Black Symphony

Alex is a new student to the University of Salamanca, but upon her arrival she and her friends get caught up in a web of mystery surrounding some deaths on campus and that of the legend of the Black Minstrel. They learn that the Black Minstrel is knocking off slack students who aren't taking their learning very seriously. When the Black Minstrel contacts Alex through an internet chat site, she and her friends realise that it's up to them to figure out who's behind the costume and discover the secret of the Black Minstrel.

Again another carbon copy of a teen slasher film that was started by the craze they call "Scream". "Black Serenade" is a Spanish slasher going for that winning mainstream formula of American slashers and you can easily see the influences. The opening death scene has some very recognizable touches of "Scream" about it and the story is similar to "Urban Legend". The killer and their motive might be different, but simply we've been down this path oh so many times before. Hold on, you might think from what I've mentioned so far that I'm going to tear it apart, well actually that's not the case. I thought it was average. Not below. Not above. Just average. I don't know why, but I was slightly amused by it. Maybe it caught me in the right frame of mind. It has its bad moments, but occasionally it offers a surprise or two and the odd inventive kill. The production was more than decent, but sadly it's predictable story telling. The urban legend of the Black Minstrel going around universities and knocking off the bad seeds isn't a bad device. There's even a nice edge of black humour about it. The back-story in the plot is far more engrossing than that of the horny and drug addicted guys and gals dialogues and sleazy interplay. Well, it did deliver on some tawdry action and there's some decent blood letting. One death scene is an almighty mind trip.

The paper thin characters are rather lacklustre ( I thought bad students would be at least interesting) and some look way too old for their parts, but since the material was rather underdeveloped. The performances from the cast were satisfactory I guess. While, the ignorant students are the usual stereotypes, you also got thrown into the mix a pair of hard boiled cops and a priest with a secret. The red herrings amongst these characters are lousily staged, because it's not hard to pick up on who's behind the mask and when it's revealed it's just too contrived. Now the killer's costume looked decent enough and their choose of weapon was one fancy looking knife, in which they loved to film their killings. The director at times slackens off with the pacing and gives us cheap false scares and bluffs, but within these moments he also manages to orchestrate some genuinely, tense set pieces. Such as the chase scene in the town square and the thrilling climax (before that trite ending), but I didn't get the point of the montage, accompanied by a rock song in the mid section. Huh??? It was just laughable!

What else was funny, was the very mediocre computer effects (that goes for the flames and explosions!). The superbly, laced Gothic cathedral and campus setting was well used and the cinematography did a swift enough job. Soundtrack goes for an fair rock/metal approach and the robust score drums in the usual chants to fit into the mood and surroundings. It might be far from inspiring for its field, but we learn that being a bad student doesn't pay off in the long run. But I don't think this (if you can call it a) social commentary and moral will hit it off and change someone's perception on the privilege of education and knowledge.

It might blatantly rip-off other slashers and have many implausible scenarios, but I still found it mildly diverting.

I´m been living in Spain about 6 month´s and I was trying to whatch some new spanish films to catch the ways of this industries. I watched ¨Tuno Negro¨ last friday and I was disapointed. It was really awful, totally dumb script and the acting was hard as a rock. This film is trying to be like all the american Teen slasher films but just can´t get it. Is not like those films are great, most of the are really bad (only ¨Scream¨ is a good movie in that bunch) but this one is even worst. Worst than ¨Cherry Falls¨ and ¨I still know what you did last summer¨. They are a lot of plot holes and thing that you wont understand and the ending is so stupid that you will think that is a final joke. They are only 2 thing that I have pitty of this movie. One of those thing is Fele Martinez, one of Amenabar´s favorite actor´s who is really good in movies like ¨Tesis¨ and ¨Abre los ojos¨ but here is the carachter is so underwrited that he can only soy the lines in a dumb way. The other thing that could be good but it is not it was Eusebio Poncela, another great actor who was espectacular in ¨Martin (hache)¨ but here it have the same problems of Martinez. Really a pitty

This is an interesting movie. On one hand it is kind of slick Hollywood-style slasher movie involving an ultra-modern killer who stalks his prey in internet chat rooms and posts his murders on the internet. On the other hand it is enjoyably atmospheric and highly stylized, resembling the much more interesting (to my mind) early 80's slasher movies or the Italian gialli(many of which, people tend to forget, were Spanish co-productions). It has a great setting--the University of Salamanca, one of the oldest and most storied universities in the world. The high-tech slasher operates against this almost medieval background. He calls himself the "Dark Minstrel", connecting himself to a legendary (albeit fictional) group of poor student minstrels who took it upon themselves in earlier times to weed out the most undeserving upper-class underachievers. Like his brethren, the dark minstrel targets students who cheat or have bad grades--his motto: "la ignorancia mata" (ignorance kills).

The plot of this movie is actually pretty good, and those who claim it doesn't hold together really need to watch it again. The revelation of the killer is pretty surprising and is NOT a cheat if you are paying close attention. It's definitely as violent as your average giallo or slasher movie. The victims look pretty long-in-the-tooth to be college students, especially the most recognizable actress, Maribel Verdu (of "Y tu Mama Tambien" fame), but they are no less likable or any more stereotypical than your average slasher movie cast. The lead is a smoking hot German actress, who goes only by the name of "Silke". She's pretty decent and has a nice nude scene, something that is usually missing in most modern-day Hollywood movies (that may sound like a sexist thing for me to say, but the day they start casting remotely average-looking women in these things, based on their acting talent rather than their physical attributes, I'll stop complaining when they don't take their clothes off).

This is pretty decent movie overall, and I'd recommend it to anybody, but especially giallo and slasher movie fans.

I watch the movie, because I just had to see where it was going. Lucky me I saw it in Spanish, so I did not loose any translation. I have seen each and every one of those actors in some other movie, but can remember where.

About half way though the movie, Alexis Valdez comes out from under the bed of Alex and try to assault her................. I am 7/8 thru the movie,and I can not figure out what was that all about. I keep thinking is Alexis Valdez el Tuno Negro and he will be discover at the end? I do not see the connection of this 5 minute seen. I can only think it is a cheap filler, they need kill some time as well as kill students.

This movie was recommended to me by the owner of a videorent-shop in Córdoba, Spain, saying it was a good thiller. Unfortunately, there was no real suspense here, I could only laugh about the "horrifying" scenes. Killing scenes for example were very implausible, exaggerated and absurd, it spoilt the whole movie for me. Though the scenery was very beautiful (University of Salamanca for example), I was very disappointed by this Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer clone... My advise: watch on TV is you´re really bored.