I can't quite get a handle on Spanish
director Alex de la Iglesia. I've seen his perverse tale of two highway
bandits, Perdita Durango (Dance with the Devil, 1997),
starring Rosie Perez and Javier Bardem as her demonic lover who needs
humans to sacrifice before he can go on a mission for his mob boss. It is
a very strange film with excessive violence and gore, black magic,
kidnapping, criminals double-crossing criminals, and a nice supporting
turn by James Gandolfini. But it is very different from Dia de la
Bestia, a horror film which is really a tale of theosophical
conjecture told via black comedy. There really is more to this film than
what first meets the eye.
The film opens in a church, where the bashful
Padre Angel Beriartua (Alex Angulo) tells his colleague that he's
deciphered the Revelation of John, which tells of The Apocalypse. He
believes that The Apocalypse is but a few days away. Instead of
surrendering to prophecy, he tells his compadre that he must do evil, so that he may call up
the Devil, sell his soul to him, and stop The Apocalypse. No sooner does
he say this and turn away than a massive crucifix topples over and crushes
his partner.
This decision seems silly at the time. But
soon the priest is wandering the streets, doing evil. He starts out small,
at first, and then works his way up the charts, carrying out his acts in
simple but effective ways. Such as pushing a mime off a news rack with his
finger, as though testing out the possibility of the thing while actually
doing it. He is quite serious in his convictions, and it soon becomes
apparent that his decision is not only unusual but also insightful to the
deeper religious questions underlying the theme of the film.
The priest picks up two
accomplices along the way, and calls the trio "the three wise men." The
first is a heavy metal record store clerk named Jesus - Santiago Segura, a
popular actor in Spain and recurring favorite of de Iglesia's. He takes an
immediate liking to the unassuming little priest and sends him to the
boarding house where he lives with his mother Rosario (Terele Pavez) and
the live-in cook/cleaner, the attractive Mina (Nathalie Sesena). The third
member of their trio is a TV celebrity named Cavan, who sells
sensationalism under the guise of the occult. He has also sold his soul to
the Devil, so he's a prime candidate for their little sojourn. Although,
he does take a lot more convincing than Jesus did.
The film follows the
priest's attempt to raise the Devil, so to speak, and Jesus' helping him
out along the way. There is a subtle shift in the tenor of the film which
leaves the simple guise of horror film behind at about the halfway mark,
and evolves into a very real rite of passage as the trio bonds in their
pursuit of this noble mission. One of the most interesting aspects in the
whole endeavor is that they do become genuinely noble in their effort, and
yet they cannot tell anyone the truth of their quest because no one would
believe them. And, if they do succeed, there would be no proof. So even
though they might win, they will only have their own feelings of
accomplishment to appease them. All in all, this is a very intriguing
conundrum, and elevates the film beyond the limits of the average horror
flick.
There are
thankfully few effects in the film, which really helps the believability
factor. The action sequences and the gore are also kept to a minimum; but
what little we are shown is respectable. Director de Iglesia's direction
is good, and I have to wonder what I may have missed though a subtitled
version.
From www.filmmonthly.com
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