Sangre Eterna (2002)

Carmilla, a young Chilean student, likes goth fashion and Heavy Metal and is rather shy in her social interactions. She has a bit of a crush on a guy called “M”, who seems to share her sense of fashion. But is there more to “M” and his friends than meets the eye? And who will the villains turn out to be in this piece?

 

Sangre Eterna was directed by Jorge Olguín who also co-wrote the screenplay with Carolina García. It is not exactly an arthouse film. But you could describe it as an indie film with a mainstream plot and themes accompanied by a touch of arthouse ambitions. It has fairly good characterisations and character interactions. They feel like real people, not like some constructs that have jumped out of a screenplay. There are, however, problems in the writing (and possibly editing), as there are gaps in the development of the behaviour of certain characters or their relationship to each other which are a bit difficult to gloss over.

 

The cast is decent, especially Blanca Lewin playing the shy Carmilla; but most roles in this film do not amount to much so the actors do not get much opportunity to shine. Juan Pablo Ogalde is good as “M”, but there are scenes in which his acting as well as Olguín’s directing seem unable to “crack” the character in that particular moment.

 

Thematically, Sangre Eterna is partly echoing the Satanic Panic films of the 1980s. Narratively, the film plays with the idea of the unreliable narrator quite a bit, which includes some of the characters as well as . in a way – also the screenwriters themselves. But maybe it is also us, as an audience, who cannot trust our own eyes. The protagonists’ lives are full of partying, fantasy, drugs, and booze, but also paranoia. In this intoxicating mix, the lines between reality and fantasy begin to blur; but the question remains: is the paranoia justified or not?

The primarily heavy metal soundtrack contributes to the heady mix I just described. There are also scenes taking place in semi-burlesque goth clubs or at private parties with that mood.

The film has a fair amount of blood and gore, and the special effects in general (as well as the make-up in particular) are very good. The production also pulled out all the stops in terms of goth clothing and accessories.

 

The core plot is somewhat thin for a film that runs for 106 minutes, but while I am not sure about the pacing as a whole, I can at least say that the film has a nice technique of interspersing a slow-paced main plot with a number of “showy” scenes (be it action, parties, or something else). That way, the director can develop the main plot as slowly as he feels appropriate while not taxing the patience of audiences with a short attention span. This forms part of the impression that this film is rather mainstream on the one hand, while also artsy on the other.

 

The film has a few unpolished spots, but Olguín and García were still very new to making feature length films, so this is to be expected. But – mainstream appeal and “showiness” notwithstanding – this is an interesting and somewhat unusual film with a great premise and very good overall execution.

Rating: at least 7 out of 10.

 

 

 

PS – a word on the German DVD-release:

The back of the German DVD-case states that there is Spanish and German audio (both 5.1), as well as German subtitles to be found on this DVD. But my copy had in fact also English audio (2.0). I am not sure if this was just an oversight and has been left out of further production runs. The funny thing is these audio channels are correctly named, but are accidentally switched in the DVD menu. Click on English, and you will get Spanish; click on Spanish, and you will get English.

I have also no idea if the Spanish version on this DVD is the Chilean original, or the Castilian cinema dub. It would make no sense to have the Castilian dub on this DVD and not the original, but this being a Region 2 DVD, it would at least be possible.