User Reviews

Characters in horror movies are, typically, morons. That's a lazy device used by screenwriters to glue their stupid plots together, or they would collapse after a minute ("Let's NOT go to the haunted slaughterhouse!" The end). However, in Deadly Cargo (Camara Oscura) this reaches an entirely new level.

The story plays like a lobotomized version of Open Water. A bunch of idiots manage to blow up their boat in the middle of the ocean; they see a ship, see mangled corpses thrown in the water, get on the ship and hide. We soon find out only two sailors are evil; the others are ordinary people, until the stupid protagonists push them to murder.

Only a brief description can convey the sheer idiocy of these characters. They're Darwin Awards material.

• Victor is captured by the crew and eventually accepted and even treated with respect... until he makes up a ridiculous story and insults the increasingly angry sailors, managing to get killed.

• Sara is a reporter who delays her escape to take pictures of thugs murdering her friends.

• Edgar kills the meekest sailor of the bunch and, when given the opportunity to escape, conveniently waits until he gets stabbed.

• The captain repeatedly goes from helpful to murderous, alternately trying to kill the stowaways, to kill his own men, and to be a mediator between the two factions. His motivation? Don't ask, although his turning point is Victor's refusal to eat the meal offered to him. No, I'm not making this up.

Despite the boring beginning, the whole thing gets increasingly funny, and that's why I'm not rating it lower.

3/10

I watched this with my family on German television and it did for us what we expected it to do. A bit of thrill and suspense, interesting atmosphere and the urge to watch it until the end because you want to know who makes it out of the mess.

If you expect an original, cleverly constructed plot, absence of cliché and blood and gore, this might be the wrong film for you.

The plot is clearly constructed at times to create the situations the filmmakers were aiming for. Clichés are waiting around pretty much every corner of that creepy ship. And the violence is almost never shown directly, a benefit for someone like me who is not into that kind of thing. The main element of horror is the ship and the inhumanity.

Another letdown are the underdeveloped characters. If you follow the Spanish movie scene a bit you will recognise some of the actors and know that they are in fact quite excellent. Especially the wonderful Lluís Homar (the captain, 'La Mala educación') and charismatic youngster Andrés Gertrúdix (Edgar, 'The Orphanage') are severely underemployed by the scrip and direction. Just rare intimate moments like Edgar's tearful look of sadness at his friend Iván who is about to face up the ship's crew, which probably means certain death as shown earlier in the movie, give you a hint at how interesting the exploit of emotions and relationships between the characters could have been.

Which leads to another letdown, which would be the unconvincing 'relationship' the filmmakers want to force Iván and Sara into. Yes-yes, we know the heroine and the soon to become hero need to end up with each other but do we really want them to? No. Because there is zero chemistry between the actors. You don't even know why on earth these two should fall for each other. The only convincing connection of friendship and love is between the young couple, Victor and Thais, and between Iván and Edgar. In fact we all ended up rooting for Iván to end up with his friend Edgar instead of with Sara. A theory that is not even that absurd given the level of homoerotic vibes between the two characters (something for the ladies who are into that kind of undertones. If you think of the conversation going on right before Edgar's declaration of love you might wonder as well if the writers were cackling to themselves in a corner about that little twist).

Additionally there are logical flaws like the walkie-talkie suddenly being on reception-mode but I have to correct one of my fellow writers who said the movie was suddenly switching from night to midday. It begins on midday and ends in the morning of the following day. There is clearly some dawn/early morning light situation towards the end before the sun comes out.

And I liked that the movie does not follow the rules of who should die first and how likable or dislikable the villains, victims or survivors should be. Nor do I mind the characters changing their attitude without the usual Hollywood movie in-the-face explanation and monologue. That is how humans are. They are irrational and don't necessarily announce to the world when they experience a change of mind, just to let the movie audience know. So in a way the characters are acting more natural and human than those in your usual teeny horror flick that leaves no room for surprises, where you always know what kind of character you are dealing with.

Overall an average thriller with a good atmosphere which makes you mourn for all it could have been because it gives you glimpses of all its wasted potential.