To properly kick off my 2018 movie viewings after being ill for a good part of January,I decided to finally see the titles in my Netflix saved list that I've most anticipated viewing. Reading Kim Newman's Video Dungeon's page in Empire magazine a few months ago,I found out about a fascinating-sounding Mexican Twilight zone-style movie. Looking on Amazon UK,I was surprised to find that it had come out on disc in the US,but not the UK. Not being sure how to see the film,I was happy to stumble upon it on Netflix UK,which led me finding out how similar things can be.
The plot-
Mexico 1968:
Wanting to get out of a storm, Ulises goes to a cavernous bus station. Getting little help from the warden, (who is to retire in two weeks) Ulises finds a payphone and gets the news that his wife has successful given birth. Waiting for the storm to clear,Ulises hears on the radio fears of there being something unusual about the rain. Greeting fellow guests to the bus station,Uliese is horrified to find each guest slowly transform into looking just like him.
View on the film:
Drenched in the unsettling eerie atmosphere of The Twilight zone, writer/director Isaac Ezban & cinematographer Isi Sarfati give their journey to the outer limits its own angles via deep,black and white-monochrome corridor shots being covered with pelts of rain,and the transformations into various Ulises being unveiled with a macabre streak. Back by a fittingly thunderous score from Edy Lan,Ezban wisely limits the fallout in the outside world to crackles on the radio,which are piled on the hopelessness being felt in the bus station.
Drawing on 50's Sci-Fi Comics as a major plot device, the screenplay by Ezban has the shadow of the Tlatelolco massacre linger over the bus shelter,and giving the tale an urgency,as government paranoia feeds into the transformations. Unwillingly becoming the focus of suspicion, Gustavo Sánchez Parra gives a great performance as the anxious, sweating with fear Ulises,who sees a hard rain fall on all their similar daily routines.
The plot-
Mexico 1968:
Wanting to get out of a storm, Ulises goes to a cavernous bus station. Getting little help from the warden, (who is to retire in two weeks) Ulises finds a payphone and gets the news that his wife has successful given birth. Waiting for the storm to clear,Ulises hears on the radio fears of there being something unusual about the rain. Greeting fellow guests to the bus station,Uliese is horrified to find each guest slowly transform into looking just like him.
View on the film:
Drenched in the unsettling eerie atmosphere of The Twilight zone, writer/director Isaac Ezban & cinematographer Isi Sarfati give their journey to the outer limits its own angles via deep,black and white-monochrome corridor shots being covered with pelts of rain,and the transformations into various Ulises being unveiled with a macabre streak. Back by a fittingly thunderous score from Edy Lan,Ezban wisely limits the fallout in the outside world to crackles on the radio,which are piled on the hopelessness being felt in the bus station.
Drawing on 50's Sci-Fi Comics as a major plot device, the screenplay by Ezban has the shadow of the Tlatelolco massacre linger over the bus shelter,and giving the tale an urgency,as government paranoia feeds into the transformations. Unwillingly becoming the focus of suspicion, Gustavo Sánchez Parra gives a great performance as the anxious, sweating with fear Ulises,who sees a hard rain fall on all their similar daily routines.