Porto Dos Mortos (Beyond the Grave) (2010)

nTitle: Beyond the Grave (PortonDos Mortos) (2010)

nDirector: Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro

nCast: RafaelnTombini, Alvaro Rosacosta, Amanda Grimaldi, Ricardo Seffner

nReview:

nPorto Dos Mortos is a post apocalyptic zombie film from Brazil. Itsntitle literally translates to ‘Portal of the Dead’; which is really annappropriate title because same as in Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981) and Citynof the Living Dead (1980), this is a film in which the seven gates of hell havenbeen opened and as a result, the living dead have taken over the world! Thenfilm starts right smack in the heart of the apocalypse, when things havenalready gone to hell. Most of humanity has disappeared with only a few colonies remaining here and there.nZombies are everywhere, you can’t drive two seconds without seeing one. There’s only one radio station in the air and the lonely DJ calls himself ‘The Last Man on Earth’. He says the world might have gone to hell, but the music has survived. A Rock and Roll song begins as we see the yellow lines on the open road flashing past us, then, the films title: Porto Dos Mortos.

nThe main character is a loner simply referred to as ‘Policial’nwhich I imagine translates to ‘The Police Man’ or ‘Officer’. He’s a cop whonapparently can’t stop being a cop even though the world has ended. He’s on anmission to capture ‘The Dark Rider’ an evil spirit/entity that goes aroundnpossessing people and killing humans. So in a way, ‘Policial’ is kind of like anparanormal investigator of sorts, which is really the vibe I got from thencharacter. He seems to be the kind of person who knows his way around thensupernatural. In this sense, this character reminded me of Francesco Dellamortenfrom Michelle Soavi’s Cemetery Man (1994), you know, a quiet, almostnanti-social main character with an affinity for the occult. But I have to admitnhe also has a little bit of Mad Max Rockatansky in him. Same as Max, he used tonbe a police man; he drives around a post apocalyptic wasteland in a black car…withnpolice lights on it! Yeah, Mad Max in deed. I ended up liking this mainncharacter the most. Rafael Tombini does a good job of portraying the strongnsilent type. This character has an attitude that goes in perfect alignment withnthe films opening quote: “No price is too high, to pay for the privilege ofnowning yourself” A quote from Friedrich Nietzsche is always a coolnway to open your movie.

nPorto Dos Mortos is a zombie film with an artisticnsensibility. This isn’t a zombie film that cares about the gore or the shock,nor the special effects. It’s got all of these things in it, but they are notnthe driving force behind the film. This is a low budget, independent horrornfilm and that can be a plus under the right directors hands because it pushes creativitynin other directions. The emphasis isn’t on the action or the make up effectsnbut in the look of the film and the way the shots are set up, which I might addnwere creative. The film takes advantage of great looking Brazilian locationsnwhich add a flare of beauty to the film. Characters drive around long opennroads with mountains and the ocean in the background. Visually, there’s anbeauty to this zombie film. This is part of what makes Porto Dos Mortosnspecial, the fact that it was shot entirely in Brazil. The structures, buildingsnand landscapes are totally different to what you might find in an American film,nwhich is one of the pleasures of seeing films from around the world.

nUnfortunately, even though the film is aestheticallynbeautiful, it falters with its pacing. The premise might be cool, thencharacters might be likable and interesting but if nothing much happens in thenway of excitement then you risk boring your audience into a stupor, which I’mnsure is the main complaint with this movie. And I have to say that I agree, itnis a deliberately slower paced film. Now a slower paced horror film I don’t mind,nas long as you compensate with other things like mood and atmosphere,ninteresting camera moves or a strong supernatural vibe. A sense of dread and anbit of suspense helps too. Unfortunately, Porto Dos Mortos chooses to tell itsntale in a pace that virtually brings the entire movie to a crawl. A pity toonbecause its premise is interesting enough: zombies have taken over the world,nwe might be the last humans, and the portals of hell are open! All thesenelements sound like the perfect ingredients for an entertaining horror film, unfortunatelynPorto Dos Mortos does not present these ideas in an exciting fashion, which isnreally the films main fault. I’m sure that director Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro wasnaiming for a film that was slower and more serious in pace, but come on, younhave to give us something in the ways of excitement in the midst of your artfulness. As it is, characters talk a lot on this movie. I did enjoy their conversations, especially one scene where one of the kids that befriends Policial starts telling his story as Policial drives. Policial aint much of a talker, so the kids talks for him. It was cool, the kid gets kind of poetic about the way the world is, I liked that bit of dialog a lot.

nPorto Dos Mortos is a film that never reallyngoes all the way with its concepts. For example, we have an evil spirit thatntravels from body to body, which might have been a good opportunity fornaugmenting your films supernatural elements, yet we never see a hint of peoplenbeing possessed, save for their red eyes. The film is about a Portal to Hell being opened, yet not a portal is in sight. It would have been interesting to see one of thesenportals, especially when it’s your film main premise; but no. Mynpoint is, if this is a film dealing with supernatural elements, then it wouldnhave been a good idea to make these supernatural element felt stronger. As itnis, even evil spirits are exorcised by simply talking. I imagine that had theynhad more of a budget, then we would have seen something in the way of visualneffects, but as it is, the supernatural elements are very subtle on this film. Itnfelt to me that Porto Dos Mortos was a film held back by its budgetary limitations. Still, I commend director Davinde Oliveira Pinheiro’s for presenting supernatural elements on a tight budget,nthe result is a more subdued portrayal of the supernatural. At least we didn’t getna bunch of cheap, cheesy visual effects!

nHorror fans and zombie freaks might end up being disappointednwith Porto Dos Mortos because not only is the film painfully slow paced, it alsontakes the award for portraying the least threatening zombies in all ofnzombiedom! I aint kidding either, these zombies do next to nothing in the waysnof threatening the good guys! Well, there’s this one zombie cowboy that aims angun at the good guys and shoots at them, but aside from that one, all othernzombies are practically harmless. One scene has a character playfully throwingnrocks at a zombie; another scene has a character torturing a zombie who nevernreacts. The Officer sees a little kid zombie and walks right past it, thenzombie kid does nothing to him, so why should he care about wasting bullets onnit? I mean, sure these are deadncreatures, but usually zombies have a penchant for human flesh, or at the verynleast human brains. The zombies on this film don’t seem to care for neither, innfact, the zombies play a secondary role here. You wouldn’t even know this was anzombie film, if the occasional zombie didn’t pop up every now and again tonremind you. Still, I’d recommend this film to those who enjoy a slower paced artsy horror film, a la Richard Stanley’s Dust Devil (1992) or Michelle Soavi’s Cemetery Man (1994), but even when compared to these two films Porto Dos Mortos is excrutiatingly slow.

nBehind the Scenes

nThis was Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro’s first full length film,nand even though it has some faults in the way of pacing, and storytelling, thenfilm shows a lot of promise. It has style and an artful eye for beauty. It justnseemed to me like they didn’t have enough money to bring all of their ideasninto fruition. But still, not having money is no excuse for making a boringnmovie. Porto Dos Mortos desperately needed a bit more excitement, emotion andnsuspense. As it is, the film is so slow paced that the characters never feelnlike they are in peril, even when they are. Oliveira was obviously going for anquieter kind of film, but it felt like they needed to augment the intensity ofnsome of the situations, we need to feel what these characters are feeling. Somenof the other elements in the film also needed intensification, like fornexample, if this is a supernatural film, then really make it supernatural! Makenus feel that evil in the air, that spooky otherworldliness of the supernatural.nIf this is a zombie film, then make these zombies dangerous! Sadly, even thenzombies in Porto Dos Mortos don’t care to display intensity towards their primalnneed: human flesh. As it is, the premise of this film seems to dwindle andnnever really take off.

nAnother thing that bothered me about the film is how it doesntndo a good job of explaining things, at times I felt lost. I don’t particularlynlove films in which they explain everything away, as if spelling things out fornyou, but I also don’t like feeling lost. This is the kind of film in which younrisk getting lost if you don’t pay lots of attention to it. I felt this waynwhen I watched Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil (1974), on that film sometimes Infelt like Bava was deliberately trying to make things challenging for thenviewer. My point being that you don’t have to spell things out for yournaudience, but you cant confuse them to the point of loosing them either; younhave to reach a happy medium. As it is, some of the major plot points in PortonDos Mortos are lost because characters only briefly mention them, without goingninto details. For example, characters talk about the portals to hell very matternof factly, without really letting us know what these portals are all about. Where are these portals and why isn’t somebody trying to close them? Innmy opinion, some major plot points needed to be emphasized a bit more. Still, innspite of the films faults, I’d say that Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro shows promisenwith his first film. He did a respectaable job with Porto Dos Mortos, yet therenis obviously some room for growth. Oliveira and crew got away with making andecently looking film with very little money, which is something that is alwaysncommendable in my book. This is a director that can no doubt make bigger filmsnif given the chance to grow as a filmmaker and play with the medium; lookingnforward to future films.

nRating: 3 out of 5