Penumbra (2012)

PENUMBRA is a waste of time film, one of those I saw in the schedules late at night. It was marked as a horror movie so I thought I'd give it a go, but I wish I hadn't: this is a worthless, amateurish film with barely any plot, full of dull dialogue that seems to have been ad-libbed by an uninterested cast.This no-budget movie involves an unpleasant estate agent who spends half the running time on her mobile phone - that never makes for great entertainment. Mild interest is evoked when she's attacked early on by a homeless man, but this sub-plot doesn't seem to go anywhere. Instead, the estate agent has to deal with a number of bizarre characters who are congregating inside an apartment she has available for rent.PENUMBRA is a slow, slow movie in which very little of substance actually happens. The background of a solar eclipse is interesting but nothing happens with it. The horror is limited to the last scene and when it comes it's so predictable that you wonder what you were waiting for all that time. The acting is also very basic, but the biggest problem is with the writing/directing partnership, which falls flat all the while. Somebody show these guys how to make a real movie!

This is the second unique, high quality thriller I've discovered this year that turned out to be from Argentina, the first being PHASE 7. Filmmakers, the Bogliano brothers, have come a long way from their last film, a disturbing, unfocused effort entitled COLD SWEAT, about abduction and captivity at the hands of a couple of aging serial killers who murder their victims by blowing pieces of them off with nitroglycerin.Penumbra begins as a perverse psychological thriller, builds like a mystery, then turns a crimson corner into the panic territory of violence and the occult. Along the way, we're kept guessing. One can't determine where the truth lies. Unsettling is the use of sunlight to build a sense of foreboding. So many horror films depend upon twilight and gloom to blur the line between fantasy and reality. In Penumbra, the sun itself is somehow knowing and conspiratorial.With Penumbra, the Bogliano brothers have created something fresh and interesting. With a hint of foreshadowing, the film's cross-genre approach throws us off-balance. We don't know where this story is going, so every turn it makes is a surprise. It doesn't shock us with spine-tingling chills, but it makes us uneasy and has a genuine creep-out factor that only becomes more disturbing upon its downbeat denouement. The story keeps building and building, adding unexpected elements and creating pressure like a tensile-strength test. The situation into which the protagonist entraps herself becomes increasingly brittle. We wonder what event is going to transpire to create the inevitable sickening shatter as the bottom drops out in little pieces.Penumbra isn't profound, but it's solid. Its characters are credible, the dialogue is simple and effective, there's no awkward exposition -the story tells itself at it unfolds. There's nothing far-fetched about the plot, which takes its cue from familiar events, but utilizes them in a such a way that we get a story which is unfamiliar. Viewers looking for a change from the routine, but who prefer an effective, conventionally-shot film that's easy to follow, will enjoy Penumbra and wish to keep an eye on future efforts from Adrián and Ramiro Bogliano.In the story, Margo (Brondo) a Barcelona entrepreneur pursuing a project in Beunos Aires, is having a peculiar day. Everything is a little off-kilter, from canceled appointments and business ambiguities, to just plain odd run-ins with panhandling soothsayers which escalate into misunderstandings with the authorities. Throughout it all flows a droll undercurrent of the absurd, as if the day can't get any weirder, that later it will be merely an anecdote to be laughed at. Adding to the irksome ambiance is a blazing white-hot solar furnace in a cloudless, azure sky. It's hot today, and unusually bright. Margo's not the only one to notice it. Something strange and troublesome is in the air as the sun makes its way toward a scheduled total eclipse.Margo has invested in an apartment which she is showing. There's a quality that's not quite right about the prospective tenants. They're stalling, and while receiving them, Margo's keys disappear. Her cellphone minutes vanish. Because the door to the security building locks both ways. Margo can't get out, and help can't get in. Her clients begin to behave increasingly strangely. They are determined to buy. Margo is fiercely intent to sell. So why then can't they seem to finalize the transaction? A chain of events transpires, each in quick succession, yet the afternoon drags by. Margo begins to languish, and it's as if the day's events are suspended in a timeless ether, going nowhere -slowly. Other things start to go disturbingly wrong. Strange noises, a neighbor may be trying to drug or poison Margo, and the apartment's pantry door is stuck. Through the keyhole, Margo can see an oblong burlap bundle. Is it moving? Is she going mad? Something funny is going on, but Margo's not laughing. In fact, there's something funny about the apartment itself. It has a history which predates the very edifice, a secret, which obfuscated in the shadows of masonry and mortar for ages, has been waiting to reveal itself in the affirming light of some sunny day.And look! The sun is coming up!

Cristina Brondo is an all business real estate agent whose greed gets her involved with the wrong crowd when she rents her apartment. She makes the movie.This movie is a (I think?) a humorous film noir parody of a horror movie. Although most horror movies already have dark humor in them. In any case the humor is things like seeing this come uppity pushy Barcelona yuppie get her due.The cinematography is first class. The setting fun.The beheading of a black woman was so shockingly anti PC that it takes you by shock---you almost want to add a star for the directors courage. Although it is not a scene I would want to watch again or even once for that matter.Anyway it is also fun to see Argentina. Now want to see Adrian Bogliano's other movies. ** Week Later** = I watched Cold Sweat and guess what? There is another beheading.. I take that back I don't want to see any more of Bogliano's moviesSEMI-RECOMMEND

A pretty black girl reads a newspaper with a headline of a total solar eclipse and spots a classified ad for a job. She calls by pay phone and arrives at a strange building with mannequins in the stairway leading up to a door. She enters the room and is stuck in the neck with a needle and passes out.A well dressed woman has a conversation with her sister regarding the rental of an apartment they have inherited from their parents. She is Margarita Sanchez, a lawyer with important clients and no time to waste. The busy beaver meets a man in the hallway and asks if he is there for the rental. He tells her that his client, Mr. Salva, wishes to rent immediately and will pay four timed the market value for the property. She is impressed and leaves to pick up some things at a store. A homeless man follows her and begs her for money. He is lectured about the ruination of polite society by the lower class. She also tasers the guy, knocking him to the ground. The people of the neighborhood gather round and tell her off. Ms. Sanchez goes back the apartment and sees two men and two women now there. They explain that they are from the real estate agency and are awaiting there client, Mr. Salva. In between, Miss hot shot lawyer is constantly on the phone with both work projects and an apparently married lover planning a midnight rendezvous. A voice mail message states that the person for the rental can't make it; uh oh, who are the impostors? Margarita is in deep s**t and gets tied to a chair. The cute gal from the first scene reappears and so does Mr. Salva in a white suit. Miss sexy, who has awakened after an unscheduled nap, is bound and naked(Maria Nela Sinisterra in a highlight, her body). The gang of four, plus Senor Salva, are awaiting the eclipse and the end of the world as we know it. The finale is decent, with a slight twist which worked for me.