Written and Directed by: Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro
Cast: Rafael Tombini, Álvaro Rosa Costa, Ricardo Seffner
If the world ended, would you be worried about catching a bad guy? One officer is still on the job, and he is dead set on catching his bad guy.
The world has been turned upside down, ever since the gates of Hell were opened and released the dead to walk the Earth. Sadly, that’s still not the worst of it. A police officer, looking for revenge, is chasing a serial killer that’s possessed by a demon. All this sets the stage for a throw down between good and evil.
Here’s one I had never heard of before, Porto dos Mortos, or also known as Beyond the Grave. The trailer, I admit, got me curious and got me looking forward to watching it. The story reminded me of the Mel Gibson flick Mad Max (1979), only with a western vibe. Then throw in the fact that the main character is chasing down a demon…while avoiding zombies. Now after adding all those cool points up you should have a pretty decent post-apocalyptic flick right? Well, not so much. When will I learn? Curiosity is not my friend.
I liked how writer David de Oliverira Pinheiro kept things to a minimum with the script. It’s kind of bare bones, which sort of worked for this one because what was said had a point to it and meant something. However, when you don’t have a lot going on verbally, you should probably have more going on during the scenes. There are quite a few times where you’re just left staring at the scene as the cast delivers a few lines with long pauses.
Yeah, I understand some of these moments are artistic, but I don’t know what’s artistic about staring at the back of a man’s head while he’s talking. The story could have been cool, but things like the back story are kept as vague as most of the characters. You’re given just enough to know what went down and to keep things moving, but never how or why. Or for that matter, why the main character became the hunter he is.
The play-through was slow, and I had trouble paying attention to it. Now, this one carries the tags action/crime/horror. Don’t let those tags sway your judgment when looking for something to watch. For an action flick, there’s not a whole lot of action going on. The sad part is the film opens up right off the bat with an altercation with some bad guys, and then that’s it for a few. Apparently Pinheiro thought that strong opening would tide the audience over for a while. Sadly, that opening was probably the most intense as things get for the film. Crime? Well, the main character is a cop looking for a bad guy I guess. Horror, is nowhere to be found, except that it has zombies (that don’t do anything) in it.
Over and over again the film has chances to build some dread or even throw out a scare to the crowd. Instead they pass on it and move on.
The special effects were weird. One scene things looked really good, but then the next really, really… really bad. Some of the set designs were pretty cool and even helped the film. However, not all the sets helped the film. For what’s supposed to be a post-apocalyptic flick, things looked nice and pretty. If I wasn’t told it was apocalyptic times I never would have guessed it.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy this one. The pros this one had going for it are outweighed by the cons. If you see this title, just look away and keep on moving.
