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Sangre Vurdalak
A.K. Tolstoy's A Taste of Blood
Vurdalak Blood
Argentina / Singapore 2020
produced by Roxana Ramos (executive), Paola Suarez (executive), Jordan Nutson (executive), Sia Mehilli (executive), Ryo Ebe (executive) for Aramos Cine, Jaque Content, 108 Media
directed by Santiago Fernández Calvete
starring Germán Palacios, Alfonsina Carrocio, Lautaro Bettoni, Tom CL (= Tomás Carullo Lizzio), Naiara Awada, Carmela Merediz, Martín Rena, Beto Bernuéz, Julieta Daga, Jose Manuel Solis Vargas
written by Santiago Fernández Calvete, based on the novelette Sem'ya Vurdalaka by Aleksei Tolstoy, music by Santosh Logandran
Vurdalak
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Natalia (Alfonsina Carrocio) is pretty much locked away by her dad
Aguirre (Germán Palacios) in their country home, even though she's old
enough to look after herself, so it's hardly surprising that she one day
gives her father the slip to run away with her boyfriend Alexis (Tom CL) -
but he doesn't really want to run away. So she walks off on her own to God
knows where, and eventually walks into a stranger who claims to be her
uncle she never knew she had, but he talks very convincingly about her
family's origins in Easter Europe for her to trust him - until he turns
into a vurdalak, a vampire like monster. Natalia almost falls prey to him
but is saved by Alexis, who takes her back to her family. Now this is when
Aguirre opens up about the family heritage that's closely linked to the
vurdalaks, which is why they left for South America decades ago - but now
apparently the vurdalaks have tracked them down, so dad decides to go on a
hunt that night and urges Natalia, Alexis, Natalia's brother Manuel
(Lautaro Bettoni), his wife Eva (Naiara Awada) and their daughter Malena
(Carmela Merediz) to lock themselves inside the house during the night and
not come out before sunrise, and not let him in before then either.
However once they're locked inside, weird and toxic family dynamics
develop as Manuel and Eva desparately want to make a getaway with their
daughter while Natalia and Alexis want to wait it out - which ironically
enough ends with Alexis being chained up outside, and Natalia refusing to
leave his side out of love and loyalty. And before the sun's even up the
group goes searching for Aguirre. They find him, bring him home - and
realize he might have been turned into a vurdalak after all, especially
since he makes numerous excuses to face the sun. Ultimately it's decided
to chain him up, and while Natalia and Alexis keep watch, Manuel and Eva
go fetch their car they left stranded a few miles off. But then Aguirre
escapes his chains, and while Natalia and Alexis manage to escape him, Eva
decides to distrust them since they've been with Aguirre for too long, and
might have been turned. Thing is, this has now become a life-and-death
conflict between these two parties, and both parties have guns ...
Now Aleksei Tolstoy's story from 1839 this film's based on has
been filmed several times before, most prominently by Mario Bava [Mario
Bava bio - click here] as a segment of his I
Tre Volti della Paura/Black
Sabbath (1963) - but while Bava's version goes full gothic, this
one is more of a psychological thriller, where the monsters really take
backseat during much of the story to have the (still-)human protagonists
fight amonst themselves, which seems to lead to far worse results that the
monster on its own would have ever achieved. And this is achieved thanks
to a very clever, character-heavy script that really manages to give all
its characters at least some relatable traits, refuses to let most of them
fall into a mere good-bad dichotomy - which of course only helps to make
everything all the more horrible. And a strong cast only helps to bring
them to life in a believable way while an atmosphere-heavy directorial
effort sets up just the right mood for some really cool genre
entertainment.
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