In early 2012, Juan of the Dead’s UK premier was
held at my local art house cinema during their annual Spanish Language Film
Festival. I was really annoyed that I couldn’t make the screening as I’d heard
a lot of good things about the comedy-horror, the fist Cuban film I’d ever come
across. Over a year later, LoveFilm sent me the DVD and I excitedly slid it
into my player. Ninety-six minutes later I was a disappointed man. While Juan of the Dead has a lot of things
going for it, I didn’t enjoy the broad comedy or unremarkable effects. It does
however contain important political subtext which was much more to my liking.
Juan (Alexis Díaz de Villegas) is
a middle aged Cuban, used to doing nothing on a regular basis. His wife left
him some time ago, taking his daughter with her to Spain. Juan’s friend Lazaro (Jorge
Molina) is in a similar situation but at least has his son Vladi (Andros
Perugorría) for company. A strange illness begins to infect the people of the Caribbean island and those infected begin marauding
through the streets, eating their friends and neighbours who in turn become
infected themselves. Dismissed as dissidents, backed by America by the
Cuban Government, it soon becomes apparent to Juan that no matter who or what
they are, he and his friends have a battle for survival on their hands.
The political subtext behind Juan of the Dead is its strongest facet.
The decision of whether to leave Cuba for the US, who is behind the outbreak
and how the Government react to it are all very well written and the movie
confidently says a lot without saying much at all. Ideas about these
extraordinary events being just another one of those things for Cubans get to
the heart of the day to day living that people of that island have endured for over
half a century. There is strong opinion both in favour and against the regime
and heavy satire about how it controls the media and thoughts of the people.
The loss of Cuba’s youth to
the US
and other nations is also something that is explored and whenever the film
became political, I was on board with it.
The problem with the movie is
that there is another seventy minutes of running, jumping and zombie slashing
which didn’t do anything for me. Because the film is obviously constrained by
budget, it can’t show much zombie action but in attempting to, it further
highlights the financial constraint. The effects and make-up aren’t great and
the CGI rarely impresses. I don’t want to be down on the film because of these
things but I always revert to Gareth Edwards’ Monsters when talking about small budget films and poor effects.
The effects for that film were done on a shoestring budget and in the
director’s bedroom so it is possible to create high end effects on a small
budget.
Plot wise, the film was also found
lacking. There is far too much running about and chopping zombie’s bits off
without much purpose or direction. Eventually the group hit on the idea of
forming a company which specialises in killing loved ones. This is a nice idea
but is only really explored through a quick montage. The real gem in the plot
is whether or not to leave, something which again is politically motivated.
There is a subplot involving Juan’s relationship with his daughter Camila
(Andrea Duro) but that almost feels like something bolted on in a late draft.
It adds bulk to the script but not much heft. Andrea Duro is beautiful to look
at and she is one of the better actors but her role feels like a poor attempt
to add a female character. As I’ve already mentioned, I wasn’t a fan of the
comedy either. It was very broad and crass with little intelligence behind it.
The physical comedy has all been done before but the more satirical stuff was
better handled. Watching a fat man masturbate on a rooftop doesn’t hit my funny
bone but a brief speech about leaving Cuba
for somewhere that hasn’t heard of Cuba or Castro or Communism was
much more to my taste. The set up for jokes also seem to take an age. It’s
simply not snappy enough.
The acting is average on the
whole. Alexis Díaz de Villegas is the stand out as Juan, a man with the weight
of the world on his shoulders. He portrays the political dilemmas well and has
a dry comic timing which is well judged. Andrea Duro is also good, as is Andros
Perugorría. Jorge Molina overplays it for me and a couple of others are stifled
by poor characters. Jazz Vila is really annoying
as cross-dressing effeminate China
but I enjoyed his boyfriend El Primo (Eliecer Ramírez), a giant who fights with
a bandanna over his eyes because he faints at the sight of blood.
In the end, Juan of the Dead is a decent attempt at a comedy-horror but it
misses the mark. There’s probably an excellent short film in there but I wasn’t
enamoured by the broad comedy and slow, meandering plot. As a political satire
though it is right on the mark and I’d recommend it on that strength
alone.
5/10
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