I saw 12 features and 9 shorts in 5 days of festival for Cinéma du Désert to approach new horror directors and add their titles to our nomad cinema project: www.cinemadudesert.org
I leave you with the Greek concept of Temenos and how it can coincide with the fact that almost every horror film happens inside, around or about a house / a damned space.
Most films I watched in MOTELx were about the unconscious level of the human experience and how I'm starting to believe it is a REAL PLACE where the ordinary rules of time and space simply do not apply. The rules of metaphor and extreme love and fear apply (the black and white lodges from Twin Peaks). We are ruled by what we can't see about ourselves and who/what surrounds us. These films give us a glimpse of the unexpected possibilities that might occur in the outskirts of the mind. Mind that triggers matter. Because whatever you believe is your reality.
10 / 10
I've been drooling for something like this for way too long. Idyllic. This is my breakfast of champions, my threesome orgy, my Nobel prize award for saving the world from some drastic epidemic. LOVE IT! From soul sucking alien fiend-machines; a sadistic sister that finally fits in; an all-girl jazz band caught in the Wickerman's backyard; a "normal family" meets an unusual set of butchers; and a very bloody moral jigsaw goes to show how easily humans are able to give up their values and sacrifice their loved ones for the sake of surviving and getting away with a clean record. We're so broken, so plasticine-like, so easy to manipulate - addicts - easy to bend and convince that any unbelievable reality can rapidly become plausible with a small amount of well applied blackmail and violent persuasion. We're egoistic beings, admitting it is a good start to overcoming it. Remorse is a bitch and Southbound is an overwhelmingly cathartic joy ride.
9 / 10
Merecidíssimo prémio! Fotografia irrepreensível. História simples mas posta em prática com coerência e profissionalismo. Final imprevisível, de orelha a orelha. Críptico e muito inspirador.
Sem mais, quero mais! Parabéns!
7.5 / 10
This was like Oktoberfest meets Ozzfest. Straight forward to the fullest and I salute them for it. Satanic mental breakdowns and heavy metal hell yeah!!! Easy watching with a super well crafted final sequence plus an unusual uplifting and optimistic ending. I would have left them all to burn personally but hey, "for whom the bell tolls, time marches on!" Very enjoyable overall to a full house, more than 800 people watching the MOTELx ending ceremony with Fernando Ribeiro, Ruggero Deodato and Mick Garris!!!
10 / 10
Sem ler a sinopse vi logo que esta curta era sobre Kafka. Agradecido por este trabalho. Personifica a complexidade mental e paranóia latente de um dos meus escritores favoritos na perfeição. The eternal cycle of renewal. Claramente um grande esforço de produção da equipa Easy Lab. Fiquei muito surpreendido. O tempo passa num ápice, gostava de repetir a experiência.
8.5 / 10
Full circle. Tight and imaginative. A visual treat that I suppose got inspired from Ursula le Guin's sci-fi novel 'The Lathe of Heaven' and questions the abilities and inner dwellings of the hyper-sensitive. Now that all the homosexuals and "perverts" are finally unafraid to come out as such, lately, I've been witnessing the coming out of the witches, the telepaths, the 'synaesthesians', the shamans, "and so forth and so on". For me a so called Indigo Child is someone that really would be too special to belong to this consensual consciousness we call a world - someone suffering from Down Syndrome or other form of learning difficulty for example. In a nutshell: none of us remembers nothing of our first years of life, nevertheless, they will define the fauna of our subconscious so... treat your babies right, treat them right! ( or else ;)
8 / 10
Awesome! The pretty classic theme of cannibalism here reinterpreted through the xenophobic and self-destructive tendencies of moronic British drunkards. I've lived there so it could actually be stock footage shown here, a mere snippet of how privileged white trash get shit-faced in this decadent island, populated by class polarities and enticing escape mechanisms as another form of celebrating "freedom"? Harsh critic I know but the movie goes even further. I back it's murderous rage against injustice 110%, put yourself in other peoples' shoes for once, those that have truly faced war and looked death and destruction in the eyes (for real, not on the telly), for fucks' sake!!!
7/10
Decente. Muito bom em geral. Esta estética meio esquizofrénica das linhas a tremerem não me satisfaz muito mas que sei eu sobre a dificuldade de desenhar e fazer animação com esta qualidade? O conceito também está poderoso. Um retrato bastante dark e amedrontante da desumanidade da guerra em que trocamos a nossa cara e individualidade em prol de mais uma máscara de gás num mar de vítimas desalmadas. Mensagem recebida. Parabéns!
5 / 10
The ones with the most hype are always the ones that ultimately suck! First and last stories were pretty cool. The rest was quite predictable. I was exhausted so I took a power nap for one and a half or two chapters (managed to miss the participation of the only director I knew and adore: Kevin Smith!). All in all, fluffy but nothing much.
9.5 / 10
Probably the most well thought of plot of all I saw in the festival. Reminded me of Réalité, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Inland Empire, Berberian Sound Studio and other mindfuck masterpieces... Like many psychological terror films Sibylle works with the language of the unconscious and is not afraid to make it stand out from the very beginning. The director certainly is well read in Jungian archetypes or is an avid dream interpreter himself. The character faces her own shadow-self all along the madness of the narrative grows in intensity and premonition; the all knowing strangers / evil entities Lynch is so infamous for portraying impeccably; the 'temenos' which is recurrent in almost every horror film; the dream like aspect of most scenes is so damn taken care of, every character is subtly reflected in all sorts of surfaces like mirrors, windows or magic balls, etc. And by the end (the last scene is so important), she smiles. Meaning: she is starting to get comfortable in her own psychosis, she begins to become lucid that her actions are actively changing the rules of the game / future / her life. She's waking up inside the fantasy and becoming aware of the potential she holds. A gem.
7.5 / 10
Infelizmente não consegui ver todas as curtas portuguesas no entanto estou seguro de que esta menção honrosa foi bem merecida. O enredo aparenta ser um teaser para uma possível longa metragem visto que o medalhão que estava à volta do pescoço de um dos personagens principais esconde uma história maior (cumplicidade criminosa?) nunca contada e que despoleta a raiva contida da cena final. E como tudo está tão bem editado, caracterizado e filmado eu gostaria de ver mais deste grupo de trabalho e ficarei a assobiar a melodia da cena inicial enquanto espero. Boa sorte!
9 / 10
Now... this was a treat! Dialogues during the first third were awesome! Gave the Turkish feel to it. The plot suffers a bit after the accident when the characters enter the haunted house. It turns into a brilliantly portrayed Nightbreed-like chamber of sadism but failing to transmit a coherent background concept to it all and just goes for a (very enjoyable) blood, guts and torture grandiose extravaganza! A descent of a dead man into the abyss of childhood pain. Visually it was a delight for the slightly twisted, made a very strong impact for a self funded project, I wouldn't change a single stab wound. Script is not as tight but.. fuck it! Main guy thinks he is finally free but ends up confronted with his own karmic process once again and gets trapped in his own amnesiac hell. Doomed to kill again. Doomed to purge again. Doomed to wander in lifeless limbo.
2 / 10
Tão mau que é quase inspirador para wannabe directors como eu. Foi graças ao Retorno (que nem se compreende o que "voltou" num enredo tão fragmentado, básico, super amador) que vou certamente escrever e realizar uma curta para o próximo MOTELx, só por isso... Muito Obrigado! (senão levavas um zero;). Temos todos de começar por algum lado! Os elementos de um primeiro filme estavam todos lá: as ganzas, as conversas sobre gajas no parque, a cena na disco onde ninguém se faz ao bife e até mesmo uma espécie de ovni ou evento paranormal personificado por um foco de luz no meio do nada onde uns mangalhos fumavam, bebiam e discutiam dentro de um carro, claro! Gran Finale! É mesmo argumento de charros, adoro! Espero que não desistas de fazer mais cenas :)
8 / 10
Impeccable and unique for being - probably - the first Thai Zombie movie done with such epic 'splatterish' taste (with the specificity that it was Iranian and Portuguese boats that brought this plague to the plot in the XVI century). Amusing every second of the way. Humor, a bit of sexy time in the amazing tropical scenery and pretty self explanatory when it comes to Gore, thus = Gorgeous!
6.5 / 10
Cute. A pretty cool tribute to Driller Killer, Cannibal Holocaust, Evil "Dad"... using the Poltergeist / Ring metaphor of the static television that eats souls up and personifies incoming doom. "Join us..." to the reign of horror movies. When you go dark you'll never go black.
8.5 / 10
Excellent piece of ethical perseverance and journalistic curiosity! A surprising documentary, chocking even, definitely horrific by its end... how easy family (dirty?) wealth can be the worst mix for a traumatised fat kid that was bullied in school. How easily one can get addicted to secret vices, to impunity and online power over others - all thanks to the anonymity that the world wide web provides - only a proper psycho disturbed self would hide behind a bank account and a false identity to get it off from the most innocent of plays. Simultaneously an odd kink and Freud's wet dream.
10 / 10
A classic eschatological pearl! I'd seen it before but it was a pleasure to have a rerun in São Jorge's majestic Manoel de Oliveira theatre room.
2.5 / 10
This was shit. One of the most recently hyped director of the general public for this genre managed to deliver utter junk this time around (probably on purpose, it can Only be on purpose). Still attempting to (un)dress up his wife into some sort of Gore Queen is really not working out anymore (if ever) for Mrs. Zombie. He finally reached through film the redneck level of his mediocre music. Everything predictable, it makes you laugh not because it's over the top violent like previous films but exclusively because it's amateurishly BAD in every possible way. He couldn't fright a kitten with these horrid dialogues and trashy excess of bad acting. I hope he's doing it for the money and it's all a spit in the face of the producers that just wanna make money out of his name and mindless teenagers that nowadays only go to the movies for a chance to get to second base. The American Family Portrait excuse for entertainment, wore out, low level, not convincing, waste of time.
8.5 / 10
WTF? I read in their crowdfunding campaign this is a child's metaphor for incest - this really didn't come across at first viewing but now that it is mentioned it makes absolute sense. Either way it's a well mastered fantastical narrative about the meeting of 2 siblings and a wild imagination - that can be the personification of a buried child trauma.
8 / 10
Otesánek meet Rosemary's Baby. A severally layered lovely mind fuck. Rich Danish neo-hippies that depend on technology to achieve the most basic thing in existence: To have a child (i.e. the meaning of life). Probably for a damn good reason, because this child might (or not) be a curse of Nature! They exploit a dumbed down Romanian girl that would do anything for money to help her own child and is too naive to fall for the woman's borderline sociopathic sweet-talking skills. To give birth is actually quite a violent exchange of nutrients between a mother and a baby, they, literally, start sharing biology, hormones change and a lot of messed up stuff might take place (ironically the director was going through his wife's pregnancy at the same time of the shooting). A catastrophic loophole between a neurotic obsessed female; an apathetical scared-crazy father; and a victim from a poor environment who's life no one really gives a crap about.
7.5 / 10
A mestria de um dos mais inovadores realizadores portugueses de sempre! Grande respeito por este senhor e por toda a sua carreira de imparável produção e clara paixão pela experimentação cinematográfica. Aqui apresentou-nos uma obra claustrofóbica que, para as mentes mais estimuláveis, pode despoletar considerações filosóficas. Cada filme acontece dentro da cabeça do espectador, pelo que, a mais inocente das imagens para mim pode ser uma catástrofe para qualquer outra pessoa. Tudo depende da percepção. Tudo é semiótica. Neste caso a sala de cinema transformou-se num pesadelo repetitivo e o 3D torna-o extremamente invasivo. Será a vida uma simulação a ser interpretada em simultâneo por todos os seus intervenientes? O que existe por detrás da realidade? A meta-realidade das considerações subconscientes de um realizador genial.
7 / 10
This was the first feature I saw in the festival so my opinion might be tainted because I was really eager for some old school savagery fun-flick. This is not exactly a horror one. It's more like a Southern suspense semi-sadistic thriller between two houses "up to no good". The characters' density is quite superficial but the increasing stress of the orchestrated situation does compensate for a not at all boring movie to watch - even tho the surprises are limited to the obvious. At one point it felt like an homage to female strength (which I appreciated a LOT).
Best quote: "Men know how to kill but they will never know what it is like to breed life"
