TERROR 5 (2016)
Label: Artsploitation Films
Region Code: 1
Duration: 78 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: Spanish with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.39:1)
Directors: Sebastián Rotstein, Federico Rotstein
Argentinian horror anthology Terror 5 (2016) is a mixed bag, as are most anthologies - they cannot all be Creepshow (1982) after all. Four of the five stories are loosely intertwined with shared elements, but the overall cohesiveness of the film lies more in tone than in shared story-lines. First up is “Colegio” which didn't appear to me to have any relation at all to the stories that came afterward, a tale of a high school student being seduced into a world darkness by the object of his desire. It has a good tone with some torture elements, but I largely found it forgettable, it's not exactly a barn-burner of a entry point, starting things off a bit flatfooted.
Next up is “Gritos” which acts as the through line and wraparound story for the anthology, concerning a corrupt politician who has been cleared in the wrongful deaths of fifteen people after the collapse of a shoddily constructed building. In the aftermath of the verdict there is widespread social unrest in the city, culminating with the victims rising from their graves. The undead are glowing blue-eyed phantoms that brought to mind the vengeful spirits in John Carpenter's The Fog. This segment is the most visually striking, a scene of the glowing, blue-eyed undead standing in front of a blue, neon-lit crucifix is particularly arresting.
The most outright sexual story is “TTT”, the tale of a horny young couple enjoying a night of explicit sex in a seedy motel room, unaware that the large mirror overlooking their bed hides a fatal secret behind it, creating an urban tale of a snuff film in the making. This snuff film feeds into our next story "Senorita Virga", in which a group of annoying teens party it up while watching a rumored snuff film, all the while the more asshole-ish of the makes, wearing Gene Simmons' of Kiss demon make-up appropriately, degrades his chubby friend, forcing him into a surprising act of violence that is ultimately misplaced.
“Marina y Mariana” was a difficult one for me to peg down as far as the plot of the short, in it a pair of men are sitting in separate cars in a dark alley not too far from one another, talking on their phones, seemingly plotting to do something weird with their respective girlfriends. I had to resort to looking online to suss out what exactly it was they were doing, and apparently there's some sort of wife-swap happening here in theory, but going by the translated subtitles I didn't get that at all, regardless something goes bloody awful wrong for both men, ending in a bloodbath.
Some of these stories have shared elements but are really not connected, or maybe they are, but going by the translated subtitles I found some of it a bit impenetrable, so I had to rely on the tone and atmosphere of the stories more so than the narrative, some of which was clear and some of which was jumbled, not at all helped by a choppy narrative structure went back and forth between the stories, which I found it a bit disorienting and not in a good way. That said, I think the film looks great throughout, the craftsmanship is very good, the lighting is well-done, and the acting seems solid to my non-bilingual ears.
I didn't love Terror 5 (2016) but I did enjoy it quite a bit, like a lot of anthologies it's disjointed and uneven, but if you're a fan of indie horror anthologies there some dark sights worth seeing here.
