjamas, the second is a dead woman resurrected with a crocodile's guts. Not exactly intimidating figures, but very odd.
It's a low budget affair, with a lot of weird puppets, coloured lights, and various uses of cling film. Cheap model spiders, bats, and various parts of skeletons are used in each encounter. Is the duel between good and evil supposed to parallel the boxing matches? That would probably be a stretch. Is this a precautionary tale about chastity? That's also unlikely. In reality this is a film which uses the score from Alien more than once and even samples the voice of the Tall Man from Phantasm... for some reason. It's a weird psychedelic vision that you just have to go along with. It's sometimes sleazy and occasionally repugnant, but it's often just so weird that it's hard to look away.
4/5
Speaking of weird, here's Jodorowski's Santa Sangre. It's a film loaded with sub-textual messages and striking images. One half childhood trauma and religious nightmare, the other half serial killer mystery. A sickening dream-like story that raises a lot of questions. What does it mean to be a man? Or even just an adult? What is the real purpose of faith? Where is the line drawn between family, church, and cult? Is human society more like a circus or a zoo? There are of course no answers beyond the idea that life is a perplexing spectacle, often filled of tragic events. Perhaps the central character is better off in the asylum he's first found in, but of course the show must go on.
As a boy our hero Fenix lives at the big top with his debauched father. Dad's a big slob who wears a cowboy hat and is the lead in a knife throwing act. Meanwhile his mother is an unhinged church leader who preaches about beliefs that the local Christian priests are outraged by. These two distant parents eventually come to blows which is hardly surprising, but that's not before things like an elephant funeral and a strange tattoo sequence. It all adds to the strange atmosphere of the film. When things fall apart the story jumps forward in time, with Fenix finding himself grown to adulthood with part of his own sanity being left in the past. Perhaps it's reflective of how some of the audience might feel at this stage.
Still, nothing is stranger than the latter part of the film as it moves from nightmare family drama to stylised slasher flick. Certain elements do create a through line from the past to the present, but it's a very blurred one. In some ways the abuse of authority depicted in the circus and the way the clinic patients are treated is part of a wider circle of tragedy. But who is the giallo-esque gloved killer and what's the bigger picture? It's a constantly swirling series of ideas and plot threads that jumps between surreal domestic drama and real horror. Some things might be familiar to genre fans, particularly the mother and son relationship. However, everything else is part of a bizarre narrative which demands repeat viewing.
4/5
