Stunning. As in "I felt stunned, beaten over the head, kicked in the stomach, after watching this film". It wasn't easy seeing it for the first time in class, having a short break, and then having to engage in discussion about uterine imagery etc, that's for sure. PJ had watched this some weeks back while I was indulging in my preferred form of gloom, detective novels. The whole fantasy element has never really appealed to me; I guess I've extended my general dislike of children to my inner child, too, so I wasn't particularly looking forward to this. I already knew what happened at the end, which, as it turns out, was probably a good thing. I have a tendency to cry during films, and I don't think that's acceptable behavior in a film studies class. Plus, puffy eyes and a bright red nose? Not attractive.
So, the film. Wow. The fantasy elements were quite limited. Sergi Lopez is clearly the go-to Spanish actor for psychotic killers, but with a marvellous range -- his Captain Vidal is quite different to the more comedic Harry, in "Harry, He's Here to Help". A fairly hefty amount of gore, all the more frightening when it was in "real" life: I can cope with fairies being eaten, but find torture with pliers more disturbing (thankfully). Maribel Verdu, also excellent. Overall, quite the best picture I've seen in ages and well worth seeing unless you like happy endings.
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