Original title: Volver a morir
Directed by: Miguel Urrutia
Colombia, 2011
Horror, Drama, 83min
Imagine being caught up in a loop that you couldn’t break
out of… a nightmare world where each time you woke and opened your eyes, you’d
know that you would be facing violent death in just a few minutes. How long
could you take it? What would you do to break the circle?
Camilla [Andrea Montenegro] wakes up naked in bed next to
the equally naked Darío [Luis Fernando Bohórquez] who talks about how great
last night was… Camilla hasn’t got the faintest idea what he’s talking about.
She has no recollection at all of the night before at all, or who he is. So
when he folds down the photograph of his mother, you know things are going to
turn bad.
Presenting the night before – where Camilla hooks up with
Darío – under the credits and titles sequence is an effective way of getting tedious
exposition out of the way. Instead the main narrative can get right in there
without showing us awkward pickup lines and tainting characters with drunken,
horny dialogue. Instead we are relieved of all of that and it also establishes
certain “prejudices” about the characters that will be flipped over a while
later. What at first seems to be an slightly awkward “where the hell am I, how
much did I drink last night, and who the hell is that lying next to me?”
progresses into a fearsome provocation as Darío forces his way upon Camilla. At
first in a simple way, by yanking the sheet’s she’s covering herself with while
she tries to locate herself by looking out the window from her. We can sense
her discomfort as she once again stands naked in front of the, to her,
unbeknownst man. They end up making out, which leads to forced intercourse
before Darío wraps his large hands around her frail throat. A fairly dark and
disturbing look into the ordinary world, before a series of non-linear time
warps establish the set up – Darío kills Camilla. She awakens in his bed. The
nightmare starts all over again.
Already from hearing the name: Wake Up and Die, this movie
grabbed my attention. There’s something dark in that title, dark and sinister
that appeals to my exploitation glands. The imagery of the opening set up,
echoed any anticipation I had built up before finally watching this film. Even
in their simplest form, I find myself constantly blown away by the stunning
cinematography and fantastic compositions that come with independent horror
film of today. Ten, fifteen years ago, a lot of these independent horror movies
would have been shot on DV, or even worse Hi8 or S-VHS and would never have
stood a chance against the competition in the way that films do these days. Cinematographer
Alejandro Ardila and Miguel Urrutia have shot a movie that looks just as
brooding, dark and disturbing as the title insinuates, and it looks fantastic.
But WHY do we automatically take Camilla’s side in this dark
tale? Well definitely because it’s her ordeal we are witnessing, she’s the one
who takes us on the first flashback hence giving us a reference point. It’s her
emotions we relate to, the fear in her eyes, the shame of waking up in a
strange place, the exposure of being naked in front of a strange person. Undoubtedly
the vulnerability! Now it may seem a bit generic to go to claim that the
vulnerable female is the point of identification, and that’s not what I’m
pointing at. In fact it’s the emotional recognition that we share with Camilla
that makes us empathise with her. If Urrutia had taken us alongside Darío’s
path during that first morning, we would have empathized with him. Instead he’s
the dominant character and she the “prey” so we take sides with her. After all,
deep down in our basic human programming, we want things to be fair and just,
so seeing a “prey” being stalked we empathies with it. That’s why we go “Awww
no!” each time the baby antelope is trapped and killed by the lions in the
nature shows we watch, despite us really respecting and admiring the lion too.
Emotional recognition gives Empathy. Urrutia later uses this in an cunning way to lead his audience down a path which may play tricks on their minds!
The driving force comes out of the fact that it becomes a
challenge for Camilla to find out more and more about Darío each time she get’s
a fresh start. At the same time she has figure out how she can stay alive for
the short period of time before it all starts over again. But for each
additional piece of information Camilla figures out or finds, the more
questions are posed.
In an interesting way this splendid exploitation flick
builds off a twisted investigation plot. An investigation plot set in a chamber
piece. I was surprised that the movie stays true to the chamber piece, all the
way through, as it can cause a problem story wise if you isolate all the action
to one location – Darío’s apartment. But for independent filmmakers, this is
the kind of plot that can save your budget, as you only have to use few
locations. Urrutia pulls it off with bravura, and it never feels cramped or as
if the small location restrains the action. Instead it becomes part of the narrative,
as we understand along the way, that Camilla’s freedom and safety is outside
that apartment. I say this is a variant on the Investigation plot, as Camilla
has to puzzle things she learns from each cycle, to figure out a way to take
command of the situation, hence becoming the one with the upper hand and in
some way defeating the repetitive and deadly loop. There’s a great toying with
the audience as audio cues are used to indicate that Darío is ready to kill. A
piece of classical music on the radio, and keeping it “everyday realistic” the
sound of Darío urinating are the key sounds. When they are heard – or used as part
of the narrative, they work as referents to the fact that the end is near, or
is it.
Again, to support the twisted investigation plot, the more
we learn of the situation, the more dark secrets are revealed. We slowly start
to understand how things come together and learn the motifs for what is about
to happen. There’s a splendid sequence of the loop, where roles are flipped
head over ass, and Urrutia challenges everything we have learned so far, and
the last act reveals some sinister dark secrets that definitely elevate the
movie into serial killer, trophy collector turf which puts Ed Gein to shame.
Luis Fernando Bohórquez and hot Peruvian actress/model Andrea Montenegro
mostly known for their parts in Telenovelas are basically naked throughout the
whole movie – an impressive feat to say the least. It’s a detail that I like
with the entire movie, a realism that stays true to the story. Yeah, it’s
silly, but I hate when sex scenes end with people getting out of bed in their
underwear, I want realism. Moments like Camilla searching the apartment,
partially to map it out, partially to find her underwear as they obviously came
off all over the place last night may seem as insignificant, but for me they
sell the reality of the piece. The next time she awakens, she knows where to
find her shirt, where the unlocked door is, where that hidden torture chamber
is. It’s quite possible that Urrutia’s background in documentary films has had a part
in this excellent approach, but either way, it’s one of the fine details that
make the movie so much more than just a scary exploitation flick.
When talking of Urrutia’s eye for detail, it’s appropriate
to mention the way he’s edited his movie. What at first seems to be fast blitz
edits in-between cycles, is in fact rapid exposition and the deeper into the
intrigue one get’s the more these blasts of fast images can be seen as some
form of depraved Easter eggs. Because if you pay attention – which you should –
you will see some really disturbing material in these in between splices, backstory,
death, necrophilia… told you! Pay attention.
I can’t say how many movie it takes to define a series of films as a
“new wave”, but Colombia definitely is onto something, Juan Felipe Orozco’s Al
final del espectro (At the End of the Spectra) 2006, Jaime Osorio Marquez El
páramo (The Squad) 2011, and now Wake Up and Die, are definitely a fresh spark from a country we perhaps should be keeping our eye on.
Wake Up and Die is a delightful kick in the bollocks: raw,
intriguing and sadistically beautiful in its frustrating loop of violence and nightmare.
I definitely encourage you to seek this movie out and give it all your support
it’s worth every second.
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