Naprata – 2013 – A Serbian found footage film

Director: Mladen Milosavljevic

Horror

The film starts out with a documentary team seeking a man knows from an online clip. The clip shows him beating his mother and as their goal is to capture violence against women, it’s very interesting for them. Soon, however, they discover something much more sinister. There’s a local legend of an ancient demon and they ‘even soon finds out how to summon it. This story seems to be far more interesting as they starts to follow it. But as the old saying goes – It’s better to believe than to be convinced!

If I hadn’t got this film sent to me I never would have heard about it. It’s not like I investigate by turning every stone to find all Serbian Films I can. I’m sure there are lots and lots of them out there that’ll never see the light of day. They’re still interesting for a small amount of people but they’ll never get as well known as Sprski Film or Life and Death of a Porno Gang. This doesn’t mean they’re less interesting but if you don’t seek after them you’ll never find them. The majority of easy to get film comes from the USA, that’s a fact.

But I’m glad I got this! It’s an interesting film in many aspects. First of all I think they’d done very well with the found footage thing, or a mockumentary as it really is. It seems legit even though it’s obviously not! Its fiction and nothing else, the interviewed people seem to be very, secret at first, then concerned about the legend and even more so about the teams desire to capture Naprata on camera! There are very specific rules to follow if a summoning is to be made safe. Can the team follow the instructions to the letter or not?

The version of the film that I saw was with the dialog in original Serbian and subtitled in English. Neither is my first language and I was confused a few times by the subtitling grammar. It’s not a big deal but as I don’t know a word of Serbian I’ll have to depend on the subtitles to tell me what I need to know. There were a couple of questions there on however the translation was correct. But on the other hand, I already forgot what it was, so I guess it wasn’t a biggie.

I think there’s too many found footage movies being made nowadays. It seems to be in fashion and I think that very few of them really go all the way making them believable. This one pass the test and it also has an interesting storyline and some suspense as well. There’s no need to tell a supernatural story of this kind if you can’t deliver suspense. But I think they did a fine job of that here. Believable mockumentary, good acting, and suspense. This one is a winner!

7/10

In Bocca Al Lupo – 2004 – In the Mouth of the Wolf

Director: Christos Mouroukis

Short/Horror

According to IMdB, this short horror flick was co-produced in Greece and Spain. The dialog, even if there’s not much of it, is in Spanish. I don’t mind. The most important thing about a movie isn’t which language it’s in but since I like to understand what’s going on I needed the English subtitles, thanks!

The title translated into something like In the Mouth of the Wolf, which is an expression very similar to the way of wishing for good luck by the phrase – break a leg. Having got that clear to me I understand the context of the flick much better. It makes total sense that the title wishes the lead female good luck, with an ironical tone, as she’s really beyond all hope. She’s lying on the floor, bloody, and there’s this guy ready to beat her up some more. At the same time we see her smoking a cigarette and talking about what’s happening to her. I interpret that as her visualized thoughts really. It’s done in a very clever way!

It’s a very intense little thing even if it's just a few minutes long. As usual these short movies are more or less one scene, a small fragment of something that could’ve been a story on a much larger scale. I wish this was a longer movie actually! I think that the director, who also plays the part on the killer by the way, could keep it interesting for an hour and a half. This short story has such a promise!

As always when it comes to these short flicks, it’s hard to fit them into a grading system. It’s not really fair to compare them with longer more complex movies. But you have to take them for what they are and compare them with their own peers so to speak. This is a quite suspenseful and thrilling little piece that I’m glad I was able to see!

8/10

The Devil Knows His Own – 2013 – Something I had not expected!

Gravestone Entertainment

Director: Jason Hawkins

2013

Horror

I had not expected this flick to be so well acted and to be filled with such genuine scares. It may not be true for every single shot and the actor won’t get any academy awards for their work but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen something this scary coming out from a low budget film. There are plenty of films that try to be scary and use gallons of blood to achieve the effect, this one doesn’t! To tell you the truth it’s kind of a relief that the main thing this flick is built on is suspense. I’ve always loved suspense and all the best horror movies in history is based on suspense, not gore! I’m so glad this is old school in that sense!

The story revolves about these couple of siblings that inherits a house from their grandmother. They don’t have a lot of happy memories from her to say the least. In fact, all they have is memories of her molesting and abusing them, both physical and psychologically. She had them carry masks of their faces and even constantly told them that they were unwanted since their mother disappeared. All these memories comes back when they visits the old house once more for the funeral arrangements. They are both grown up now but still so very fragile and on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Some of the elements could be interpreted as exploitation, such as the sister being a lesbian and married to another woman. But it’s not like that at all, it just seems totally natural. It may have something to with the grandmother’s abuse of course as we learn that the sister has been “sewn up” during childhood. Is this a statement in the debate of genital mutilation? Could be, but it doesn’t matter if this is the intent or not. What do YOU think? There are no really sexual scenes to be found, almost no topless shooting and that kind of stuff. This movie doesn’t get caught in that trap!

The brother on the other hand have had drug related problems and guess what, he’s hooked up with a junkie. She’s on a cleaning up program with medication and stuff but still a problem child just like him. I think this could be an example right out of reality! And you could use this as a way to build the movie too. Visions caused by abstinence. But it doesn’t go their either, just for a short visit. It’s a bit cleverer than that and more like the classic suspense horror movies. Lots of inspiration may have come from The Amityville Horror since there’s a haunted house in the center of the story, I don’t know. Certain are that the stories have similarities.

There are excellent choices of music throughout the movie. Almost at all occasions it emphasizes on the suspense. A small minus is maybe that there also are segment where there should have been music. Silence is a great way of delivering suspense too but it’s hard to get it to work if the story isn’t absolutely top notch and by that I mean absolute masterpieces like Michael Hanekes Funny Games, the kind of stories that comes out in a movie maybe once or twice every year and no more. Extremely uncommon in other words!

The ending sequence is really something extraordinaire! Everything that the film has built up to that point gets released and we, the audience, stand amazed! After that the imagery is so arranged that we get something to think about too. A film that manages to do this properly is unusual, but this one nails it. I have no idea what to make of the final scene. It makes me wonder…

8/10