Red Screening - Proiezione mortale

This a a film set in the early '90s and the ambience, clothing and set design really took me back to those care free days of my youth. All together, this was a good slasher with above average special fx.

The Last Matinee is a stylish and well shot homage to the giallo films of Dario Argento and maybe a few nods to the Spanish thriller Anguish. On the technical side of things, there are few complaints. Lighting is beautiful and the gore effects are really well done, but the script goes off the path a few too many times during its first hour and the pacing can get a little sluggish. The final act is at least a bit more entertaining as the surviving moviegoers band together to stop this killer who collects eyeballs.

It's a soaking wet day with rain pouring down and one of the best hings to do is to go seek refuge in a great old cinema. There's only a problem: A scary murderer is on the loose and he also has taken refuge there.

That's the plot of the Uruguayan horror movie Red Screening (Al morir la Matrinee) which is a throwback to old 80'ies horror movies, where colour and style is more important than the believeability of the plot. It's a beautiful, dark and very moody film, which is a treat to see.

Thoughts go to both Scream, Cinema Paradiso, Stage Fright and even the rains of Blade Runner, and I'm quite sure the film makers have seen them all. A real treat, and well played.

The action takes place in 1993 (decade of the movie Scream). Rainy night at the Montevideo Opera Cinema. A few spectators enter the large movie theater to see a Frankenstein movie at the evening performance, while the film is screened by the young daughter of the projector. But in the room there is a psychopath who will assassinate them ...

When the matinee dies is a film-tribute to the Italian giallo and his successor, the slasher. Personally, I confess that neither of the two (especially the second) convinced me as a "horror" cinema. The slasher repeats the formula of a serial killer with a sharp object and gruesome murders (with a lot of gore), with generally young victims and in some sexual or drug process, a "final girl", a heroine who faces the monster and a dose of self-awareness shared by your viewers. But his main problem for me is the poor psychological development of all his characters (including the murderer). While every genre film follows certain rules, in this one in particular, everything becomes (to me) very predictable.

The film by the Uruguayan Maximiliano Contenti has some successes and certain limitations that in this genre one does not know whether to attribute them to the genre or to the inexperience (for example, the performances).

At all times there is a certain parallelism between the film being projected and what is happening in the room. After a somewhat routine and static first part, when the action is concentrated on a group of characters, the empathy works better and the interest in the plot is consolidated, interest reinforced by the increasing truculence of the scenes and a murderer who charges more entity. Some shots are very successful (with tributes to the red giallo) and the murders deserve special mention, with a very analog and real gore.

In short, a film that lovers of the genre will surely enjoy and with an effective dose of gore.

It competed at the Mar del Plata Festival and was broadcast on cinearplay.

The Last Matinee gets the giallo gore and style right on the mark, but also carries over its lack of interesting characters and story drive. It takes a bit too long to get to the slashing and everything plays out about as one would expect. There are very few surprises, but it's entertaining enough for a one time watch.