Blind Cop 2 (2024)
A sequel to a film that doesn’t exist, director Alec Bonk’s Blind Cop 2 follows the tropes of movies depicting good cops kicked off the force for using excessive violence and seeking redemption without having a badge — and then there’s the trusty new sidekick, too. Imagine Marvel’s Daredevil as an alcoholic police officer wearing a bulletproof vest rather than a superhero costume and you’re only partially on your way to getting an inkling about how this irreverent title character (played with verve by George Fearing) goes about his business. You can’t forget Blind Cop’s name, either, as just about every person who addresses him calls him that. Using those aforementioned tropes, Bonk, who cowrote the screenplay with Augustin Huffman and Isaac McKinnon, directs with flare, deftly balancing the humor with plenty of dramatic elements and bloody action. Fearing is fantastic in the title role, and McKinnon makes for a fine sidekick-in-training as Schmidty. The humor in Blind Cop 2 ranges from the satirical to the Rabelasian, and overall worked quite well for me. The film is an independent effort with a big heart at its cheeky core, boasting solid production values, impressive direction and acting, and a super aesthetic vibe.
Keratyna (Spain; 2023)
Writer/director Miguel Azurmendi’s Spanish feature Keratyna combines dark thriller, science fiction, and fantasy elements. It starts off in a Hitchockian mode and then goes to decidedly odd places. Rata (Fernando Ramallo) — or Rat, as he is nicknamed — is a conspiracy theorist who spends the majority of his life making YouTube videos for his channel when not, in a rare journey outside of his mother’s (Maiken Beitia) home, perturbing people in person by arguing against feminism and warning people about reptilians. When — Rear Window style — he suspects that his neighbor (Jordi Aguila) has committed a murder, his life in the bubble of his room becomes highly complicated, as the police come calling to learn what he might have seen, and that very neighbor begins romancing his mother. Turning to a sex worker (Mireia Oriol) for help — and not the kind you might first suspect — only heightens his suspicion and paranoia. There are protagonists for whom it is difficult to root, and the character of The Rat will take that to a new level for many viewers. Ramallo gives an intriguing performance of this highly anxious character. Oriol shines in her important supporting role, and Aguila is solid as the mysterious neighbor. The Rat’s predicament is a wild one to watch, and the finale is bound to be highly divisive.
Blind Cop 2 and Keratyna screened as part of Panic Fest 2024, which ran April 4–10 in Kansas City, MO. For more information, visit https://panicfilmfest.com/.
