FrightFest

8/10 - silly concept, but managed to overcome that and worked quite well. Strong performances from the leads.

I really wanted to love this; I'd been looking forward to it since seeing the lineup announced, and I know Alan said it'd be divisive but damn! That ending. I so wanted it to be revealed that It also rushed through the scene-setting for The Panic, I thought. There was no sense of dread building up for what this virus could do or drive people to. A 5/10 from me; I just felt overall a bit disappointed with the execution of a decently interesting idea.

7/10

It would be interesting to know the extent (if any) to which this movie is an allegorical reflection of the current social, economic and political woes in Spain...

Enjoyable overall, although the gradual descent into melodrama wasn't entirely to my taste.

Did I recognise the female lead from Sleep Tight?

A massive let down. Never engaged with this one at any point and the ending was woeful. Not the worse film I've ever seen but the weakest of the festival by far. Maybe this Prime slot would have been better filled by Cheap thrills?
2/10

bernal316 wrote:A massive let down. Never engaged with this one at any point and the ending was woeful. Not the worse film I've ever seen but the weakest of the festival by far. Maybe this Prime slot would have been better filled by Cheap thrills?
2/10

Very much agree, although I think Cheap Thrills was a perfect late nighter, so I'm glad it had the slot it did.

I liked it slightly more than you did, but agree the ending was atrociously girly and twee, a generous 4/10

so fucking boring! i found the textured wall of the empire more interesting (not even joking...). walked out of this. there is no way the end of the world is that tedious or visually dull.

Was worried at points in the film that was heading into "The Happening" territory of hilarious lunacy but it just about steered away from them although the nature of the "panic" seemed a bit arbitrary. You have to stay in a building, but not a car....is a mobile home ok or not? The scene in the supermarket with the wall of trolleys looked great.

Hmm this one is a bit hard to describe for me.

I think I liked it but am not sure why,

Did not like the ending though.

It's very cliched and melodramatic, with swelling music, people making long final speeches as they die, and the power of love conquering all, but it's also often beautiful to look at, and there are a few decent action scenes. I didn't mind the ending, I thought it worked fine with the rest of the film.
5/10

*** Spoilers ***

A very solid road trip through an apocalyptic Barcelona, as the hero and his companion must traverse the ruined city without going outside. Now the marmite ending - after thinking that I didn't like the ending, I have since wondered if the hero did die and the rest was his final thoughts before dying, as he did have various thoughts about his girlfriend en route to rescuing her, making the ending so much more powerful and poignant - any views on this interpretation? He was bleeding from the eyes etc before being miraculously cured... Some good setpieces and effective use of flashbacks made the film very watchable. 8 / 10 Yes, that was Marta Etura from the excellent "Sleep Tight".

I was half expecting a bear to get either him making his final journey between the buildings or at least snatch the baby at the end - but that may have felt even more contrived.

And frankly if a kid had stolen my GPS and another had stabbed me they would both be dead and consumed.

They didn't actually make much of the tunnel/sewer travelling, which for me was good as what can you add to that.

The developing relationship between the two male leads was done very well, it felt the lead man had more of a relationship with his boss/HR than he did with his wife.

I can forgive the ending, I could have forgiven it more if the film had been more tense.

You make a good point AlexJ, but to be honest it wasn't a film the made me care about it so I never gave it much thought.

It was a bit hard to understand the exact nature of "The Panic", and to work out quite why society had collapsed so very quickly.

But taking those details as read, I thought the whole thing worked very well, despite a whole bundle of clichés. And I had no problem with the ending. Call me a sentimentalist.

One of my favourites of the festival, for sure.

TheDukeAbides wrote:I was half expecting a bear to get either him making his final journey between the buildings or at least snatch the baby at the end

Figured we'd already done bear. Does the Barcelona Zoo have tigers?