Posts Tagged ‘Jaume Balagueró’

Back in the darkness

Catalonian and Spanish directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza are back on the scene, with their sequel to the sublime, terrifying [Rec] (2007). So, does the second slice of P.O.V. pandemonium match up to the first?

Well, yes and no. As already said, the same directors reunite (and Picturenose had a chance to chat with Paco recently), with Manu Díez taking writing duties along with Balagueró this time around.

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Dead scary

The horror cinéma-vérité sub-genre is enjoying a whole new lease of life – it’s a concept that was set in motion by The Blair Witch Project (1999) and which, after an absence of nearly ten years, has been well-served recently by fake documentary flicks such as George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead (2007), Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity (2007) and in 2008 by Matt Reeves’ and J.J. Abram’s Cloverfield (2008).

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‘They won’t stay dead!’

Thus screamed the tagline for George A. Romero’s seminal Night of the Living Dead way back in 1968, and it would appear to have been on the money as here we are, more than 40 years later, with the world still ending not with a bang, nor for that matter a whimper, but rather with the sound of relentless shuffling, moaning, screaming and chewing.

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Small-town sinister

Spain’s reputation as a leading film-producing nation continues to grow, particularly in the dark fantasy, horror/thriller genre. In recent years, directors such as Jaume Balagueró (Los sin nombre (1999), Darkness (2002) Fragile (2005)), Alejandro Amenabar (The Others (2001)) and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later (2007)) have established their artistic credentials – now, Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo joins the list, with his taut, suspenseful thriller exploring the evil under the surface of small-town Spanish life.

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Redundant reboot

Oh dear – another ill-advised US remake of a European horror classic…

Regular Picturenose and Expatica readers will recall that I have previously raved over the recent work of Spanish horror directors, with [Rec] by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza a particular standout. Their tightly constructed nightmare for the The Blair Witch Project (1999) generation provided further evidence that the young directors are among the finest working in the genre today – Balagueró’s previous work, for example, also includes the excellent Fragile (2005), Darkness (2002) and, perhaps his best, Los Sin Nombre (The Nameless) (1999).

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