|
Estrella lives
together with her single mother who
works as a nurse, and for a young girl, she's got a
pretty macabre imagination. She loves horror movies
and has several horror icons as her imaginary friends.
One day she meets a new friend, a Vampire, but this
time it's different, this time it's real.
While most of the "6 Films To Keep You Awake" were
helmed by renowned horror movie directors, director
Enrique Urbizu has no previous experience in this
field - and it shows. A Real Friend is a decent
mystery thriller, but it's definitely not a film that
will keep me awake late at night. It's got a fairly
original and interesting plot but it's not a horror
movie - despite the fact that several horror icons
like Leatherface and Nosferatu have an important role
in the movie. In "A Real Friend", the horror icons
play the lead girls friends and portray her longing
for a father figure (at least that's what I think).
The story revolves around Estrella - a young girl who
lives together with her single mother. She hasn't got
any real friends since she's so busy with her
imaginary ones. One day a new friend shows up in
Estrella's life, she calls him Vampire since he looks
a lot like Nosferatu. But what Estrella doesn't know
is that Vampire is in fact a real person, a dangerous
serial killer to be more exact. The story unfolds
with a couple of predictable twists and a clichéd
ending. Sure, it's entertaining, but again, it doesn't
seem to fit the topic of the anthology.
To focus on some of the good things though, the acting
is surprisingly good and Nerea Inchausti, playing
Estrella, gives us a strong performance - especially
considering that this is her first movie. The story
is, as I said before, pretty original and has a
decent pace through and through. The directing is also
pretty good, but nothing out of the ordinary.
I don't have a lot left to say about this movie now,
other than that I'm really looking forward to seeing
the rest of the movies from this anthology. This is
the first one I see of the "6 Films To Keep You Awake",
which kind of feels like Spain’s answer to Masters
of Horror, and it's off to a pretty decent start.
Not a lot of gore, a bloodless decapitation.
The strings were nice but very typical. Nothing
spectacular here.
Decent mystery-thriller which will keep you interested
while it lasts, but will also be out of your memory
before you can say "this is not a horror flick". It
doesn't seem to fit the topic of the anthology but
overall, this was definitely a watchable thriller.
|
|
