Directed by: Luciano and Nicolas Onetti
Written By: Luciano and Nicolas Onetti and Carlos Goitia
Starring: Augustin Pardella, Damian Dreizik, Victoria Maurette
93 Minutes
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2W3TXAf
In 1985, there was a flood, many people evacuated, and the flood swallowed the entire town of Epecuen. Nothing was left but rubble and wreckage. True story.
Titles roll.
A girl, covered in blood, runs through the wreckage in her underwear. Someone catches her and beats her head in. Fade to black.
A vanload of mostly young people, documentary filmmakers of course, are driving through Argentina toward Epecuen. They stop at a gas station with the nastiest looking restroom ever, and there’s a creepy old woman working there. Everyone at the place is creepy and strange-looking.
They arrive at the dead town, and everything, even the trees, are dead, due to the high salt content of the lake that flooded. Just as they prepare to start shooting film, there’s a man watching them through a gun-scope. Little do they know, but their fuel line has been cut. The van dies, but shortly after, another car appears– It’s the man with the sniper rifle. The man volunteers to drive one person to the gas station, and the director, the older guy in the group, goes with him. We get a glimpse of a “Missing Girl” poster in the back seat, featuring the girl we saw in the pre-credit sequence.
Out of the blue, two of the girls start kissing, and the director’s girlfriend and the driver start seducing each other. We get fifteen minutes of wreckage shots interspersed with sex scenes. The girl who witnessed the original flood get bitten by a snake, and they have to carry her back to the van. Suddenly, we see a man wearing a dead cow skull kill the director, while the gun-guy just stands at a distance watching. Somewhere else, we see the director’s girlfriend being captured and tortured by more guys wearing skulls. Night falls and the chainsaws come out!
Before long, everyone is captured, and they all face some massively crazy torture and gore insanity. But wait– The photographer and the man with the gun are still out there. Will they manage to turn the tables on these psychos?
Commentary
It’s “The Hills Have Eyes” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” combined. The story of Epecuen and the flooding is all true, and this was filmed in the actual ruins. It was a literal disaster area, which was perfect for this movie. There was one scene after another of wreckage, including drone flyovers, which was obviously real. There was a sequence when there was a lot of freeze-frame and red tinting, for “extra shock value,” which seemed unnecessary. Once the killings start, the gore is way over the top. There are a lot of very long-lingering super-creepy shots that are very effective. As long as you go into this realizing it’s a “killer cannibal Argentinian rednecks in the wild” kind of story, and not something supernatural, you’ll enjoy it.
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2W3TXAf
