{"id":10603,"date":"2015-02-23T11:51:46","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T16:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=10603"},"modified":"2015-02-23T11:51:46","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T16:51:46","slug":"dvd-bloody-flesh-flesh-of-your-flesh-carne-de-tu-carne-1983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=10603","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Bloody Flesh \/ Flesh of Your Flesh \/ Carne de tu carne (1983)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"BloodyFlesh1983\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Standard<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>One 7 Movies<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a00 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 January 8, 2013<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Supernatural Horror<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0The death of a matriarch and a sudden explosion unleashes supernatural forces who fixate on the incestuous relationship between two cousins.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 Theatrical Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

With few Colombian films available on video in North America, there\u2019s a huge unfamiliarity with the country\u2019s history and culture up here, making it a little tough to fully grasp the political and cultural references in Carlos Mayolo\u2019s political critique that\u2019s housed within a supernatural container.<\/p>\n

Writer-director Mayolo doesn\u2019t offer any pre-credit set-up \u2013 the film starts with a dedication to idols Roger Corman and Roman Polanski \u2013 but there are three scenes which give an impression that all is not well in the beautiful city of Cali, circa 1956.<\/p>\n

The first deals with the fast demise of an aged, dementia-prone matriarch whose dying words seem to infer the Alfonso family is in for some special hell; the second has a trio of workmen uncovering a shallow ancient grave, seemingly unleashing angry spirits from the rock-covered pauper\u2019s tomb into the clear-cut valley below; and the third scene shows the family\u2019s chauffeur Ever (played by Mayolo) on a kind of death clean-up, unloading recently killed youths from a truck for a mass burial, and later teasing a seated turkey before he literally blows its head apart with his shotgun. It\u2019s a nasty shot that\u2019s presented in slow-motion, but there\u2019s a sense the animal cruelty is a metaphor for the torment suffered by the freshly killed youths \u2013 victims of a vicious civil war.<\/p>\n

Between 1948-1958, Columbia endured \u201cLa Violencia<\/a>,\u201d during which the supporters of the country\u2019s rival conservative and liberal party fought over valuable agricultural land in rural locations, and some horrible cruelties were inflicted on men, women, and children. In 1956, an army convoy carrying 42 tonnes of dynamite exploded, leveling homes, and killing and injuring locals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s during this period that Mayolo\u2019s tale takes places, with its story exploding onto the screen when a wealthy family is sent fleeing from their house after the exploding convoy decimates their neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

The prelude to the deadly event comes in the form of the otherwise joyful arrival of Margareth (Adriana Herran), the cousin of Andreas (David Guerrero) who\u2019s been living in the U.S. for some time. Once back at the family home, the adults gather for a reading of the grandmother\u2019s will, after which everyone sits down in the family room to watch old B&W film of their younger counterparts and long-departed relatives at the family\u2019s mountain retreat, known as \u201cEmma.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the dynamite explosion wakes up the family, the maid sees the ghost of the grandmother, and the film slowly takes a winding path towards the supernatural, with omens and other portents of danger, ghostly visitations, and the two teenage cousins soon partaking in a relationship that\u2019s apparently part of the family\u2019s dark past \u2013 incestuous love.<\/p>\n

One could argue that had this been a European production, the visual imagery would\u2019ve been more frank (mandating either older actors playing the teen cousins, or the cousins\u2019 ages bumped up), but Mayolo wasn\u2019t making a sexploitation picture. This is very much a politicized thriller where madness and depravity occur slowly, almost as seething evil stemming from angry spirits unleashed by both the death of a corrupt elder (the grandmother), and the ancient dead from the mountains.<\/p>\n

Farm fowl is found dead the next morning, a newborn bleeds from a sore on its back, and the cousins\u2019 uncle dies soon after they ride on horseback to his remote home, but why the teens snap isn\u2019t fully explained, except that pretty Margareth, being an Alfonso pure blood, has a preference for family shagging, and after awakening shared lust in Andres, the two move on to a taste for human blood.<\/p>\n

During their witching hour rendezvous, the pair see visitations of the relatives from the family film in human and animal form, each of whom encourages their incestuous behaviour, but Margareth\u2019s taste for blood isn\u2019t due to some vampirical transformation: while the teens\u2019 courting was still innocent, she admits to Andres to having tasted human blood, but once they begin to act on their urges, Margareth seems to believe consuming blood will embolden and strengthen her being, and perhaps build up a certain invincibility to mortal wounds.<\/p>\n

The teens eventually lose grasp of all reality, but it\u2019s Margareth who instigates and initiates the violence, and compels Andres to draw blood to protect her. Mayolo\u2019s finale doesn\u2019t really resolve the film\u2019s gradual slope towards supernatural weirdness; it just seems to infer that the corruption within elite wealthy landowners makes them magnets for bad juju, and even death, nothing can prevent a power-hungry class from tormenting ordinary citizens – a grave nor succumbing to a machete won\u2019t stop pure evil.<\/p>\n

Mayolo depicts class struggle in several ways: the teen\u2019s uncle is also the family\u2019s black sheep, kept away from the family\u2019s city compound because of his rebellious Communist activities; American aide (in the form of canned cheese), intended for poor citizens rendered homeless from the convoy blast, is consumed like a minor condiment by the wealthy Alfonso clan; and in a round-up of rural farmers by the Alfonso family\u2019s son, himself a corrupt policeman, the servant of Andres’ uncle is about to be dragged outside \u2018for a walk\u2019 to force a confession of guilt by the cop\u2019s trigger-happy cronies.<\/p>\n

If the story gets a little too loopy and allegorical, there\u2019s at least a haunting mood that stems from great jungle locations as captured by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Beristain, who went on to lens a number of horror films, including Blade 2<\/strong><\/a> (2002). There\u2019s also Mario Gomez Vignes\u2019 bizarre score, which ranges from avant garde to more linear passages performed by a chamber quartet, sometimes interpolating the Elvis song \u201cLove Me Tender\u201d (a tune Margareth plays for her cousin from one of the records she brings from America).<\/p>\n

One 7 Movies\u2019 DVD features another rugged looking transfer; it\u2019s slightly better than an avi file, but the full screen print lacks the sharpness and colours that were likely present in Beristain\u2019s original film palette. The sound mix is straight mono, but it\u2019s hard to tell if the music mix is deliberately wonky when Vignes\u2019 score plays, or the composer recorded the music by nudging the tape recorder to create lots of demented wow and flutter.<\/p>\n

The included trailer blows all the surprises, so avoid it until the very end. The good is that One 7 Movies have made available a surreal little gem, which will undoubtedly instill interest in Mayolo\u2019s work, but it\u2019s maddening the label just can\u2019t deliver a crisp transfer from a clean print.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With few Colombian films available on video in North America, there\u2019s a huge unfamiliarity with the country\u2019s history and culture up here, making it a little tough to fully grasp the political and cultural references in Carlos Mayolo\u2019s political critique that\u2019s housed within a supernatural container…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[3419,3422,3416,3424,3418,3423,3420,3421,3417],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2L1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10603"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10870,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603\/revisions\/10870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}