one of the main horror films of the season
[ad_1]
Mathieu Toury’s Descent into the Abyss, a claustrophobic retro-horror about a confrontation with an ancient evil lurking at the bottom of a French mine, is being released. Despite the darkness reigning on the screen, all the advantages of the film are visible to the naked eye.
1956 “He’s a brave guy… or a complete moron.” It is with this characteristic that Amir (Amir El Kasem) sets off in search of a better life from his native Morocco to the north of France, to the worst mine in the Pas-de-Calais basin, or even the whole country, where mostly the guilty are sent. According to documents, it is listed simply as No. 5, but for a hundred years it has been known among miners as the Devil’s House. On the very first day, Amir and several other “brave or morons,” under the leadership of a veteran and regular of the cursed mine, Roland (Samuel Le Bien), go underground to accompany the visiting professor Berthier (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who supposedly urgently needed samples of the local minerals. When writings are discovered under the arches of the mine, which by all accounts are “not a hundred, but many thousands of years old,” and the sounds in the dark corridors become more and more otherworldly, it becomes clear that any minerals are of the least interest to the professor.
Mathieu Toury attracted attention with his first short film “Sons of Chaos” (2010), after which he worked for almost 10 years as a director of crowd scenes and pomerezhem, often without even getting into the credits. But at the same time, the “directors” in his case were no less than Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”) and Stephen Sommers (“Throw of Cobra”), Clint Eastwood (“Hereafter”) and Guy Ritchie (“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” ), McG (“Three Days to Kill”) and Luc Besson (“Lucy”). It is not surprising that after such universities, Turi’s feature-length debut, “The Survivors” (2017), turned out to be unconditionally successful. The brilliantly filmed, simultaneously brutal and compassionate story of a woman who, falling on a broken leg, jerks around the post-apocalyptic world, remembering her life before the disaster and desperately fighting for survival, traveled to three dozen specialized festivals around the world, where she received a total of 20 prizes , and provided interest in Turi’s next film: “The Maze Runner” (2020) was already quite consciously anticipated. The brilliantly filmed, simultaneously brutal and pitiful story about a woman on all fours, jerking through the narrow tunnels of a labyrinth filled with deadly traps, remembering her life before imprisonment and desperately fighting for survival, has now visited 15 festivals and earned the same number of awards.
It seemed that nothing was stopping Turi from continuing to play the usual card, but this time there was a radical break in stereotypes. In “Descent into the Abyss” there is not a single female character – like in John Carpenter’s The Thing, Brad Anderson’s The Ninth Session… or “almost” like in Predator, to which Turi’s film is no less similar (in any case, The similarities between the characters of Jean-Hugues Anglade and Carl Weathers are obvious). In addition, Turi for the first time chose a discreet but convincing retro over a futuristic setting. All this, however, did not at all affect the film’s festival fate (last year “The Descent” quite successfully toured specialized film screenings, becoming, among other things, the absolute triumph of the Toronto After Dark festival), or, most importantly, on itself. Old-fashioned, not trying to open any new horizons, on the contrary, with every frame plunging into the abyss of tradition, into the region of archaeological nightmares from the stories of Lovecraft and films about Professor Quatermass. Moreover, it is frightening not only because of its atmosphere and suspense: “Descent into the Abyss” is an almost unique example of a “film about monsters” in modern times, whose frightening effect does not dissipate the very second the notorious monster finally appears on the screen in all its disgusting more beautiful It’s a rare viewer who knows a lot about old-school special effects who won’t repeat after Professor Berthier, who found himself face to face with the embodiment of universal evil: “You’re magnificent!”
But, of course, what Turi could not deny himself, even having changed almost beyond recognition, was his signature, as is now clearly understood about him, finale. Sentimental to the point of foul, hysterical, but miraculously hitting the very Adam’s apple. In “The Revenants,” which was largely about marital love, it ended with the main character embracing a mutant in the middle of a scorched desert; “The Maze Runner,” whose main theme ultimately turned out to be parental love, ended with an embrace between mother and daughter in the spaces of virtual reality—apparently posthumous. For the finale of “Descent into the Abyss,” the director also saved a scene that is incredible in its heartbreaking simplicity. And a second before the final credits, it becomes clear as day that in fact this film is not about an ancient curse at all, but about true friendship, mutual assistance and professional solidarity. Although scary as hell, of course.
In theaters from February 8
Subscribe to Weekend channel in Telegram
[ad_2]
Source link
