Buenos Aries is absolutely up to it’s ass in flesh-eating ghouls.
Such is the premise of 2024’s Portraits of the Apocalypse, a multi-tale fright flick that examines the apocalyptic event from a multitude of perspectives.
Directors Nicanor Loreti, Fabián Forte, and Luca Castello each take turns telling stories of a world gone mad, and things kick off with Loreti’s Asesinato en la escena del crimen…
The inaugural tale kicks off with the story of a policewoman Muriel Sosa (Paula Manzone) trying to talk herself down (and through) from her severe botching of a crime scene. But as she monologues mentally she fails to realize the bigger problem in the room with her!
Surviving on it’s sharp dialog and claustrophobic setting (the piece plays out in one blood-stained room), this segment offers a darkly comic look into how the in-universe trouble kicks off in an intimate, but no less engaging way!
Next comes Forte’s Ratas…
In a cramped apartment, a family (comprised of mother, daughter, and son-in-law) deals with the mounting annoyance of the elderly mother’s wild assumptions… the most recent of which involves her cat being eaten by giant rodents.
So constant is their bickering that they don’t even notice when things begin to slide ever south into the jaws of the hungry dead!
Containing similar claustrophobic environs and a limited cast like the first outing, Ratas is another off-beat take on what one would normally associate with a zombie apocalypse yarn, and despite it’s more absurdist tone, it still manages to ground the horror in as more personal manner.
Next all three filmmakers team up for Rubí…
Preggo Laura (Lorena Vega) spends the outbreak creating vlogs for her unborn daughter in a remote manor.
This irritates her husband Sebastian (Ezequiel Rodríguez ) who thinks they should spend their time preparing defenses and gathering the means for survival rather than making recordings.
Both of the couple’s actions have merit as of course they need to live as long as possible, but the tapes will act as a way to preserve both the parent’s history as well as information about the new world at hand for the coming child.
Devastatingly emotional, bleak as hell, and powerfully acted, this segment is by far the most effective in the anthology… and the walking dead don’t even make the scene outside of dialog about their existence.
Last up is Castello’s Rey de los condenados…
A father has up and captured the zombie responsible for his son’s demise… and he plans to use occult ritual to communicate once more with his child via the living dead!
Taking a turn into the supernatural… I mean more than the dead walking about and such… this segment offers a brief bit of world building by including both the use of the arcane, and offering a possible demonic influence to the madness… while punching you in the nuts with grief and desperation.
While the last segment has the most feeling to it’s narrative, this entry is by far the coolest and weirdest of the bunch, so score on that one!
Accompanying the feature are mere hint of bonus material with an image slideshow and a duo of trailers being the only offerings.
If you crave gallons of blood and hordes of zombies going absolutely bananas, Portraits of the Apocalypse may not be your cup of terror tea, but it’s blend of tense drama, hopelessness, and zombies makes it an absolutely fascinating watch!
