Penumbra

PENUMBRA is a waste of time film, one of those I saw in the schedules late at night. It was marked as a horror movie so I thought I'd give it a go, but I wish I hadn't: this is a worthless, amateurish film with barely any plot, full of dull dialogue that seems to have been ad-libbed by an uninterested cast.

This no-budget movie involves an unpleasant estate agent who spends half the running time on her mobile phone - that never makes for great entertainment. Mild interest is evoked when she's attacked early on by a homeless man, but this sub-plot doesn't seem to go anywhere. Instead, the estate agent has to deal with a number of bizarre characters who are congregating inside an apartment she has available for rent.

PENUMBRA is a slow, slow movie in which very little of substance actually happens. The background of a solar eclipse is interesting but nothing happens with it. The horror is limited to the last scene and when it comes it's so predictable that you wonder what you were waiting for all that time. The acting is also very basic, but the biggest problem is with the writing/directing partnership, which falls flat all the while. Somebody show these guys how to make a real movie!

Lots of attention to framing and setting up the tension. Very Lynchian in it's oddness and almost slapsticky change-ups. Reminds one of Twin Peaks. This part of the film works. The actors deserve some note for quality performances.

What doesn't work is the story. It's a mess...and it's stupid. You will hang on for the clever reveal that is never forthcoming. You wait 90 minutes for essentially a 'just because/contrivance for contrivance sake' explanation which does not pay-off whatsoever. The epilogue is meaningless and absurd as well.

Engaging cinematography, good acting, nonsense story. I personally detest slow burns that tease a twisty reveal and fail to deliver. Despite the good production and skillful execution, at the end of the day your 90 minutes are wasted.

A very suspenseful little movie, that might not go exactly the way you expect it to go. At least that rings true with my expectations and I was happy it had some surprises up its sleeves. Also I loved the ending. I think you can interpret things into it (but that might only be true with me of course).

I loved the actress in it. She is so OTT, that of course she also might spark up other feelings. But that's the way she is (her character) and the actress really relished in it. Great performance by her and the other cast members of course. You might feel the story has inconsistencies and is not true, which will make the movie unbearable of course. I can tell you that I didn't have that sort of problem. I really loved the movie with all its little twists and mistakes it had

This is the second unique, high quality thriller I've discovered this year that turned out to be from Argentina, the first being PHASE 7. Filmmakers, the Bogliano brothers, have come a long way from their last film, a disturbing, unfocused effort entitled COLD SWEAT, about abduction and captivity at the hands of a couple of aging serial killers who murder their victims by blowing pieces of them off with nitroglycerin.

Penumbra begins as a perverse psychological thriller, builds like a mystery, then turns a crimson corner into the panic territory of violence and the occult. Along the way, we're kept guessing. One can't determine where the truth lies. Unsettling is the use of sunlight to build a sense of foreboding. So many horror films depend upon twilight and gloom to blur the line between fantasy and reality. In Penumbra, the sun itself is somehow knowing and conspiratorial.

With Penumbra, the Bogliano brothers have created something fresh and interesting. With a hint of foreshadowing, the film's cross-genre approach throws us off-balance. We don't know where this story is going, so every turn it makes is a surprise. It doesn't shock us with spine-tingling chills, but it makes us uneasy and has a genuine creep-out factor that only becomes more disturbing upon its downbeat denouement. The story keeps building and building, adding unexpected elements and creating pressure like a tensile-strength test. The situation into which the protagonist entraps herself becomes increasingly brittle. We wonder what event is going to transpire to create the inevitable sickening shatter as the bottom drops out in little pieces.

Penumbra isn't profound, but it's solid. Its characters are credible, the dialogue is simple and effective, there's no awkward exposition -the story tells itself at it unfolds. There's nothing far-fetched about the plot, which takes its cue from familiar events, but utilizes them in a such a way that we get a story which is unfamiliar. Viewers looking for a change from the routine, but who prefer an effective, conventionally-shot film that's easy to follow, will enjoy Penumbra and wish to keep an eye on future efforts from Adrián and Ramiro Bogliano.

In the story, Margo (Brondo) a Barcelona entrepreneur pursuing a project in Beunos Aires, is having a peculiar day. Everything is a little off-kilter, from canceled appointments and business ambiguities, to just plain odd run-ins with panhandling soothsayers which escalate into misunderstandings with the authorities. Throughout it all flows a droll undercurrent of the absurd, as if the day can't get any weirder, that later it will be merely an anecdote to be laughed at. Adding to the irksome ambiance is a blazing white-hot solar furnace in a cloudless, azure sky. It's hot today, and unusually bright. Margo's not the only one to notice it. Something strange and troublesome is in the air as the sun makes its way toward a scheduled total eclipse.

Margo has invested in an apartment which she is showing. There's a quality that's not quite right about the prospective tenants. They're stalling, and while receiving them, Margo's keys disappear. Her cellphone minutes vanish. Because the door to the security building locks both ways. Margo can't get out, and help can't get in. Her clients begin to behave increasingly strangely. They are determined to buy. Margo is fiercely intent to sell. So why then can't they seem to finalize the transaction? A chain of events transpires, each in quick succession, yet the afternoon drags by. Margo begins to languish, and it's as if the day's events are suspended in a timeless ether, going nowhere -slowly. Other things start to go disturbingly wrong. Strange noises, a neighbor may be trying to drug or poison Margo, and the apartment's pantry door is stuck. Through the keyhole, Margo can see an oblong burlap bundle. Is it moving? Is she going mad? Something funny is going on, but Margo's not laughing. In fact, there's something funny about the apartment itself. It has a history which predates the very edifice, a secret, which obfuscated in the shadows of masonry and mortar for ages, has been waiting to reveal itself in the affirming light of some sunny day.

And look! The sun is coming up!

As in the previous Bogliano's film -Sudor Frío-, Penumbra's Script is simply horrible. The movie is boring, and in the first 30 or 40 minutes, with the only exception of a flawless attack scene at the first minute of the movie, it seems more like a bad "artie" film in which nothing happens than a Horror/Thriller/Fantasy movie. During the entire movie the dialogs are extremely long (aaaaghhhhh, extreeeemelyyyy long!!!), expository, and unnatural. The attempt to keep mystery and reveal the plot essence gradually failed totally, obtaining a very unattractive and dull development of the events.

The acting of "Berta" Muñiz is awful and the one of Camila Bordonaba is poor too. Different is the case of Arnaldo Andre's performance, but his character is not exploited enough in the film. At this point is obvious that Bogliano believes acting is not important in Horror films.

Like in Sudor Frío, in Penumbra Bogliano underestimates and miss the erotic aspect, so appropriate at Horror Thrillers. Penumbra has a Plot linked with a Cult-like small group, the main characters are most of the time inside the same apartment, and above all it's an empty-plot bad- filmed silly movie, so some scenes of dark, nasty sex and erotic playing would have been absolutely suitable.

It's important to stress that (unlike the rest of Bogliano's works) Penumbra is not such a Horror movie, but more close to a tepid film about people settling a rent contract for an apartment.