Kalevet

Fresh, inventive, fast paced - this film was like going on a fun roller coaster. Never a dull moment and you do not know exactly what will happen next. Just when you think it is going to follow a formula the bottom drops out. Never having seen any of these actors before added to the experience. At first it may seem there are too many characters but it all blends together at the end. If feels like the directors took the theme of the old movie "After Hours" and paired it with the comedy of "Shaun of the Dead." Then gave it a Cohen brothers twist. I really enjoyed this film and the previous effort (Big Bad Wolves). There are gory scenes (and I dislike gore) but it did not seem excessive or gratuitous.

And you know what they say about the first impression. It's the one you can't undo. And Rabies does not disappoint. Well it might not give you what you expect (given the title and what you think of that), but if you keep yourself open minded you will get an experience that is unique. And not because it is an Israeli movie, but because it has characters in it, that you care about.

Horror movies tend to get that wrong and just try to deliver the kills and thrills. But this one has "real" people in it. You can relate to some of them or not, but you will get to know them. That's the reason why the movie Rabies comes up in so many "Top 10" lists (mine included for 2011, when I saw it at Frightfest).

Defying expectations, I can really only recommend this to you. Watch it when you can

Rabies isn't just the first Israeli horror film, a country most people living outside of it mistakenly think suffers from horror on a daily bases, but is also a slasher film with no real slasher. The fact that there isn't one killer, just makes the horror more intense and real: when the going gets tough, the tough (and gentle) get murderous; And when all happens in an enclosed part of the woods known as "Fox reservoir" - it's hard for anyone to escape the part of the man (or woman) with the gun (or ax,knife and anything around). The film follows a brother and sister that flee to the woods to hide their forbidden secret. But in the woods other people hide secrets; a psychopath killer sets traps all over the woods and the sister falls into one of them. The brother seeks for help and is hit by a car with two couples of tennis players that got lost on the way to a tennis tournament. He drags the two men in two the woods to help him and leaving the girls alone on the road. From this point on everything that might go wrong goes worst and involves a forest ranger, two cops and more. What strikes me most about the film is the way in which it lets human nature do its thing without needing any special incentive: everything that happens is just people loosing restrains on their civilized manners. The films seeks to show that movies don't need any super natural killer or a psychopath with a plan - just let people forget the way they were brought by, and anyone can kill. It is both a genre film and a comment about the genre and human beings. The woods is most likely the most important character in the film, and Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado in their directorial debut along with their cinematographer Guy Raz meticulously crafted its appearance as to look like the place where all hell can break loose, though it is usually a nice place to have a picnic. Blending in horror and comedy, the film puts (after more then 60 years) Israel on the map of horror films and hopefully will not just open doors for other young Israeli film makers to make other horror, Sci-fi and even musicals - all genres that have been almost completely forgotten in the history of Israeli cinema, but will also mark the beginning of an ongoing career for the two young directors.

RABIES is the first Israeli slasher film ever made, and it starts off as your typical slasher flick: A group of teens are driving on a shortcut through the woods. However, even this early in the film, it starts to veer off in a different direction when we are introduced to other characters, which includes the killer himself, two cops, a ranger and his dog, and siblings. As expected, an incident occurs that sets off a chain reaction that ultimately makes RABIES one of the weirdest and most original slasher flicks I've ever seen. All the ingredients of a slasher film are here, but they go against the conventions of a slasher film. Think of it like this: RABIES is the product of what the Coen brothers would do if they ever decided to do a slasher film. Saying anything more would ruin the experience, so I'll just leave it at that.

RABIES separates itself from other slasher flicks in many ways, including the fact that the entire film takes place in daylight and that most of the characters are fleshed out. Even the teens seem like real people, not dumb victims who make idiotic decisions to get them killed off. The film also has surprising levels of comedy and drama that's mixed with the horror, which is influenced by Korean horror films in the past few years. It also has something to say about the nature of human beings, so not only is RABIES an atypical slasher flick, but there's also an underlying commentary running through the film.

Because of how RABIES bend the slasher genre, I can see that it might not work for everyone. Some die hard slasher fans may be disappointed seeing that it doesn't follow a lot of the slasher conventions while others may open up their arms willingly to what the film has to offer. Although it doesn't revolutionize the slasher genre, I found it to be entertaining and weird overall, and I appreciate the originality put into it. I'd also keep my eyes on directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado and on their next film, which is a murder mystery. Hopefully, this film will also open a lot of doors to what Israel can offer to the rest of the world in the future. And lastly, there's already talks of an American remake so watch this ASAP.

In general I've been disappointed with Israeli cinema. Rather than giving sincere and insightful expressions of a country with such a heavy sociopolitical atmosphere, a land which underlies so much of the world's history and which has now been so quickly repopulated and rebuilt by a people who have achieved so much under the weight of hatred, exclusion, and genocide, most Israeli filmmakers have followed in the aimless and shallow footsteps of Hollywood trash and self-righteous American liberal con artists. The film "Kalevet," however, is an exception to the current trend of filmmaking in Israel and all the other countries of the world who are to some degree being culturally tainted by one of the worst things America has to offer, i.e., it's cinema. And interestingly enough, "Kalevet" manages to escape the Hollywood pattern by making use of one of it's most simple-minded conventions--the slasher film. By employing sophisticated directing, cinematography, editing, and a screenplay portraying morally complex characters and a narrative that serves as an insightful metaphor for Israeli society as well as a universal statement on the human condition, the creators of "Kalevet" have succeeded in doing what is usually more expected from filmmakers in the more eastern part of Asia, i.e., reinvent a usually meaningless Hollywood genre into something that is not simply entertaining but meaningful.