20130925: Horror Review--Baby Shower

Baby Shower

1. Fundamentals
1. Chilean live action feature film, 2011, NR, 91 minutes, horror.  Spoken language is Spanish; English subtitles on Netflix.
2. IMDb: 4.2/10.0 from 365 users.  Estimated budget: 900,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' on the meter; 26% from 195 audience ratings.
4. Written and directed by Pablo Illanes.
5. Starring: Ingrid Isensee as Angela, Patricia Lopez as Soledad, Claudia Burr as Olivia, Kiki Rojo as Manuela, Francisca Merino as Claudia, Sofia Garcia as Ivana, Alvaro Gomez as Julio, Pablo Krogh as Ricardo, Nicolas Alonso as Felipe (Angela's wayward husband).


2. Setup and Plot
1. Four women friends go away to a country house for a baby shower.


2. Differences, past and present, surface.


3. Angela has had a tough year.  Her mother dies.  She gets pregnant with twins.  Her husband is leaving her accompanied by one of her friends, supposedly.  Angela joins a support group which seems a bit like a cult. "Don't talk, don't think," Soledad tells her.


4. Her friends will not tell her which one it is.  She asks them to go while they are having tea.  The pack up, but the car will not start.  They come back to find the telephone disconnected.  Then the poisoned tea kicks in. Manuela and Ivana become quite ill.


5. Ricardo clubs Julio, then stabs and imprisons Ivana.  Ivana gets out of her cage, she steps into an animal trap.  Soledad from the cult comes by, rips open her knife wound, then uses a shovel to sever her leg above the trap.  Claudia sees this, for which she is beaten and sodomized, just about the time the poison starts hitting her.


6. Olivia did not drink the tea, so perhaps she will survive?  She hitches a ride, only to be picked up by the murderer Ricardo.  She jumps from the truck, but gets shot soon after.  Julio ties her up, but she manages to escape.  Felipe shows up.  Felipe kills Ricardo, but Julio stabs Felipe.


7. Manuela is sacrificed for her blood.  Angela escapes for a while, but the babies decide to come.  Shortest delivery ever.  Julio gets his head shot off by Soledad for helping Angela.


8. Soledad steals the first baby, and does not tie the cord.  Angela may just bleed to death, but Olivia returns with help.  Angela has the second child, and apparently the medics reached her in time.  The officials cannot find Soledad or the first child.


9. Final shot: Soledad nursing the first child at a lakeside high in the Andes.


3. Conclusions
1. One sentence summary: Strongly similar to Wrong Turn, just with beautiful, charming, murderous country folk, set in Chile.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautiful.


2. Sound: 8/10 The incidental music is too loud by far, massively overbearing at times.  Other than that, the actors were well miked, and the foley sound was quite good.


3. Acting: 8/10 Rather nice.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Consistent, if twisted, logical progression.