Rupintojelis

Lest one ever think Hollywood has a monopoly on horror flicks about teens being irresponsible and disrespectful and suffering the consequences of their actions, here comes Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Trukanas. Co-writing with Titas Laucius, his 2022 film 'Rupintojelis' ('Pensive,' also known as 'We might hurt each other') gives us a few dozen characters (some spotlighted more than others, naturally) who fulfill various archetypes, whose personalities will come to clash, and who will reveal their true selves on the night of a big party following high school graduation. They also all illustrate the stereotypical behavior of teens in film and TV, which is to say a lot of alcohol, drugs, partying, and promiscuity - gosh, either I was the most obliviously milquetoast person growing up, or the entirety of my hometown was, or fiction has been feeding us false perceptions for all these years about how teens behave. The filming locations are gorgeous, the art direction is sharp, Rokas Sydeikis' cinematography is crisp and vivid, the cast give excellent performances commensurate with the horror-thriller vibes, and the abundant stunts and effects are outstanding. Above all, it's actually the original music of Andrius Kauklys that's most striking to me here as it leans predominantly (but not exclusively) on EDM to complement the violence. Everyone involved turned in fine work, and it looks and sounds great!

The good news is that in addition to looking and sounding great, Trukanas and Laucius give us an unexpected additional angle to the story that's not just dark but outright bleak (and therefore welcome for we genre fans), an underhanded reflection of just how rotten people can be when the chips are down. The bad news is that though we see bits and pieces of this angle throughout the length - a trail of breadcrumbs, if you will - it only specifically comes to bear at the very end. And while the screenplay gives us a lot to like in the preceding length, and some swell ideas, the truth of the matter is that they're rather unremarkable. 'Rupintojelis' is a slasher. It's a slasher that might toss some red herrings our way, which gives us some characters that are especially likable (I'm most fond of Saule and Zygis), and which has some especially smart notions at points (of which it may or may not fully take advantage), but it's still a slasher. Or if you don't like that term, we can just say that broadly speaking the movie is ultimately pretty straightforward. This is not to disparage Trukanas, Laucius, or anyone else's contribution, nor the picture at large. It's enjoyable; there's no rule that says every title must be a revelation; I look forward to seeing what all involved do in the future (this seems to be Trukanas' first full-length feature). It's just that in the grand scheme of things it's not super special, and it maybe doesn't make ideal use of its best ideas.

If one feels some particular impetus to watch then that's terrific, but by and large this isn't breaking any new ground. You don't need to go out of your way for it, yet 'Rupintojelis' is worth checking out if you have the chance.

Look, I'm a horror fan, and if you are going to watch this film, you certainly are, too. And I absolutely LOVED this film.

Sure, it's a story about partying teenagers who transgress in the woods and then get picked off by a masked stranger. That's not "lack of innovation", that's a SUBGENRE, which this film totally nails.

Yes, it's not until the halfway point that "the action" begins. But I consider that a pro not a con. I actually enjoyed getting to know the characters, who despite being high school archtypes, are more real and fleshed out than their counterparts in American films, whom often seem as though they are designed for us to detest them so that we don't feel as bad when they are killed.

And the movie makes up for the lost time in the second half.

I appreciate that the characters act in ways that seem appropriate to who they are, rather than just in ways that will further the plot. That was accomplished by giving us time to know who they were.

I also loved the fact that the killer didn't simply skulk about in the shadows picking victims off one by one; he was NOT afraid to mix it up! While he was certainly...effective, he was not superhuman.

If you don't like this film, you either don't like slashers or you are too jaded to appreciate them any longer.

This may have lost a lot of the nuance in the dubbing, because what came across was not that great. It is graduation, and they will all be going their separate ways, but Marius manages to get a place where they can travel to have a party/rave. At the forest cottage, there are wooden statutes, but none have eyes. One suggested perhaps they are not meant to see. There is a lot of drinking and drugs, and four wind up in a sauna, where they get trapped and die from the heat. And because they used some of the statutes for firewood, that may be why. And along comes a masked slasher, with a hatchet, killing quite a few. Others run to their cars, and they set off the car alarm. More deaths. Marius escapes in a boat with two others, they quarrel and Marius is left in the boat with a classmate he shared a kiss with. He thought that might be the start of something wonderful, but she tells him he is probably still alive since he is so boring, even the killer won't kill him. And perhaps due to the drinking and drugs, others make the worst possible choices when faced with certain death. Nothing new in the slasher movie, and much to not care about.

"Rupintojelis" is a slasher film with an unoriginal plot, being one more version of the many that exist of the classic "Friday the 13th", the script of this film is full of clichés that are absurd, only innovating with a protagonist who is annoying but whose character is quite unusual within the attitudes that he presents to the situation experienced, being an egoist who goes in counterpart to the good final girl or the young man who fights for the protection of his friends. The deaths are silly and only a couple become realistic. The performances are good but none really stand out. The cinematography looks like something out of a cheap 2000's TV movie. The music composed for the film does not attract attention and goes unnoticed from how ordinary it sounds. A slasher with some good moments but fails to be innovative.