Solos

South American cinema at its most powerful. Jose Olguin, director of the fascinating film, Eternal Blood, has left a deep mark upon Chilean cinema and it is clear why his impact has been so profound with this masterpiece. This motion picture certainly is an attempt to reconcile Chile's history of military dictatorships and violation of human rights with the enlightened nation it has become. Beautifully filmed with stylistic cinematic flourish, the imagery is hauntingly stark and surrealistic in intent. Some of what is depicted involving the innocents is shocking but justifiable in light of the artistic purposes of the director. The film is unrated or NC- 17 because of the violence directed at children but these sequences are clearly misinterpreted in their true meaning as metaphor. In the end, Olquin refers stunningly to Magic Realism and the film's conclusion is overwhelmingly mesmerizing. A true treasure of Chile's cinematic legacy.

First off, let me say that I am a big horror movie fan, and an even bigger zombie genre fan. This movie tried to capitalize on the booming zombie genre, but it fell flat on its face in an epic way.

Picture yourself watching The Walking Dead TV series, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, and any other zombie powerhouses. Now, picture yourself watching a movie called "Descendents" where the director has the camera jumping around when there's absolutely nothing happening, children play on a playground for minutes on end with nothing happening, and the constant replay of the SAME scenes from the little girl's memory. There was a lot of wasted minutes with meaningless crap. The movie is purely and perfectly POINTLESS. Now, picture this pointless drivel of a plot-less movie ending on a monumentally STUPID ending that is second to none in stupidity. You think Full Metal Jacket seemed like a different movie half-way through it? Well, you ain't seen nothing yet until you experience the genius of this movie's ending. It isn't even worth renting (not even on a free rental you may get from your cable vendor). Don't waste your money or free time. This movie looks like it was made in one day.

Just so you're not fooled, this is no horror movie. It tries to blend social/political lines into an invisible plot mixed with an apocalyptic world. In case you still want to see it for yourself, I won't go any further, but, honestly, this movie isn't worth telling spoilers on. Why? Because it plain sucks. You've been warned.

I'm a huge fan of post-apocalyptic/zombie films so I figured this would be right up my alley. I may have misjudged...

So the film is basically an hour and thirteen minutes of watching a young girl walk through various desolate scenes devoid of any emotion. I can't say she's a bad actor because really at no point does she need to act. As long as she kept walking, the crew kept filming.

It's visually very boring on the eyes. They tried this Schindler's List/Sin City effect where mostly ever shot has a low saturation making it nearly black and white EXCEPT for blood which is vividly bright red. And it would "splatter" on the camera in every action scene much like a video game from 10 years ago. For some reason, I'm now craving cherry Kool-Aid.

The film is riddled with flashbacks that you're forced to witness multiple times for lengthy durations, while not really contributing to any story or character development. It's not very endearing...

The blood and zombie special effects were tolerable but as you'll learn, the zombies are no threat to the main character therefore there is no real terror as a viewer either. I watched this by myself in the dark with headphones on and never once was frightened to any degree.

I must say that the opening sequence was the best part of the film. It was creative and had a unique charm to it. As sudden as it came, the charm was gone. On the flip side, the ending credits were pretty cool too.

Overall, this really isn't worth your time but it is a relatively short film so be my guest. Just remember that you have been warned. If you do have the patience to get through the entire movie, I must inform you that there is one last scene after the credits, which unsuccessfully tries to give you the back story of how the world came to be. Enjoy! -- 4/10 --

Beyond Geroge Romero there has not been a zombie film that's loaded with this much social/political commentary. Jorge Olguin's 2002 follow-up to SANGRE ETERNA aka ETERNAL BLOOD is a very strong and original post-apocalyptic/Sci-fi/horror movie. For about a half a million dollars, the movie was shot in ten days, with mostly young children ranging from five to ten years old. The children's acting may not be up to par and some of the effects surely reflect the lack of budget & time but DESCENDENTS/SOLOS is a truly dark and disturbing movie set in a dystopian world that looks like a low budget mixture of 28 DAYS LATER and CHILDREN OF MEN, with strong echoes to Chile's past as a military dictatorship. Jorge Olguin is a talent to definitely keep an eye on.

DESCENDENTS is a cheap Chilean post-apocalypse movie in which the central character is a bland little girl who wanders around having lost her parents. The film was apparently shot on the ultra-cheap and in just ten days, which gives some indication as to the reasons why it feels so rushed and amateurish.

I don't mind cheap films if they have good stories, because after all good stories cost nothing. However, this one doesn't. The main character is dull beyond belief and attempts to turn this into a zombie movie fall flat time and time again with ridiculous overacting extras. To disguise the paucity of his film, the director includes lots of camera effects, alongside filters, flashbacks, and plenty more in an attempt to distract the viewer, but needless to say I saw straight through all that. In the end, DESCENDENTS has nothing to say of any note.