The End

I actually liked this Spanish production pretty good - good actors, a nice mystery story and a good production kept me well entertained. Yes, there is maybe a little too much personal drama between those friends, but anyway, for the lover of mystery, thriller and post-apocalyptic events, Fin/End provides enough quality. No skyrocketing here, but solid stuff to chew on - in a genre filled with too many pseudo-movies a good one. Give it a try if you like movies like The Blindness (2008), The Last Days (2013), The Happening (2008) and so on.

I got to check this film out at the Palm Springs Film Festival. The previous reviews I had read for this were pretty negative so I went into it with admittedly low expectations. So I was pleasantly surprised when I got out having enjoyed the film a great deal. The End follows a group of friends reuniting after 20 years at some property outside of civilization. As the movie progresses it creates a very tense atmosphere when unexplained events begin occurring. Without giving away too much I'll just say the film is more or less a Metaphysical Horror Film with more attention focused on what is happening as opposed to how it happens. It succeeds at creating a grand scope within a simple plot and settings. It is much better than it's current rating given on the site.

Thrilling film about mysterious events spread across the planet , being well directed by Spanish filmmaker Jorge Torregrossa . This is a mix of drama, thrills , adventure and end of world doom and gloom ; add to that a really magnificent cast . A group of old friends formed by three couples (Maribel Verdu-Antonio Garrido , Daniel Grao-Blanca Romero Miquel Fernandez-Clara Lago) , and two singles (Carmen Ruiz , Andres Velencoso) gets together for a weekend in a mountain log cabin . Years have gone by and yet nothing seems to have changed between them. But lurking behind the laughter and stories is a murky episode from the past starred by another friend nicknamed 'the Prophet' (Eugenio Mira) that continues to haunt them . Then weird deeds take place , such as rare disappearance , goats stampede , dangerous dogs are hungry and chasing them and many other things . They develops an irrational fear and on their way for help, the bunch starts to disintegrate, just as a new natural order is unveiled before their amazing eyes .

Jorge Torregrossa's The End packs intrigue, intense drama , action and astonishing suspense film about strange sudden incidents altering their plans, leaving them stranded with no line of communication to the outside world and deadly explosions across the Earth . Nice performance for a consolidating as well as promising star-cast , as it stars lovely Spanish players such as Maribel Verdu of Pan's Labyrinth, , Clara Lago of Tongue of butterflies , Daniel Grao of Julia's eyes , Blanca Romero, and Antonio Garrido , among others . Interesting as well as thought-provoking script written by Jorge Guerricaechevarria of Cell 211 fame and The Orphanage's Sergio G. Sanchez . Good direction who does have its thrilling moments , most of them in the second half , being mostly dramatic and tragic . This chiller with supernatural elements was compellingly realized by Jorge Torregrossa , a little famous director , being best known in his native country as a TV director (such as Gran Hotel , Imperium, 14 Abril Republica , Tierra De Lobos) . The motion picture marks Jorge Torregrossa's debut feature as a director but was garnering so much attention from international sites . He offers us an intelligent flick of the apocalyptic world movie, intimate and committed . Rating : Above average . Well worth watching .

Okay the movie begins with an old friends gang meets together after the several years of gap in a mountain cabin. They talk and remember the old days they spent together, seems they still have something for each other until that strange night. As they are now far from the human density, they are unable to contact the rest of the world to ask help from the weird situation happening around them. So the journey begins with these old friends in search of safe place near.

Yeah the movie was too soft for apocalypse theme, more like a drama which suit all age groups. There were no strong graphics, everything was simple as some family drama with few thrilling scenes now and then comes to put us on the edge of the seat. I think I liked the director's approach on presenting it in an unusual way and avoiding building collapse, landslides and all the disaster that represents in the pre apocalyptic process.

The movie had a minimal cast with around 9 except opening few minutes which shot in the city. Suspenseful story but fails to reveal itself at any stage of its story penetration which might annoy the audience to dump it into underrated category. It will be a nice adventure-drama if you are not expecting something like '2012' or a similar movie. As it was adapted from a novel it looked we are reading it while watching. Kinda more suitable for family audience except one nude scene from beginning of the story.

There was nothing any special compared to modern apocalypse movies but it was pure artistic with avoided violence even in the deaths of the movie characters. That makes even children can be allowed to watch it if they are interested in this movie. Overall it was not worse like everyone says, some people disappointed because they expected high-end stunts and graphics which were lacking in this story. So keep your expectations low and remember you are watching sci-fi drama not action thriller.

7/10

¨The end is closer than you can imagine.¨

Fin (The End) is a Spanish film that was officially selected for the Toronto International Film Festival last year. It's a thriller that really never thrilled me and I was highly disappointed with this film because despite having an unknown director, Jorge Torregrossa (mostly known in Spain for directing TV series), the screenplay was adapted by two well known Spanish writers, Sergio Sanchez (The Orphanage) and Jorge Guerricaechevarria (Cell 211), who have written some great screenplays. It was not the case with The End because one of the weakest aspects about this film for me was the script which never managed to create likable characters or believable situations. If you are going to make a thriller you better back it up with a decent story, but here they never explain the strange developments. This could have worked perhaps as a TV series, but in a 90 minute movie we never got to care for any of the characters and what we really wanted to know never was explained. The End is one of those films that tries to be all philosophical but never ends up saying anything at all. It doesn't reward the viewer for their patience. The film was adapted from David Monteagudo's novel which I have never read and really don't want to after watching this. I imagine it never explains any of the strange events occurring either. There are about nine actors in the entire film and we never really care for any of them. The only positive thing I can say about this movie is that it was nicely shot thanks to the beautiful landscape chosen as the setting for the story.

The plot is pretty simple; a group of friends decide to reunite after 20 years in a beautiful mountain cabin. This group of friends seem to have been really tight, but something happened in their past that has separated them and continues to haunt them. Sara (Carmen Ruiz) is the one who decided to reunite the group for the weekend after calling each one of them. Sergio (Miguel Fernandez) decides to go with his apparent girlfriend Eva (Clara Lago), while Maribel (Maribel Verdu) goes with her husband Rafa (Antonio Garrido). Maribel and Sergio had a relationship in the past, but haven't seen each other since the episode 20 years ago. Felix (Daniel Grao), the Casanova of the group, is dating Cova (Blanca Romero). Everything seems to be just fine as the group is laughing together as they camp outside, but Sara is worried that their friend known as the prophet (Eugenio Mira) hasn't showed up. The reason she is so worried is because he was the one that convinced her to call everyone because he wanted to see them. Apparently the prophet was the reason why the group broke up in the first place after he suffered a severe seizure and began prophesying about the end of the world. He was institutionalized, but Sara said he was recovering very well and that is why she insisted on everyone meeting again. Around midnight a strange incident involving a thundering noise and lightning takes place, which leaves the place without lights or communication. The vehicles don't work either as apparently some strange magnetism has affected them. All of a sudden some of them begin to vanish and no one knows what is going on.

The plot seems pretty interesting but believe me the film isn't. The director never takes time to explain the strange events, and the back stories of each character are never explained clearly. The reason why the group disintegrated 20 years ago is really poorly developed and doesn't make much sense really. I was really disappointed with this and expected more considering the plot seemed pretty inventive. This is just another failed attempt at a thriller which really never has any thrills. The cast in this film doesn't stand out either. The only well known actress here is Maribel Verdu, but she doesn't play an important role. The entire mystery and eeriness of the film is never explained at all which made me feel like everything was a complete waste of time. We see the events unfolding before our eyes, but we are never explained why these things are occurring. The End just felt pointless for me and I wouldn't recommend this film.