As with all of my reviews of films for The Creepercast, I fully recommend that you check each and every one of them out. I am one man and this is my opinion. I've seen plenty of movies that received reviews that were the complete opposite of how I saw the film. These writers, directors, producers and actors all put a lot of time and love into these projects. They deserve to be seen and appreciated for what they are. Everyone has a dream and I fully support the people that take the time to make theirs a reality. With that being said....
I really enjoy foreign horror films. Something about them always feels different and it's not just the need for subtitles (on a lot of them), it's an undefinable shift in tone. They seem to be more willing to take risks and have less overall control from the studios. Either that or they're willing to let the writers and directors do what they feel is best. For that reason, these films tend to have a bit more fresh and unique spin on them, even if they're telling the same stories that we've seen a hundred times before. Case in point, 'Los Inocentes' aka 'Bloody April Fools'. A true to form, slasher film of the 80's variety. From the origin story to the main character, all the way down to the twist ending and silly, over the top kills. This movie oozes the 80's aesthetic. Now, going into this thing with no knowledge of what it was about or what to expect, may have been a misstep on my part. Why, you may ask? Because I didn't realize what the backstory was to it and this caused a bit of confusion and made me kind of look at it as a traditional style of horror film. As I was watching this, I did a quick bit of research, on http://www.IMDB.com, and saw the massive amount of writing and directing credits. It kind of threw me for a loop and in my review notes I was taking, I made a not to find out why? The reality was, that this is a movie that was made up of directors in their senior year of a directing workshop at ESCAC (Barcelona's film school.) Now, that is something I never saw coming! It also made me look at the entire project differently. Even the very short run time of one hour and 5 minutes, made more sense.
In Mexico and all over the Catholic world, December 28 commemorates the Santos Inocentes or Holy Innocents. It's basically the equivalent of America's April Fool's Day. A day where jokes are played on the innocent, hence the original Spanish title of the film, 'Los Inocentes'. However, for American audiences, it was changed to 'Bloody April Fools', which doesn't make sense, as the film takes place on December 28th. Regardless, it begins with a bunch of teenagers at a local hostel. They're all having a good time and playing pranks on each other, but one of the pranks goes too far. A rather nerdy teen, gets locked into an area where the hot water furnaces are and gets horrible burned and possibly even killed, in a very painful and cruel manner. Fast forward 15 years later, to the day. It's December 28th again and a group of teens are all loaded in a van, traveling together to an unknown destination. Upon realizing it's getting late and looking for a place to crash. They see the sign for the old hostel and stop at a local gas station to grab food and alcohol, before heading there for the night. The locals warn them that it's closed down, but they go anyway. All, but one of them. As the night slowly starts to wear on, they're each killed one by one. By the end of the evening, only two of them remain, as they fight for their lives against an unseen killer.
Sound familiar? It probably should. It's the basic outline for 75% of the slasher films ever made. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as you're getting what you pay for. Even since Sean S. Cunningham unleashed the original 'Friday the 13th' on the world, back in 1980, people having been copying it's outline for countless films ever since. Although, 'Los Inocentes' takes place in a hostel, it still follows the basic formula of teens + sex = death. Even the killer and the twist at ending, are carbon copies of things you've seen 100 times before. But, when you consider this was conceived in a classroom, by film students, it kind of makes more sense. Where this movie shines, is in the atmosphere and direction. It looks and feels beautiful. It's got very rich tones and is lush with amazing shots of the darkened hallways and abandoned rooms. The color palette is shockingly good. It also makes great use of a decent orchestral score and other found music, that fits well into the mood of the piece. Where it shows its inexperience is in the sound editing and poor cutting between scenes. It also suffers from trying to hard with the original kill concept. I can see what they were all going for, with the use of pranks and dark humor, to emphasize the 'Fools Day' aspect, it just falls short of hitting the mark. Even with all of that working for and against it, these young directors show an amazing amount of promise. With some time and experience, I can see the beginnings of some very cool things to come. I only wish the instructors had reigned them in just a bit, to make it all a bit less amateurish.
What has resonated with me, ever since finishing this last night, is the fact that it was all done as a group effort, by students cutting their teeth in the genre. There are many film makers, currently in the studio system in America, that aren't putting out the quality that I saw in 'Los Inocentes'. Even though I may never need to watch this one again, it's still something that I would recommend to up and coming film students, to show them that they can make art. Bloody, horrific art. Being a former film student myself and knowing my limitations and where I've ended up, I tip my hat to all of them. For working together and making something to be proud of. In my opinion, it's a 3 out of 5 star film, with moments of 4 stars and moments of 2 stars. It stands as a testament of what anyone can do, if they put their minds to it and have a little knowledge under their belt. Give this one a try and watch it with the eyes I didn't have. Perhaps you'll walk away from it with a renewed sense of faith in the foundation of the genre being strong for the future. I'm a slasher fan from way back and it's nice to see that there are other genre fans paving he way for a lot more bloody fun to come.
If you like this, check out some of it's bigger influences: 'Friday the 13th' (1980), 'The Burning' (1981) and 'Halloween 2' (1981)
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