Friday, February 3, 2017

Scherzo Diabolico (2015) - Foreign Film Friday



Number Rolled: 43
Movie Name/Year: Scherzo Diabolico (2015)
Tagline: None
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Length: 90 minutes
Rating: NR
Production Companies: F, Morbido Films, Mr. Blue, Salto de Fe Films, rABYa Producciones
Producer: Alexander Bergman, Abigail Bonilla, Theo Brooks, Vince Cupone, Brandy Fons, Mario Kenyon, Pablo Guisa Koestinger, Danny Lieberman, Carlos Meléndez, Andrea Quiroz, Joshua Sobel, Julio Cesar Sánchez
Director: Adrián García Bogliano
Writer: Adrián García Bogliano
Actors: Francisco Barreiro, Daniela Soto Vell, Jorge Molina, Milena Pezzi, Vita Vargas, Evan Alducin, Pau Alva, Tito Guillén, Pablo Guisa Koestinger      
Stunt Doubles: None

Languages
Speech Available: Spanish
Subtitles Available: Spanish, English

Blurb from Netflix: An everyday accountant may turn out to be a monster in disguise when he savagely kidnaps a schoolgirl. But not everything goes according to plan.


Selina’s Point of View:
So this was the first foreign film that’s I’ve actually been looking forward to seeing for a while. I’m still learning about foreign actors and crew members, I can’t name many off the top of my head. However, I do know of the writer/director of this film, Adrián García Bogliano (Penumbra, White Coffin, Here Comes the Devil). In fact, if you read this blog often, so do you.

Bogliano did a segment of the first ABCs of Death (2012) – not one of the segments that made me hate life – and he was also responsible for Late Phases (2014).

I really enjoyed Late Phases but, more importantly, it was incredibly memorable. That was the whole reason we added Scherzo Diabolico to our Netflix list to begin with.


From the few things I’ve seen by Bogliano, I think I can grasp his style really well already. I like it.

Scherzo Diabolico was completely twisted. It was one of those films that made me ‘wtf’ during almost every moment of the climax. In a good way.

One of my favorite things about this film is that I’m almost certain I could have watched it with the captions off and still understood the storyline completely. The script may have added some nuance to the plot, but the majority of it was told in the expressions of, and interactions between, the characters.

Personally, I would absolutely recommend this film. Not just to fans of foreign language cinema either. If you don’t like subtitles, keep them off. I think it’ll still be an interesting watch.


Cat’s Point of View:
I don’t say this often, but what the hell did I just watch???

There’s good news and bad news here. The good news is that I didn’t find my usual foreign film pet peeve regarding the subtitles. These were well placed and easy to read.

What’s the bad news? This movie was off its gourd.

First, I’m a little confused. The film was in Spanish, and yet the title is Italian. Odd, but okay. I have a guess that they did that on purpose to keep audiences on their toes; otherwise, the title would just give too much away immediately.

The word “diabolical” was relatively clear, though. For a while there, I wasn’t so sure that the movie was ever going to deliver on that promise.


Things started so slowly, I was begging the screen for the movie to get on with it already. It was all so…odd. I keep coming back to that word because that’s the best way to describe this experience. Things started to make a little more sense in the middle – and then the last leg of this strange trip just wallops out of left field like Monty Python’s (Life of Brian, Meaning of Life, Quest for the Holy Grail) Spanish Inquisition.

Somewhere in there is a nausea-inducing sequence that puts shaky-cam to shame; and it seems to be quite entirely deliberate. I couldn’t even watch for more than a second or so without wincing at the color and motion. I do not get motion sick, either.

I believe that the only reason I would recommend this movie to anyone else would be so that I could discuss how completely bonkers it was and have someone actually understand from a place of experience.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 29%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 1.5/5
Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score3.5/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 1/5
Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score1.5/5

The Random Rating: R

Movie Trailer:

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