Los ultimos dias, 2013.
Directed by Àlex Pastor and David Pastor.
Starring Quim Gutiérrez, José Coronado, Marta Etura and Leticia Dolera.
SYNOPSIS:
A mysterious epidemic spreads across the globe, causing an irrational fear of wide open spaces that has lethal symptoms. In Barcelona, one man searches the chas to find his missing girlfriend.
Spanish cinema aficionados among you will no doubt already be aware of how popular both the sci-fi and horror genres are in the Hispanic film industry. Individually they have produced some huge successes that have even become familiar to foreign cinema novices; international hits such as REC (2007) and The Skin I Live In (2011). However, hybrids of the two genres have often struggled to get off the ground, with Spanish filmmakers lacking the wealth of resources of their English-speaking counterparts. That being said, Los ultimos dias (The Last Days) is certainly a step in the right direction.
The films premise is a familiar one: unknown disease causes everyone on the planet to go bananas, our heroes must survive the ensuing madness in a well-known city. It may sound like an unoriginal idea, but it has a couple of aces up its sleeve in the form of the writing/direction duo of the Pastor brothers. The Catalonian siblings are clearly technically gifted, but it’s their writing here is which salvages the premise, adding the genius caveat of the disease causing everyone to fear the outside. It’s a twist that keeps the familiar idea of the plot fresh, as well as creating an unnerving claustrophobia within the audience.
As you’d hope for from a sci-fi/horror film, Los ultimos dias delivers some stunning visuals. The Pastor’s use special effects sparingly, but when they do utilise them they easily match the Hollywood standard. There’s also some really astute use of location; being a disaster film, you’d expect plenty of destructive images of Barcelona’s most famous buildings, but this convention is refreshingly subverted as the film exploits some of the cities ‘hidden gems’. For those disappointed by this news though, fear not, as one particular landmark does come off badly at one point.
Los ultimos dias delivers all the thrills of a sci-fi/horror hybrid, neatly packaged in a familiar-yet-fresh ‘disaster movie’ format. The performances are strong, but the real stars here are filmmakers themselves, who provide surprisingly sharp writing with some breath-taking visuals.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Jackson Ball – follow me on Twitter.
Originally published March 25, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
