Luciferina
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:04 pm
LUCIFERINA
//// Really big *SPOILERS* all the way through! ////
This was the film at this year's FRIGHTFEST that I most wanted to see. Well, ok - second only to CLIMAX; but that's a given. It's a shame that the director - Gonzalo Calzada - couldn't make the premiere as his movie was an absolute scream.
Horror cinema can often be irritating, provoking, long-winded or deranged but that's what keeps it fresh and exciting and ambitious. LUCIFERINA was, at times, all of the above.
It could be irritating: the climax had about 5 false starts that were fairly lengthy. But this was great. As I walked out of the cinema I realised that - why should horror movies follow established expected formats and time schedules? It was fair play that the demon in Luciferina (most likely the Devil himself) takes a long time to deal with. I mean, come on - he's the Devil. He hasn't been defeated ever (not even in OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT).
The final conflict in Luciferina may have felt a little long-winded with lots of talk about how to isolate the beast and the nature of virginity as a weapon of mass destruction (no really!) but was never boring, never less than authentically deranged. Deranged, but addictive and relentlessly crossing those safe, protective salt lines or circles in the sand that other entries in demonic nun horror cinema are so often happy to do (mentioning no names!). Was this Argentinean director who seemed to have a Rob Zombie divisive reputation back home actually the Gaspar Noe of satanic ritual flicks? You don't need to cast any runes to know my answer to that. Luciferina was an absolute filthy, dirty blast to the senses and a revolting rip to the heart of restraint: this is what horror is.
A young novice nun returns to her twisted family in the lush countryside after her mother's mysterious death and finds her father traumatised, painting demonic images on his bedroom walls and spending most of his time wrapped in bandages and on a ventilator. Her sister (they were both adopted) has gone all Siouxie Sioux and has a new boyfriend with a personality bypass and knife fetish (when not trying to sexually assault virginal younger sisters in the family cupboard).
All the young nun's friends want to do is mock her virginity or take mystic herbs in the forest to identify the truth of what happened to these two sisters when they were little. Clue: Think: all of TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER and half of THE EXORCIST and you'll be getting close (without the need to take herbal hallucinogenics).
It's easy to be silly with a film such as LUCIFERINA. But it's a kind of nervous giggle inside such as the kind you find in a trauma unit amongst the nurses that work there. The film is beautifully directed with a roaming, frantic stylish gaze (like a hunter, with a camera) across a lush visual landscape full of hidden churches, abandoned mystics and weird statues loitering in the dense undergrowth. Nifty effects abound: gore is used sparingly and targets the eyes, but this is not a gore fest. Characters interact thanks to the film's refusal to just die and be done in the name of horror film formatting and you may even find yourself rooting for the weirdos and psychos along the way.
There's a terrific central performance from Sofia Del Tuffo as the battling young nun with supernatural sight under threat from demonic intent, full of passion and fight, and you stay on her side to the end. Also fabulous is Malena Sanchez as the twisted sister and Pedro Merlo as the boy possessed who has to growl and spit and chant and never once come across as laughable or OTT; a cleverly restrained and sympathetic turn.
Demonic horrors can come across as stupid and full of boring, seen it all before religious or demonic imagery and black mass overload that never feels all that authentic and more of a horror by numbers for less gifted filmmakers to hide under.
Not so with LUCIFERINA. If you love horror you should absolutely fall in love with this movie and demand it's on your Amazon wish list right now!
Highlights of the film include a disgusting, disgraceful demonic birth and a Nun Vs Devil Vs Novice threeway battle within salty candlelit circles and ruined stone walls. There's plenty of bodies levitating and demonic flying through the air and the demonic ritual trip in an old church comes across like THE CRAFT as directed by Fulci. Scenes back at the house are awash with wanton sexuality and ritual orchestrated by a sinister, controlling patriarch and the quietly innocent, but fight-primed, second sight-loaded girl Vs possessed red-eyed demonic boy finale - when suddenly disrobed - is worthy of the legendary Jess Franco turned up to 11. Basically, if you love cult, crazy, off-kilter wild horror you'll absolutely want to propose your love and get married to this one - all on the same night!
Probably deeply politically incorrect and morally questionable and certainly ready to offend from the start, the film is also blessed with a gorgeous soundtrack full of sombre orchestral languishing. Strange sounds come pulsing, rumbling, grumbling and lots of Latin chanting creates a sense of ominous pace and worsening restlessness. It never tires or lets up and the FRIGHTFEST audience were dead quiet throughout - none of that sarcastic tittering or shuffling in seats: I for one was transfixed. What we were watching felt authentically depraved, horrific and oh so wrong.
The ambitious two hour runtime never dragged and just when we thought it was all over and hadn't exploited its young leads with too much sexually depraved occult degeneration, the finale truly went for the jugular and ended it all on a stone altar in the middle of nowhere without any clothes on - Gaspar Noe himself, I'm sure, would approve. Clearly virginity can - in horror cinema - be the only weapon against evil that always seems to work.
Don't see this movie unless you want to be assaulted with an overdose of the occult or the perverted and find yourself wallowing in a luxurious landscape as seen through open doors of ancient abandoned ruins crawling in vines full of demonic birthing rituals and sex magick.
A FRIGHTFEST screening hasn't been this much fun since HIDDEN IN THE WOODS or THE ROTTEN LINK. This is wild demonic horror as you always thought it could be. I loved it. And the shocked stagger outside of the smaller (but still packed out) Discovery Screen crowd when it was all over looked pretty authentic to me - a rawly horrific, heady and depraved punch to the senses.
//// Really big *SPOILERS* all the way through! ////
This was the film at this year's FRIGHTFEST that I most wanted to see. Well, ok - second only to CLIMAX; but that's a given. It's a shame that the director - Gonzalo Calzada - couldn't make the premiere as his movie was an absolute scream.
Horror cinema can often be irritating, provoking, long-winded or deranged but that's what keeps it fresh and exciting and ambitious. LUCIFERINA was, at times, all of the above.
It could be irritating: the climax had about 5 false starts that were fairly lengthy. But this was great. As I walked out of the cinema I realised that - why should horror movies follow established expected formats and time schedules? It was fair play that the demon in Luciferina (most likely the Devil himself) takes a long time to deal with. I mean, come on - he's the Devil. He hasn't been defeated ever (not even in OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT).
The final conflict in Luciferina may have felt a little long-winded with lots of talk about how to isolate the beast and the nature of virginity as a weapon of mass destruction (no really!) but was never boring, never less than authentically deranged. Deranged, but addictive and relentlessly crossing those safe, protective salt lines or circles in the sand that other entries in demonic nun horror cinema are so often happy to do (mentioning no names!). Was this Argentinean director who seemed to have a Rob Zombie divisive reputation back home actually the Gaspar Noe of satanic ritual flicks? You don't need to cast any runes to know my answer to that. Luciferina was an absolute filthy, dirty blast to the senses and a revolting rip to the heart of restraint: this is what horror is.
A young novice nun returns to her twisted family in the lush countryside after her mother's mysterious death and finds her father traumatised, painting demonic images on his bedroom walls and spending most of his time wrapped in bandages and on a ventilator. Her sister (they were both adopted) has gone all Siouxie Sioux and has a new boyfriend with a personality bypass and knife fetish (when not trying to sexually assault virginal younger sisters in the family cupboard).
All the young nun's friends want to do is mock her virginity or take mystic herbs in the forest to identify the truth of what happened to these two sisters when they were little. Clue: Think: all of TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER and half of THE EXORCIST and you'll be getting close (without the need to take herbal hallucinogenics).
It's easy to be silly with a film such as LUCIFERINA. But it's a kind of nervous giggle inside such as the kind you find in a trauma unit amongst the nurses that work there. The film is beautifully directed with a roaming, frantic stylish gaze (like a hunter, with a camera) across a lush visual landscape full of hidden churches, abandoned mystics and weird statues loitering in the dense undergrowth. Nifty effects abound: gore is used sparingly and targets the eyes, but this is not a gore fest. Characters interact thanks to the film's refusal to just die and be done in the name of horror film formatting and you may even find yourself rooting for the weirdos and psychos along the way.
There's a terrific central performance from Sofia Del Tuffo as the battling young nun with supernatural sight under threat from demonic intent, full of passion and fight, and you stay on her side to the end. Also fabulous is Malena Sanchez as the twisted sister and Pedro Merlo as the boy possessed who has to growl and spit and chant and never once come across as laughable or OTT; a cleverly restrained and sympathetic turn.
Demonic horrors can come across as stupid and full of boring, seen it all before religious or demonic imagery and black mass overload that never feels all that authentic and more of a horror by numbers for less gifted filmmakers to hide under.
Not so with LUCIFERINA. If you love horror you should absolutely fall in love with this movie and demand it's on your Amazon wish list right now!
Highlights of the film include a disgusting, disgraceful demonic birth and a Nun Vs Devil Vs Novice threeway battle within salty candlelit circles and ruined stone walls. There's plenty of bodies levitating and demonic flying through the air and the demonic ritual trip in an old church comes across like THE CRAFT as directed by Fulci. Scenes back at the house are awash with wanton sexuality and ritual orchestrated by a sinister, controlling patriarch and the quietly innocent, but fight-primed, second sight-loaded girl Vs possessed red-eyed demonic boy finale - when suddenly disrobed - is worthy of the legendary Jess Franco turned up to 11. Basically, if you love cult, crazy, off-kilter wild horror you'll absolutely want to propose your love and get married to this one - all on the same night!
Probably deeply politically incorrect and morally questionable and certainly ready to offend from the start, the film is also blessed with a gorgeous soundtrack full of sombre orchestral languishing. Strange sounds come pulsing, rumbling, grumbling and lots of Latin chanting creates a sense of ominous pace and worsening restlessness. It never tires or lets up and the FRIGHTFEST audience were dead quiet throughout - none of that sarcastic tittering or shuffling in seats: I for one was transfixed. What we were watching felt authentically depraved, horrific and oh so wrong.
The ambitious two hour runtime never dragged and just when we thought it was all over and hadn't exploited its young leads with too much sexually depraved occult degeneration, the finale truly went for the jugular and ended it all on a stone altar in the middle of nowhere without any clothes on - Gaspar Noe himself, I'm sure, would approve. Clearly virginity can - in horror cinema - be the only weapon against evil that always seems to work.
Don't see this movie unless you want to be assaulted with an overdose of the occult or the perverted and find yourself wallowing in a luxurious landscape as seen through open doors of ancient abandoned ruins crawling in vines full of demonic birthing rituals and sex magick.
A FRIGHTFEST screening hasn't been this much fun since HIDDEN IN THE WOODS or THE ROTTEN LINK. This is wild demonic horror as you always thought it could be. I loved it. And the shocked stagger outside of the smaller (but still packed out) Discovery Screen crowd when it was all over looked pretty authentic to me - a rawly horrific, heady and depraved punch to the senses.